Acts 17:10-11 That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea; and when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.
Sometimes the way we talk about faith in the modern world sets faith in opposition to inquiry and thinking. As in.. "we just take it on faith." But that's not the only model for faith in the Bible; it may not even be the most common. Most of the great heroes in the Bible were very curious people, people who wanted evidence and proof.
These folks to whom Paul preached in Beroea were like that - they didn't just take everything Paul said as if it were automatically true. They didn't "just believe" it. They didn't "take it on faith," meaning to assume it's true. They checked the Bible to see whether there was any evidence for his claim that Jesus was the promised Messiah. They investigated. They thought about it. They debated. And they came to believe. Debate and questions are part of the process, not opposed to the process.
In Christ,
Pastor Seth
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