In the weightier matters of life and faith… conduct your own due diligence.
Acts 17:10-15; 2 John 7-11
“I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
— John 10:7-10
That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men.
— Acts 17:10-12
I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement. Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.
— 2 John 7-11
But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.
— 2 Peter 2:1
And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
— Colossians 2:6-10
Once again, under the cover of darkness… Paul and Silas flee from Thessalonica and make their way to Berea. Immediately upon their arrival, they visit the local synagogue and are heard by the leadership in that Jewish community. Unlike what happened in Thessalonica, however, those elders in Berea received Paul and Silas and were willing to hear them out. When finished hearing their “sales pitch”, the elders themselves conducted their own due diligence to verify these new claims through Scripture itself. They trusted… but they verified.
I say “sales pitch” with good reason. By this time (around 51 AD), Antioch had become the primary missionary “sending” church throughout the Roman empire. Teachers would chart out various courses for their mission endeavors and teach in every major city along the way. Finding synagogues or audiences within each community, these teachers were entrusted with the power of God and sought to evangelize these communities with the good news about the Kingdom of Heaven. As they went, they were expected to support themselves, but they could also expect support from those of whom they taught. So far so good, right? Well, along with the bone fide teachers legitimately sent out from the church in Antioch, there were some “not-so-bone fide” teachers that saw this as an opportunity for both influence and financial gain. As time went on in the first century, the problem grew worse… so much so that the Apostle John would warn the smaller churches against such charletains who would attend meetings and spread their heretical ideas. To one particular fellowship near Ephesus, he warned individuals in the church to not welcome false teachers or show them hospitality within their own homes (2 John 10-11).
If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement. Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.
— 2 John 10-11
What does this mean?
First, it means that anytime a movement of God is clearly evidenced, there will also be a counterfeit movement that aims to ride on the coattails of such a movement. Opportunistic individuals may seek to usurp from the larger movement at hand for their own personal gain. This can get tricky because sometimes new movements are started by individuals seeking God and truth who see blatant wrongdoing in the church’s current state of existence. So, they break away to rediscover the God of Scripture and find out that what is currently being practiced has little to do with the God of Scripture. So… who do you follow, and how can you identify what’s of God and what isn’t? How do we discover the real thing?
That’s what the Bereans were wondering! Here, they were dedicated to following the Law, but they were also open enough to realize that the promises of God had yet to be fulfilled. In their minds, the message of Paul and Silas was worth hearing, especially since it had everything to do with the promises of God coming to fruition. So, the Berean elders were trusting enough to hear out Paul and Silas, but they weren’t going to blindly accept their message without conducting their own due diligence first.
Likewise, it means we need to trust… but verify. It means we need to be willing to hear others out. Then, we are to measure such messages against the standards shared in Scripture.
Relating back to the Apostle John’s warning, these false teachers showed up at a church meeting and began teaching something different than what he taught. More specifically, they were teaching that Jesus was not really human. They claimed that God didn’t show up in human form. And, this was highly problematic in that it removed the need for God to identify with what it meant to be fully human, without sin, and fully obedient even to the point of death. If Jesus wasn’t fully human, then he couldn’t die for the sins of humanity and carry out the New Covenant promise where God would permanently forgive sins to those who receive him. Can you see why this might be problematic? Here’s John’s warning to those who blindly accept such false teachings:
I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.
— 2 John 7-9
So, when John warned the church to not show any hospitality to these false teachers, it was based upon this “trust… but verify” idea. They claimed to be teachers. They were given an opportunity to share in the meeting whereby the elders of that local church could then search out Scripture and process the validity of their teaching. If in alignment with Scripture, then they would be welcomed into the local body.
And, This brings us to our final point: Scripture is the standard, the constitution, against which we may measure any and all claims. There is so much to this, but God has slowly but miraculously revealed his wishes, his expectations, and his promises to specific individuals over time. Beginning with Moses, these wishes became more concrete, going beyond the passing along of oral tradition, and were written down for future generations to read, to share, and to uphold. For over a thousand years, prophets, historians, poets, kings, and shepherds alike would hear from God and contribute to the writings known as the Tanakh. We might know this compilation of the Torah (first five books of the Tanakh), the prophets and the writings… as the Old Testament. What is unique about this compilation of writings is the common thread that intertwines in nearly every writing. What’s that thread? The covenantal promises made between God and his people, Israel.
So, when the Bereans heard the claims of Paul and Silas, they searched the Tanakh to see if there was any merit in the Messianic claims made by the two visiting teachers. They trusted Paul and Silas as two Jewish individuals enough to be given a fair hearing, but then they verified to see if their claims were able to “hold water”. They did.
One final thought: Every day we’re bombarded with messages… promotional ideas… “sales pitches”… In many cases, the media contributes greatly to this propagandizing of misinformation. Claiming to be purveyors of truth at all costs… and I applaud those who really are… some are simply aiming to gain influence and financial benefit just like the false teachers of old. Does that mean we write them off without a fair hearing? To do so would place us in the same boat as many of those in the synagogues who weren’t willing to do any due diligence or verification with the claims that were offered to them. Stubborn, “stiff necked”, and unwilling to hear is how many prophets would regard these types of folks–who, as it turns out, would be the ones responsible for forming mobs and killing these prophets of God. Consequently, we miss out on a movement of God when we don’t provide a fair hearing to the messengers. We need to be open to new movements, new ideas… but we need to verify and do the due diligence needed.
Let me be blunt here: Our issue is one of laziness. What do I mean? I mean that we hear somebody else’s idea and we either accept it or reject it without doing the due diligence needed to see if there’s any weight to the matter. While I realize there are thousands of subjects we cannot dig into, I also know that in the weightier matters of life, we need to put in our due diligence. Consider this: God will hold us accountable for the due diligence we put in… or didn’t put in to learning about our faith.
Now imagine how others might feel when you give them a fair hearing? How do you think they might feel when you’ve listened to them? Give the courtesy of hearing them… They will feel valued and appreciated. But don’t blindly accept what they have said as Gospel truth. Instead, take the time to verify the claims they make before you buy into or reject them. Measure their claims against the source that has been reliable for right living for more than 2,000 years.
May you be ever diligent to trust and verify the claims of others, where over time, God produces in you a clear-headedness that identifies the God of Scripture at work and refuses to miss out on His Kingdom movement.