“Acts 17:10-15”

Friday, January 29, 2016

“The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there. Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.”

---End of Scripture verses---

Acts 17:12 – “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” This is such a great compliment given by the Holy Spirit to the Jews in Berea, and I just love the sound of that word, “noble-minded”. The word literally means nobility of birth, but used in this context it indicates a noble and excellent quality of heart and mind. There are two actions that these honorable people engaged in that earned them the commendation of being “noble-minded”.

First of all, they received the word with great eagerness. These people kept their minds open to the Gospel truth and they were hungry for the word of the Lord. Friends, God can do great things with minds that are eager to seek His counsel and excited to absorb His word. It is far too frequent a thing for most of us to arrive at the end of an evening only to then realize that we failed to open our Bible’s up at all that day. And again, often when we do take the time to peruse and ponder the words of life, we force ourselves to do so with the attitude of obligation instead of eagerness. Can you imagine going hours and even days on end without opening up the refrigerator to satisfy the physical hunger of your mortal body? And yet, we will malnourish the part of us that was created in God’s image, and starve the spirit within us that will live on for eternity. Let’s develop an appetite for the word of God. Let’s learn to crave the milk (1 Peter 2:2) and then move on to the meat of maturity (Hebrews 5:12-14). In order to do this we must grow “accustomed to the word of righteousness” (Hebrews 5:13). That means we must force-feed ourselves for a while if necessary, until we learn to develop a taste and good appetite for the words of truth. Please taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8; Hebrews 6:5; 1 Peter 2:3).

Secondly, the Bereans examined the Scriptures daily to see whether the things that Paul and his companions taught them were true. In other words, they listened attentively, but they didn’t just take their word for it. They received Paul’s words, then they put them to the test. They opened up their Old Testaments to make certain that this new teaching about Jesus was consistent with the prophecies previously made about the life, suffering, death and resurrection of the Christ. This was not skepticism on their part. This was caution for the wellbeing of their immortal souls, and diligence to please God above all others. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 4:1, “ Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” The truth is way too important and your soul is far too valuable to take anybody’s teaching at face value. Listen kindly to anyone. Keep an open mind when you do. But put everything they say to the test. Don’t place your soul’s eternal destination in the hands of any mortal man. We will all have to answer for ourselves on Judgment Day as to whether we learned and obeyed the truth or not.

Please read Acts 17:16-21 for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day!

-Louie Taylor

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