Acts 17:10-12 (NIV)
10 As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 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. 12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
Luke literally calls the folks in the Jewish synagogue in Berea “noble-minded.” He uses the qualifier “more” to compare them to the Thessalonians (remember last week they turned into a mob against Paul and Silas). Want to become noble-minded? Great! Just follow these simple steps:
- Don’t mindlessly follow folks with “bad character” and join mobs ‘cuz everyone else is.
- Eagerly anticipate discovering truth…actually look for the truth in life.
- Don’t just assume what you’re hearing is true, search for yourself (even if it is on Wikipedia!).
- When you find God’s truth, give yourself fully to the pursuit of it and make life changes accordingly.
I can’t help but think that the church in our nation – and our nation itself – would be in a much better place if we’d follow these four important principles. Since we can’t change everyone else, let’s start with us.
