Wouldn't You Like to be a Berean Too?

As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea.
On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message
with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
Acts 17:10-12

Years ago there was a television commercial for the soft drink Dr. Pepper that asked, “Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too?” A “Pepper” was someone who drank Dr. Pepper. In the commercial, everyone was drinking Dr. Pepper as they danced and sang their way through what amounted to a thirty-second musical. Everyone was happy and smiling and thoroughly enjoying life because, after all, they were “Peppers.” When you saw how much fun they were having, it seemed obvious that you would want to be a “Pepper” too.

Here is a far more important question: “Wouldn’t you like to be a Berean too?” When the apostle Paul preached about Jesus in the city of Berea, the Bereans did two important things. They “…received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Too often we receive the message of God’s Word with great boredom and great indifference. Too often we are too lazy to examine the Scriptures to know what is true and what is not. Too often we are too busy and too bedazzled by the baubles of this world to be bothered.

Wouldn’t you like to be a Berean too? Wouldn’t you like to receive God’s Word with great eagerness rather than great indifference? Ironically, the key to being a Berean is to act like a Berean. When we get into God’s Word, we discover the glorious riches of his grace. We discover his great love for us, his patience, his forgiveness. God’s Word creates in us a great excitement about God’s Word. The more of God’s Word we know, the more of God’s Word we want to know.

It is silly to think that drinking a Dr. Pepper will make people’s lives suddenly so wonderful that they can’t help but dance and sing their way through the rest of their day. It is not silly to think that being a Berean, a person dedicated to the study of the Bible, will give a person peace beyond all understanding, the freedom of being forgiven and the hope of eternal life. You have God’s Word on it. With all these blessings and more, wouldn’t you like to be a Berean too?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank you for working all of world history in such a way that I have such easy access to your Word. Savior Jesus, thank you for paying the price for my sins of indifference to the study of your Word. Holy Spirit, create in me a heart that yearns for the much-needed nourishment of your Word. Amen.