Acts 17:10–15 As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 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. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

Berea was not on our itinerary last month. It would have been nice to visit the city where the people were described as being of more noble character than the Thessalonians. Did you catch the reason they were described that way?

…they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

 Being like a Berean should be the goal of every believer. Don’t just take someone else’s word for it. Look at God’s Word yourself. Daily. Read it. Mark it. Learn it. Inwardly digest it. Let it fill you up. The Holy Spirit will guide you into the truth. And if you fill yourself up with God’s Word, it will come out of you for others to hear. It won’t come out of you if it is not in you.

When I taught the Catechism to young people, I was one of those guys who still required memory work every week. While those sixth and seventh and eighth grade students would roll their eyes and grumble and complain, I kept assigning it every week. Why? So that God’s Word would be in them. I told them at the beginning of each school year that I was going to be teaching them the most important stuff they would ever hear. They needed to remember it!

I know that some of them tried to do their memory work in the car ride to class, but others took it to heart. Not too long ago I was visiting with some people who had gone through “Confirmation Class” with me almost 40 years ago. One of them admitted that he hated the memory work, but that he still remembered many of those passages to this day.

If can’t come out of you if it is not in you.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Dear Lord, help me to be like the Bereans, studying your Word so that I can grow in my faith and share it with others. Amen.