Doctrine
"...they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
Acts 17:11
How should we come to the Bible? Not to argue with it, not to sit in judgment over it, not to pick and choose the parts that please us — but to receive it, search it, believe it, and obey it. The Word of God once described a company of people who came to the Scriptures in exactly the right way. They were called the Bereans, and they are held up in the Bible as a noble example for us all.
When the apostle Paul preached in the city of Berea, the people there responded in a way that God saw fit to praise for all time.
"These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:11)
In that one verse we find three marks of the right approach to the Bible. First, they "received the word with all readiness of mind" — an open, willing, eager heart, glad to hear what God would say. Second, they "searched the scriptures daily" — not once a week, but every day, digging into the Word for themselves, personally and diligently. Third, they searched "whether those things were so" — they tested even the preaching of an apostle by the written Word of God, taking nothing merely on a man's say-so.
And what came of it? The right approach bore the right fruit.
"Therefore many of them believed..." (Acts 17:12)
Those who receive the Word with readiness, search it daily, and test all things by it, are led by it to living faith.
Notice what the Bereans did: they measured the words of the apostle Paul himself against the Scriptures. If even an apostle's preaching was to be tested by the Word, how much more the words of every teacher, preacher, church, and tradition since. The Bible is the final court of appeal, above every voice of man.
"To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Isaiah 8:20)
We are commanded to weigh all teaching, keeping what agrees with the Word and refusing what does not.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
For the Scripture alone is given by the breath of God, and it alone is sufficient to make us complete in every good work.
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16)
The Bereans came with "readiness of mind" — a humble, teachable spirit. This is how we too must come to the Bible: not proudly, to argue, but meekly, to learn, praying that God would open our eyes to His truth.
"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." (Psalm 119:18)
The proud heart, full of its own opinions, cannot receive the Word; but the meek and lowly heart, that comes ready to be taught, God delights to instruct.
"...receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:21)
Yet the Bereans did not search the Scriptures merely to fill their heads with knowledge. To read and know the Word without obeying it is to deceive ourselves. Here is our great responsibility.
"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (James 1:22)
The Lord Jesus Christ likened the one who hears His words and does them to a wise man who built his house upon a rock, standing firm against every storm — while the one who hears and does not obey builds upon the sand.
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock." (Matthew 7:24)
The blessing is not in the hearing only, but in the doing.
"If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." (John 13:17)
And whose teaching are we to obey? The Lord's, and His alone. We are not to bind our souls to the traditions and commandments of men, however old or respected, but to the pure Word of God.
"But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." (Matthew 15:9)
The apostle warns us to guard our hearts against every teaching of men that would draw us away from the plain Word of Christ.
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." (Colossians 2:8)
We follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and we follow Him only, holding fast to what He has said in His Word.
How, then, shall we obey? First, with joy. The Word of God is not a heavy chain to be dragged about grudgingly, but a treasure to delight in. The blessed man delights in the law of the Lord.
"But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night." (Psalm 1:2)
The prophet Jeremiah found the words of God to be his very feast and gladness.
"Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart..." (Jeremiah 15:16)
When we truly see the goodness of our God in His Word, obedience becomes not a burden but a joy.
Second, we obey by faith — taking God at His word, and trusting Him even where we cannot fully understand. Without such faith it is impossible to please Him.
"But without faith it is impossible to please him..." (Hebrews 11:6)
We must receive the Bible for what it truly is — not the word of men, but the Word of God, and believe it accordingly.
"...when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God..." (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
Faith reads a promise and rests upon it; faith reads a command and obeys it, sure that the God who spoke it is good and wise.
Third, and above all, we obey out of love. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself named love as the true spring of all obedience.
"If ye love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15)
Obedience born of love is never a bondage; it is the glad response of a grateful heart to the One who first loved us. And to such a heart, His commandments are not heavy.
"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." (1 John 5:3)
We do not obey to earn His love — we already have it, freely, in the Lord Jesus Christ — but we obey because we love Him who saved us.
The one who comes to the Bible as a Berean — receiving, searching, believing, and obeying with joy, faith, and love — is a blessed soul indeed.
"But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." (James 1:25)
And there is one thing above all that the searching heart will find in the Scriptures, for the whole Bible was written to bring us to Him.
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (John 5:39)
If you have never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, then search the Scriptures for this above all — and you will find, on every page, the Saviour who died and rose to give you eternal life. Come to Him; and then, with all His people, receive His Word with readiness, search it daily, and follow Him only, with joy, faith, and love.
"These were more noble... in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so."Acts 17:11