Series: Youth for Jesus
Number: Vol. 8, No. 43
“Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:3-4NIV)
In our opening bible text, we find part of the introduction of Luke to his gospel concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we learn from what he says in this introduction? First, we learn that he originally wrote this gospel for the reading of a nobleman called Theophilus. The sort of position Theophilus was occupying at the time is something we cannot tell from the text. But by referring to him as ‘Most excellent Theophilus’, we can safely assume that the man must be occupying a very powerful and influential position wherever he was at the time.The second thing we learn from the text was that even though Luke was a believer in Christ Jesus at the time, he did not just believe everything he was told and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Instead, he first carried out a careful, thorough and extensive investigation about the things he was hearing and learning before embracing them as true. Why did he do that? Well, first, he did that because he did not want to be acting on lies or fabricated stories. Second, it was because he lived during the days of the early preachers of the gospel and so nothing stopped him from verifying the things that they were saying to see whether they were true or not.
Third, it was so that he would not be leading others too, including Theophilus, to believe a lie.Now we find something similar to this in the attitude of the Jews in Berea towards the preaching of Paul, when he came to them. Look at what the bible says about this:“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” (Acts 17:11-12NIV)
Did you see that? These people did not just accept Paul’s sermons as true because he called himself an apostle of the Messiah that they had been waiting for. Instead, every day they took out time to investigate what he was teaching them in the Scriptures to see if it was true. And when they realised that it was true, many of them believed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with joy.So, you can see that the apostles of old encouraged their audience to investigate the things they were teaching them. They did not just ask them to accept their messages as true because they were apostles. Otherwise, they would be preventing them from gaining the confidence they needed to defend their own faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That being the case, learn to investigate whatever you are being taught in the church and in life by anybody. Investigate it using the Scriptures and other relevant resources that are at your disposal. Don’t just accept anything as true on the strength of anybody’s title, position, education, fame or experience. That is a cheap way to be misled into believing and acting on lies or errors. And where that is the case, you will have only yourself to blame for whatever you suffer for believing and acting on any lie or error. So, mind yourself.
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