NOTES for Act 17:1-15
Notice that we do not know for certain whether everyone to whom the Apostle Paul preached in Berea was converted. It is quite possible that not everyone was. But they all showed nobility of mind as they examined the Scriptures, tested Paul’s testimony, and sought to understand the truth with open hearts. Such an approach to Revelation is perhaps one of the rarest human qualities. Most often, we either accumulate grievances against God, yet even an enormous and terrible list does not prompt us to demand an answer from Him personally; or we look with a certain embarrassment at grown and seemingly intelligent people who passionately try to explain obvious nonsense to us; or we believe that we have already learned everything—after all, if we have already been converted, why should some outsiders and strangers try to “treat” us? But the Lord, bringing us back again and again to the Book of Acts, shows us how a person should conduct himself before God. He must continually delve deeply into Holy Scripture, with an open heart, ready to accept everything the Lord wishes to reveal to him.