Noble Minded

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

I just finished a 75-page Study Guide for a trip I’m hosting to Turkey and Greece in 2015. While writing the project, something sparked my attention. It happened on Paul’s second mission trip and it has to do with a compliment he gave to a group of people.

It was about the Christ followers in Berea. They were eager to hear what Paul and Silas had to say, but they tested everything by Scripture [the Old Testament because the New Testament had not been written at the time] before accepting it as a message from God. Only after careful examination did they hold fast to the truth [1 Thessalonians 5:21]. For that, Paul referred to them as “noble minded.”

That kind of nobel mindedness is lacking among many Christ followers today. I am often appalled at the lack of discernment concerning biblical truth. Many believers are duped by clever and false teachings. I also find that they are typically the first to be “tossed to and fro by waves, and carried away by every wind of doctrine” [Ephesians 4:14]. I, for one, am praying for “new” Bereans—those who stand on sound doctrine and refuse to compromise.

Don’t be afraid of the term sound doctrine. Sound doctrine comes from the infallible, inerrant, authoritative, inspired, sufficient Scripture. Sound doctrine will help you to be strong in the Lord. We need that more than ever. Let’s commit ourselves to become modern-day, noble minded Bereans! 

[The Bereans] 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. Acts 17:11