Should I test every teaching by Scripture?
Yes, always. Scripture commends hearers who verify: the Bereans searched the Scriptures daily to check even an apostle's preaching, John commands testing every spirit, and Paul tells the church to test everything and hold fast to the good. No messenger, office, or title exempts anyone from the test.
This question arose from studying Did Jesus treat Scripture as the final authority? and How should I read the Bible?.
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Go into the Word
Not a summary of these passages: the passages themselves. Read them, then come back to the study below.
The study
What the Scripture says
Noble hearers verify
Luke stops to praise the Bereans, and notice why: not eagerness alone, but eagerness joined to examination. They listened to the apostle Paul with readiness and then went to the Scriptures daily to confirm his words. Faith is not credulity; believing the right things includes checking that they are the right things.
Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Many of them therefore believed; also of the prominent Greek women, and not a few men.
Test everything, hold the good
Paul commands the church to examine all teaching and cling only to what survives. John sharpens it further: 'don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God,' because false prophets have gone out into the world. Jesus warns of wolves in sheep's clothing, recognizable by their fruit, which requires looking closely.
Don’t despise prophesies. Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.
Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.
The standard is the written Word
'Turn to the law and to the testimony!' Isaiah's rule stands: if teaching does not speak according to this word, it carries no light from God. The measure of a message is not the messenger's office, sincerity, miracles, or majority, but agreement with the God-breathed Scriptures, the sum of which is truth.
Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
All of your words are truth. Every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever.
Correction done in love
Testing is not a taste for quarrels. When Apollos taught accurately the things about Jesus but incompletely, Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and explained the way of God more carefully, and he grew. The Lord's servant corrects opponents gently, contending earnestly for the faith without becoming contentious in spirit.
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be gentle towards all, able to teach, patient, in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth,
As you read, you may wonder…
Scripture raises the next question
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Explore further
Can I seek God on my own?→Who We Are trail“As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.””We haven't written this one yet. Take it to your church or small group: the Word answers it wherever it is asked. If we study it here later, all the better.
Hold onto these
Verses to meditate on
Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.
Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
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