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Being Berean

The Road to Berea

Cicero described the city of Berea (or Beroea) in Macedonia as "being off the beaten path" (In Pisonem, 36.89). As I stepped out of the car and shouldered my pack for the walk to Berea (modern Veria in northern Greece), I had no idea how accurate Cicero's description actually was. My companions and I walked for what seemed like hours in the hot Macedonian sun to get to the city's remains. That gave me some "quality time" to search the scriptures and ask some questions about our destination.

In Acts 17:10-15, we get a clear picture of Berea's inhabitants. Paul and Silas are ushered out of Thessalonica, some 50 miles away, because of the turmoil that transpired during their stay there. In the dark of night, and on the same road that I was traveling, early Christians escorted our two heroes to Berea, where they seemed to be well-received.

But what was it about these people that led Luke to comment that they "were of more noble character than the Thessalonians" (Acts 17:11, NIV)? In the next part of the verse he says "they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

Who Are These People?

As I trod the old road and read those words again I began to wonder, "What made them eager? And, what prompted them to examine the Scripture every day to test Paul's claims about the Gospel?"

These questions continue to gnaw at me as I watch Christians become "pew potatoes" who show up for the weekend services, absorb the teachings, mouth the worship, but rarely dig into the Scriptures to test the claims that are made from the pulpit and piano. So, why don't we look like Bereans today?

Falling Short

I would contend that college students today do not engage these questions because they have not been taught to ask questions. They've only been taught what to think, not how to think. This can be traced to a wall of arrogance that has been erected in the classroom, which communicates to the students that enquiring minds are not welcome.

Contrast this with the Bereans. I can just imagine them eagerly soaking up every word that comes out of Paul's mouth. After he is finished, they express their gratitude, but unlike the modern classroom, the lesson has just begun. Instead of sitting on Paul's words, they scrutinize them, examining them against the standard of the Law and the Prophets. In other words, their questions were a sign of noble character, not stubborn naïveté.

But why haven't we learned how to think?

Well, our parents weren't taught to engage this way either. In an era where bosses told you to just get the job done and not ask questions; where military service in wars meant never questioning a command from your superior; where experts lectured and classroom discussion was limited; and where churches held to the reasoning that "we've always done it that way," we can't blame them. What was gained was a healthy respect for authority that didn't always make sense. What was lost was the development of keen analytic abilities and the Berean heart and mind to test things.

Being Berean Where You Are

Today is a time for us to reclaim our Berean heritage and learn how to question in ways that are closely aligned with the way Scripture would have us act and think.

First, we see that the Bereans were of noble character. The natural reaction to passively accepting things — for those of us wired to speak up — is to question everything. Of course, we don't always do it in the most gracious way.

I believe the Bereans were of noble character in terms of how they handled themselves. We can accomplish this kind of character by honestly asking ourselves, "How well do I handle myself in these types of interactions?" (Something we can ask ourselves as we engage in the Coffee Shop forums).

Second, they held onto Scripture as the "plumb-line" against which to measure all truth. We should ask ourselves, "How do I use Scripture? Is it simply for personal fulfillment or do I actually measure my life and what I hear by it?" In this age where attacking the authority of Scripture is key to most religious arguments, we must be cautious about how much we have bought into the false teachings that permeate the academy and church.

Third, when they engaged in this process, Luke writes that many Jews and Greeks were converted. Don't miss this — it is powerful. When we test the ideas of truth — that which extends from — the very nature of God, as articulated in His Word against the lies of the world, we will come to "know" even more.

John describes the purpose of his Gospel by saying that it was "written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31). The world has told us that we must be idiots because we believe in the "myth" of Christianity. The Bereans tested it and found out that this was no myth; it was a reality that could transform their lives.

I want to be more like a Berean.

Fading City, High Hopes

The sun was dipping into the afternoon sky when we finally arrived at the Berean ruins. To be honest, the city was a bit disappointing. There is little left of the actual buildings and infrastructure that had once existed.

I dropped my pack, sat down on a rock and looked around. Once again, I turned to Acts 17, struggling to see the place where Paul stood to teach. I tried to imagine how the Bereans handled themselves, how they engaged the teachers and the Scriptures to discover truth.

C O F F E E  S H O P

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Have you ever examined someone's words against the Scriptures? If so, how'd it go?

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As the sun set, I didn't see much of the actual city but I sure felt the presence of a people who cared enough about the truth to test it every day. I hope and pray we become such a people and break the cycle to become modern-day Bereans.