Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. -Acts 17:11
In our current state of information overload, it is our default reaction to accept what we see in the media without much questioning. After all, who has time to research every bit of data that we take in? Unfortunately, this reaction is still in place when we read Biblical commentary or interviews with church leaders and even when we walk into church on Sunday mornings.
But what if the minister is not correct? What if he is mistaken, blinded by pride, or simply speaking beyond his education? What if he is (gasp!) human? How would we know?
Our tendency at times is to take everything said from the pulpit as 100% truth. It seems a sign of pride or a lack of faith to question the word of a pastor or other church leader. However, the writer of Acts praises the Bereans for doing exactly that. Rather than take it as a slight against Paul, it is seen as a virtue. And if the Bereans were justified in verifying the words of Paul, an apostle of Christ, how much more should we examine what we hear in church or read on the internet before blindly accepting the teaching as the truth?
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