While traveling around the Mediterranean coast preaching the gospel, the apostle Paul came to a city by the name of Berea. In the previous cities Paul had visited he had met stiff opposition to the message of the gospel of Christ he was preaching. The people he met in Berea must have been a breath of fresh air. “These were more fair-minded than those inThessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
What did Paul find in Berea? People who had an open mind. So many of the audiences that Paul encountered would quickly turn against him when they began to get an idea of what he was saying. Not the Bereans. They investigated the Old Testament Scriptures to make sure that the news about Jesus of Nazareth matched the prophecies of the Messiah. They gave the gospel a fair hearing and as a result, “…many of them believed” (Acts 17:12).
If you ever expect to find God, to find the way of salvation to God, and to continue to walk in the way of God, you must be open-minded. One attitude that will keep you from finding and living the Lord’s will is that of placing a wall between you and everything with which you disagree. God’s truth will often challenge our preconceived ideas and unless we allow those ideas to be challenged, we run the risk of locking God’s truth out of our hearts and minds. We need to always be willing to hear the other side of a matter regardless of how strong we may disagree with it. We need to always be willing to expose our beliefs and practices in religion to an examination by the Bible. The truth will only shine brighter under the light of Biblical inspection.
Do you have an open mind? It is the only mind that will receive the teaching of God, it is the only mind that will lead one to the way of God.
Phillip Mullins