A Berean Korean: Acts 17:10-15

¹⁰ As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. ¹² As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. ¹³ But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. ¹⁴ The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. ¹⁵ Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

Whilst living in Korea, I heard a number of Koreans talk about Christians needing to be ‘Berean Koreans’. The Bereans were Christians who deeply studied Paul’s preaching, checking its authenticity over against the Old Testament. Korean Christians were meant to study intently God’s word, checking the words of the preacher over against the word of God. This is the Berean Korean. Except, this is not what Luke implies, at least, not wholly.

The Bereans in mind were not Christians, they were Jews (vv10-11). Yet, as Jews, they were far more noble in character, says Luke, that those horrible Jews in Thessalonica (v11). There some Jews railed against the Apostle Paul and his preaching and stirred up the town against him and his fellow believers. Paul then left Thessalonica to go to Berea (Acts 17:5-10). The Berean Jews were of a different caliber: they respectfully listened to Paul and weighed up his words over against the Old Testament. At this point, the Berean Jews were NOT believers. It is only afterward that some of them came to believe in the Gospel (v12). What do we learn from these things?

Ø  There are different kinds of unbelievers: some are respectful to God, his word, and his people; and others hate him, his word, and his people.

Ø  One does not have to be a Christian to study God’s word in depth.

Ø  It is not a sin to check a preacher’s teaching over against the word of God. Indeed, if unbelievers can do it, Christians ought to be doing it.

Ø  Christians can preach the Gospel like Paul and expect ungodly people to understand, even to search out, God’s word. I fear as Christians today, we’re afraid of offending the ungodly, fearful of putting them off, so we dumb down our teaching and use inoffensive language. However, the Gospel is offensive to many, as the Thessalonican Jews proved; but this should not stop Christians from preaching the Gospel. There are some unbelievers who will respectfully listen, and some of those will believe.

What would a Bearean Korean look like? Well, he’d be an unbeliever who respectfully listens to God’s word, and searches the Scripture to see if the preacher is correct. Hopefully, by the grace of God, the Berean Korean will then become a Berean Christian.