True Fact Checking

 Proverbs 18:17

17 The first to state his case seems right

until another comes and cross-examines him.

Acts 17:10-11

10 As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea. On arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 The people here were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, since they welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Consequently, many of them believed, including a number of the prominent Greek women as well as men.

If you follow me on social media, you would have read many times in the past where I encourage and challenge friends to be “Bereans.”   What do I mean by being a Berean?

In the Book of Acts, we read that shortly after Paul and Silas escaped an attempt on their life in Thessalonica, they traveled to Berea.   The Bible states in Acts 17:10-11 that the people in Berea were “open-minded” and when they listened to the message of Paul, they did not take it at face value.  They checked the Scriptures to make sure that what Paul was preaching was lining up to the Word of God. The Bereans knew the Scriptures and it was evident in their reaction to Paul.  They had already heard of Paul by the time that he rolled in.  They had already heard of the Pharisee that was a persecutor of the church who now was a proselytizer.   I’m sure Paul had his fans and his skeptics.  Same as many people of note today.  However, the Bereans knew Proverbs 18:17.  They understood that God does not want us to draw conclusions based on what we hear from other sources or initial impressions.

Sound familiar?

Our society has fallen drastically from a biblical worldview.  No longer do we hold the common sense practices of Scripture.  Look at our society.  Don’t we jump to conclusions?  Oh, you’re Republican?  You must be racist!   Oh, you’re Democrat?  You must enjoy killing babies!   Oh, you go to this church?  You’re a nut job!   

We fail to cross examine and look things through a lens of truth.  We jump to conclusion and judgements that are not fair based.

Look at the plague of social media.  While I believe social media can be a wonderful and blessed thing (I honestly think Paul would have loved being able to reach as many with a key stroke), the enemy has turned it into a den of debauchery and lies.  We will see a news story or a post about someone and immediately draw the conclusion that it was true.

I’m guilty of that.  I’m not speaking as a person who is innocent.  I’m also speaking as a person who has suffered because of hastily drawn conclusions.  Have you ever had someone believe something about you that wasn’t true or have someone draw conclusions when they didn’t hear the “full story”?   It hurts doesn’t it.

God does not want us to be this way! 

Whenever we hear anything, we need to be diligent to do the research, to go to God’s Word and God to seek for the truth of the matter.  

We are not to automatically take the first account as the truth.  We are to test it through the lens of God’s Word and see if it aligns with the very nature of God.

So, my challenge today is for us to be more like the Bereans.  To act in love.  To say, I’m not going to take that at face value today.  Instead, I’m going to do a true fact check and see if it aligns with the actual truth and not some narrative.

We should ask questions when events arise in our culture today.

Let us be as Christ commanded us.  To seek wisdom.  To fear the Lord.  To spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.