I’m not much of a sports fan, but I do love ice skating. Especially Olympic ice skating. These athletes are amazing – the spins and jumps and throws. On ice! I can barely stay upright when I’ve tried ice skating. I can’t even imagine the skill it takes to do what those guys do.
But as I watch, I am SO thankful for the commentators. Because I have no clue what the rules are. I can’t tell when the skaters make a mistake — unless they fall. Other than that, I don’t know when they double a triple or when the turn was under-rotated. It all looks amazing to me!
And it’s really fine that I need commentators for ice skating. There’s no need for me to learn all the rules of Olympic ice skating. I am quite content to depend on those former athletes and coaches to tell me what I’m seeing and what the skaters are doing.
However…I think we sometimes go into that mindset with Truth. We listen to pastors or teachers or godly friends, and we just go with whatever they say. Now, there’s nothing wrong with listening to pastors or teachers or friends (says the devo blogger!). In fact, it is critically important to be in community with other believers and to sit under godly pastors and teachers. But God has called us to also search for ourselves to know Truth. We should not just “sit back and listen”. God gives us an example of the Bereans in Acts 17 who were commended as being of “noble character” because they “examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
These noble Christians had THE APOSTLE PAUL as their teacher, and they still tested what he taught to be sure it was true. And how did they test it? By examining the scriptures!
God doesn’t want us “watching” Truth the way I watch ice skating. We are to be active in our faith, passionate in our pursuit of Truth. We should be the commentators. We shouldn’t just bring out our Bibles on Sundays and leave them on the kitchen counter the rest of the week. We need to open God’s word, dig into it, study it, meditate on it, memorize it, pray it. This is the source of Truth! Be like the noble Bereans and examine the scriptures.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15
