"Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the Word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so." -Acts 17:11
Often times, the fact that we go to worship 2-3 times a week makes it easy to believe that that's all we need. It can be easy to look at it as a reason as to why we can cut out most, or even all of our personal study time. However, we cannot allow ourselves to fall into this habit. Why?
Why not? Why bother studying something that others can study for you? Two names you likely recognize, Nadab and Abihu, two brothers who once decided they would sacrifice to God something that had not been commanded of them. BAM! They died! Now, obviously God doesn't strike people down like that anymore, but that doesn't mean that we can't be condemned eternally. There are two things we can learn from this: we need to search the scriptures often so we don't accidentally do this, and Nadab and Abihu not only died physically, but you can guarantee that they died spiritually, as well. And I can guarantee that we will too, if we don't make sure we aren't in the wrong.
Another reason we have to search scriptures and not just rely on others to teach us, is that there are false teachers everywhere. 1 John 4:1 says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." and Matthew 7:15 also mentions this, along with, I'm sure, several other passages. I would like to point out that also, in Acts 17:11, they searched the scriptures daily. Not weekly or monthly or yearly. They made it part of their lives. See, the thing about false teachers is that most of the time, they don't realize that they're wrong. In fact, someone could be a very experienced teacher who knows a lot about the Bible, but slip up and say something that's wrong. But if we study the Bible daily, we will be able to lovingly show them the truth, as we see Priscilla and Aquilla did in Acts 18:26. It is our job as Christians not to point out the flaws of others, but when we see them, lovingly show them the truth. But how can we do this if we don't know the truth?
Today I would like to encourage you all to search the scriptures daily and not take the teaching of others for granted. There are many more false teachers than you think. Today I'd like to encourage you to help put an end to that.
