You know there are some words, Bible words, that kind of grow beyond their biblical context. They enter into our common usage and often become symbolic of an idea or an attitude to which we aspire. One such word is “Berean,” which has become synonymous with a thorough and diligent study of Scripture, and it is even a popular name for many churches or Christian groups. And who wouldn’t want to be known as a Berean, a diligent student of God’s word who doesn’t just take anyone’s opinion, no matter how popular or knowledgeable it is?
But even good things can become a problem when taken to an extreme, and today there are some who will use the idea of “being a Berean” as a kind of code for skepticism of any claim made by a spiritual authority. There can be a sense of radical individualism which is marked by an unteachable spirit that says, “I won’t accept anything unless I’m convinced, and I refuse to be convinced by anyone outside of myself!” This kind of Lone Ranger Christianity is unbiblical and dangerous, but my primary concern today is whether the noble Bereans in Acts 17 can be rightly used to defend and support this skeptical approach to any and all truth claims. Is a Berean a Christian who diligently questions every doctrine, searching the Scriptures to challenge any idea that did not originate in his own mind?
This kind of Lone Ranger Christianity is un-biblical and dangerous.
When Paul and Silas first arrived in Berea, they came in the middle of the night, because they had been forced out of Thessalonica due to the trouble stirred up by unbelieving Jews. According to Acts 17:10, “when they arrived they went into the synagogue of the Jews.” There, they must have preached Christ from the Old Testament as they had done in Thessalonica, and the Berean Jews did not reject it en masse as those others had done. They were not prejudiced against Paul’s preaching, nor did they react with skepticism, but they “received the word with great eagerness.”
This is the key to understanding what made the Bereans unique. It was not their determination to test everything, but their willingness and even eagerness to receive the word preached that made them “more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica.” They did examine Paul’s words and compare them to the word of God, but they did this in faith with a heart to believe all that was true, not with a spirit of conceited self-reliance and a desire to find fault. In contrast to the Thessalonian Jews, Richard Lenski says, “Here there was no initial blind, unreasoned hostility that sought only objections no matter of what kind. Here there was no cold indifference that is careless as to whether ‘these things’ were really true….Time, study, search, [and] discussion were fully devoted to the Scriptures and to finding out what they contained in regard to this new teaching.”
Conybeare and Howson, in their 19th century volume on the life and letters of Paul describe it similarly: “In a spirit very different from the ignoble violence of the Thessalonians Jews, the Berœans not only listened to the Apostle’s arguments, but they examined the Scriptures themselves, to see if those arguments were justified by prophecy.” And they go on to say that “Truth sought in this spirit cannot long remain undiscovered. The promise that ‘they who seek shall find’ was fulfilled at Berœa; and the Apostle’s visit resulted in the conversion of ‘many.’”
What does it mean, then, to be a Berean? Well, it first speaks to those who are not yet Christians who encounter the message of the gospel. Jesus is the very Son of God himself come down to earth to be born as a man. His purpose in coming to earth was to give his life as a ransom for men and women who are under the power and penalty of sin. His coming was foretold by Jewish prophets for hundreds of years, prophecies which were recorded in the Old Testament, and the New Testament Gospels show that his life fulfilled those prophecies with great accuracy. Because he died and rose again from the dead, all who believe on him are redeemed from sin and given the promise of eternal life. All who reject him and refuse to believe on his name already stand condemned by God and will suffer eternal judgment known as the second death.
To be a noble-minded Berean is to receive this message eagerly, to recognize that Jesus’ coming means you can be free from your sins and have life that is both abundant and never-ending. This is good news, but only if you will receive it. You don’t have to just take my word for it, either, because those noble-minded Bereans searched the Bible to see if this was indeed the message it contained. And when they found it, many believed. If you are not already a Christian, this is precisely what you ought to do: read the Scriptures daily seeking this message of hope and forgiveness, and when you find it, receive it gladly.
To be a noble-minded Berean is to receive this message eagerly, to recognize that Jesus’ coming means you can be free from your sins and have life that is both abundant and never-ending.
For those of us who have already believed on Jesus and received life and forgiveness, the Berean Jews serve as a great reminder of where we came from, because we did receive the word with great eagerness and searched the Scriptures to find that the gospel is indeed true. This was how we became Christians.
Christianity is more than wishful thinking, contrary to what many skeptics believe. Our faith is not based on man’s opinions or our own ideas about God and heaven. It is faith that is rooted and grounded in God’s revelation of himself, and as we began to be Christians by believing God’s word, we ought to continue in the same way and follow through on what we have begun. So in a sense we can and should try to emulate the noble-mindedness of the Bereans, not by being skeptics of anything and anyone we hear, but by eagerly receiving the truth and confirming it by the diligent and daily study of the Bible.
We certainly can agree with F. F. Bruce when he says, “These Beroean Jews would have been surprised could they have foreseen how many Christian groups of later days would call themselves ‘Beroeans’ after their noble example of Bible study.”