Acts 17:10-15 And the brothers immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night to Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.… In this account of the conduct and conversion of the Bereans we are struck with — I. THE WILLING PERMISSION THEY GAVE TO THE APOSTLES TO DECLARE THEIR ERRAND. For we must remember how different were their circumstances from those in which we ever have been, or can possibly be found. They were Jews, who had never, until this moment when Paul and Silas entered their synagogue, heard of any other system than the law of Moses. They were men in whose minds the avenues of conviction lay open; they were willing to give a hearing to the arguments of reason. Scarcely any sacrifice is so costly to flesh and blood to make, as that of long-established and deeply-rooted prejudice. But the Berean Jews were prepared to make even this surrender. But their respect was shown to the commission of the apostles, not to their persons only. Is not the subject of the gospel of supreme importance? With how many has the gospel had no better fate than those unhappy persons find whose lot it is to wait upon some proud patron or dilatory judge, who has promised to grant an audience, but has never yet done it, and still promises, and still postpones? II. As they allowed the apostles to declare their errand, so we find that THEY GAVE A GLAD RECEPTION TO THE MESSAGE ITSELF. An ingenuous spirit opens the fairest door to the entrance of truth. Candour opened their ears to what Paul and Silas had to urge; and by that opening conviction entered. Such were the earliest disciples, and as such they are described: "they that gladly received the Word." A spirit this, differing altogether from that of Herod, who heard the Word gladly, having a curiosity to know what kind of matters it treated about, but having no desire to enlarge his acquaintance with it, when he found that it laid the axe to the root of his sins; but a gladness, going the whole length of the gospel itself, the glad receiving, as well as hearing of it. Who amongst us desires to know whether we are inheritors of this Berean "readiness of mind" towards the gospel of God? We are so, if we yield ourselves to the fair influence of truth. III. There is yet one more point of excellence in the conduct of the Bereans: THEY SERIOUSLY EXAMINED THE CLAIMS OF THE GOSPEL. The doctrine of Christ fears not a scrutiny. And now, after this review of the conduct of the Bereans, shall we hesitate to award to them the title given in our text, "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica"? True nobility, then, is not the spurious expansiveness of infidelity, but the reverence of Scripture as the test of truth. (R. Eden, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. |
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