About

What is a Berean wannabe?


Berea (or Boerea) -- An ancient city of Macedonia about 45 miles west of Thessalonica (modern Salonika); 
Berean-- a resident of that city

wannabe-- 1. One who aspires to a role or position  2. One who imitates the behavior, customs, or dress of an admired person or group. (Modern slang for “want to be”)


Acts 17:10-12  Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

When the Jews in Berea encountered an itinerant Jewish preacher who had come into their synagogue, they listened to what he had to say. The Apostle Paul (formerly known as Saul of Tarsus) proclaimed to them the good news concerning the man Jesus of Nazareth -- that this Jesus is the Christ. The Bereans did not at once either believe or disbelieve Paul, but “they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” They checked Paul’s claims against the written word of God which they had in their possession. After doing this, many of them -- along with not a few Greeks -- believed. The Holy Spirit has forever commended these Bereans in the pages of Scripture as being “more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica.”

When I first believed on the Lord Jesus Christ many years ago, my view of the Bible changed radically overnight. From viewing it as a collection of myths believed only by fools, I was brought to the conviction that the Scriptures are indeed the very words of the living God. (1 Corinthians 1:18) That conviction has never changed. I regret, however, that too often I have failed to put that belief into practice as I should have. Had I examined the Scriptures diligently “to see if these things were so,” I might have avoided some wrong forks in the road. 

It is my prayer that I may truly come to share the attitude of heart of those Christians who penned the conclusion to the First London Baptist Confession (1646):

“Also we confess, that we know but in part, and that we are ignorant of many things which we desire and seek to know; and if any shall do us that friendly part to show us from the word of God that which we see not, we shall have cause to be thankful to God and them; but if any man shall impose upon us anything that we see not to be commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, we should in His strength rather embrace all reproaches and tortures of men, to be stripped of all outward comforts, and if it were possible, to die a thousand deaths, rather than to do anything against the least tittle of the truth of God or against the light of our own consciences.”