Here's The Thing

Acts 17:11 [ESV] ^"11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so."

2 Timothy 3:16-17 [ESV] "¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

I think that too often when we search for truth, we allow our own conceits to color our conclusions. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people who hold to one view or another, and the reason that they give for why they believe what they are putting forth is that it is what they were taught as a child, or it's what their Pastor says, or it's what thus and such a Bible teacher on the radio says. I'm not even getting into when those ideas are wrong at this point, but all of the reasons listed above are not valid reasons to accept something as Biblical truth. What we must do is study the Bible and see what it has to say, and that is the reason that we should always give for why we hold to what we believe. Even in a conversation with my wife the other night on a topic of Doctrine she said to me, "I know what you're saying is right, but it just seems strange and hard to understand because it's not what we were taught as kids growing up." So I don't dismiss the power of such things in our lives, believe me, in my own life and study of Scripture this has been a huge hurdle to overcome, which is why I thought it would be important to spend some time thinking about it today.

To begin with, let me say, my dad was a man who knew a lot about the Bible. He spent many hours reading it, and studying it, and had been to Bible school. He taught me many things, and most of them were true things, but even those things I must not simply accept because my dad taught them to me, rather I must search the Scriptures to see if these things are so. As I read and study the Word of God I have found that my dad certainly had much of his beliefs and teachings straight, but I have also found a few that do not line up with what the Scriptures actually have to say, therefore, in those areas, I must depart from what my dad taught me and go with the Bible, and I think he would wholeheartedly agree with that.

The same thing goes for Pastors. Any Pastor that I have sat under has taught the Truth of the Word of God, otherwise I would not have stayed under his preaching. Still, men are fallible, and so, as with my dad, I must study the Bible on my own to make sure I am learning Truth, and not just taking the word of the Pastor for it. If you look at the context of Acts 17:11, which I placed at the beginning of this post, you will see that these Jews were being taught by the Apostle Paul, and being an Apostle of Jesus Christ, he taught with the authority granted to him by Christ, and yet these Jews are lauded for being diligent and checking the Scriptures to see if the things that Paul taught them were indeed true.

Now, I'm certainly not saying that you shouldn't listen to your Pastor, or a Bible teacher on the radio. I listen to my Pastor, and I listen to some other Bible teachers, and I do find great value in that, but it is the Word of God that matters, and if the teaching of any of these teachers strays away from the Bible, it is the Bible we must follow, and not the teacher. Two Pastor/Teachers that I personally like are John Piper and John MacArthur, though there are many other very good ones, I can't go into a list here, so let me just say what I like best about these two, and ask that you make sure it applies to any that you listen to. Both of these men are very upfront about the fact that their opinions do not matter, but that what matters is what the Bible says. While they both work very hard and are very diligent to explain the Bible correctly, they also understand themselves to be fallible men, and strongly encourage people to study on their own to make sure that they are being fed the Truth, and are not in error.

In fact, the same goes for the writings of the Reformers, or the early Church Fathers, and Theologians down through the years, much of what they have written has great value and can aide our understanding greatly, yet still we must measure their words against the plum line of Scripture so that we only affirm what is Biblical, and reject anything that is not.

In short, we must see that what we have been taught in the past, what has been held by the Churches, even beliefs going back many years, or what current teachers and preachers say is of no consequence if it doesn't stand up to the light of Scripture.

We must read the Bible. All Christians should be engaged in structured daily Bible reading. By this I do not mean that you must be on one of those "Read the Bible through in a year" daily reading schedules, though there is absolutely nothing wrong with them, they are not required. Structured Bible reading can be as simple as picking up your Bible and starting to read in Genesis, and reading every day until you hit the end of Revelation, and then start over back in Genesis. I personally like this method, but I'm fine with schedules if that's what it takes to get you to read every single page of Scripture in a reasonable amount of time. The key is DAILY Bible reading, not hit or miss. For many years I was just hit or miss myself, so I certainly don't condemn anyone, I know it can be hard, but it's more than worth it, and besides, if we truly love God, should we not want to read every single word of His revelation to us (over and over again)?

Second, we must Study the Bible. Reading through the Bible is the basis, and can be considered studying up to a point, but we must take extra time to dig deeper. This is where we spend some time reading passages repeatedly, and cross referencing with other related passages to draw out a fuller understanding of Doctrines and other Bible teachings. This is also where reading the writings of other teachers comes in, or listening to their teaching, once you have established a teacher as trustworthy, you can see what you can gain from their teaching, while still keeping in mind that it is the Bible, and not that teacher, that has the final say.

And finally, we must pray. Now, I know that some people, and some false religions, would misunderstand this point, thinking that they need only to pray that God will implant the knowledge directly into them, with no effort on their own. This is not something that God has promised us, and it is not what I am advocating here. What I am saying is to pray for Wisdom (See James 1:5). Pray that God will help you to have discernment, and will reward your diligent, and yes sometimes strenuous, effort with actual and true understanding and knowledge. And, lest I forget, we must pray also that God will help us to live what we learn, with love, so that we won't become simply a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor 13).

2 Timothy 2:15 [NASB] "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."