2022_03_23 Insight Post- Rusty Coram

  -   March 23, 2022

This week’s reading- Acts 17-18

As usual, there is a lot we can focus on from our reading this week, but there is one verse in particular that I want to look at. There was a big contrast in the attitudes of the Jewish people who Paul spoke to in Thessalonica and Berea. Acts 17:11 in the New Living Translation says, “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.” The New American Standard Translation says it this way, “Now these [the Jews in Berea] were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”

The message being given and the messengers were the same in both locations. The main difference between the Jews of Thessalonica and Berea was their attitude. One group was guided by defensiveness, pride, jealousy (see Kim Feld’s excellent post from earlier this week), and anger. The other group was willing to listen and reserve any response until they could adequately evaluate the merits based on the Scriptures. A couple of things here stand out:

(1) Truth can be discovered if we genuinely look for it. Paul and Silas weren’t merely expressing their big ideas and opinions. They were telling the story of Jesus, the Messiah who came to save any and everyone who would accept Him. They went to the Jews first because the Jewish people knew (or should have known) the specifics about the coming Messiah and how Jesus perfectly matched them. All anyone needed to do was honestly examine the Scriptures to see what was what. And many in Berea did just that!

(2) The second thing here is for us who are working to persuade others to accept Jesus – we are responsible for both telling others clearly about Jesus and also living lives that reflect our faith. God will do the convincing if and when people are open. We should never resort to either dumbing down the message or mean-spirited outbursts. Our job is to present the simple, honest Biblical truth and then, by our daily lives, show the impact Jesus has. To people who are open, that will be plenty!