God’s word generates strong reactions wherever it is heard. During his second missionary journey, Paul came to Thessalonica and reasoned from the Scriptures, “explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead” (Acts 17:3). This teaching persuaded many Jews, devout Greeks, and leading women to become Christians.
Strong opposition in Thessalonica soon formed, with a mob attacking some of the believers. Disturbing the whole city, they shouted that the Christians were turning “the world upside down” by “saying that there is another king, Jesus” (Acts 17:6-7).
It wasn’t long before Paul and Silas were run out of town to Berea, where they received a much different response. “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” (Acts 17:11). Many became Christians, though Paul’s Thessalonian opponents eventually followed and ran him out of town there, too.
In Thessalonica, some of the Jews were jealous of the response Paul received. They appeared to have very little interest in truth and were resistant to anything that upset their status quo. They showed no interest in evaluating Paul’s claims against God’s word, but they seemed to have plenty of time and energy to chase Paul away.
In Berea, they were eager to understand God’s will. They believed in absolute truth and that God revealed it in the Bible. This motivated a daily examination of the Scriptures, not as a matter of a requirement but as one of desire. They weren’t afraid to continually test their beliefs and assumptions against Scripture. They trusted that God’s truth could be known and followed, even if it led in a different direction than they previously expected.
We can be jealous people who blindly react when our status quo is challenged, who spend much more energy shouting than searching. Alternatively, we can be noble people who search the Scriptures eagerly and daily because we honestly believe God’s way is best. When it comes to God’s word, which are we?