You Don't Know What You Don't Know

Open your heart to teaching, and your ears to words of much learning. Proverbs 23:12 (New Life Version, NLV)

Occasionally, I hear teaching or preaching that challenges what I believe about Scripture. Sometimes a teacher may make a statement that seems so different and new that it would be easy for me to discount it as wrong. After all, if someone interprets something in a unique way or has a new insight on a verse or passage, it can be tempting to say, “There’s no way that can be right.” But, before we toss something aside, we must be diligent to search it out for ourselves to determine if it is indeed correct.

And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. Acts 17:11 (New Living Translation, NLT)

Sometimes a teaching or idea is truly erroneous and we need to discard it. However, there are times when God is trying to show us something totally new and we need to take the time to search it out in the Word. The Bereans were such people. Paul was teaching them and daily they went back to the Scripture to confirm if it lined up.

There are many things that we’ve have been taught through the years that were not right- maybe because they were based on a poor Bible translation or maybe because it was traditionally always taught it that way. We have to keep our minds and hearts open to the possibility that what we believe about something could be wrong or may be partially wrong- or that there can be more than one correct interpretation and meaning to something. And until the Holy Spirit points it out to us, we really don’t know what we don’t know.

When we hear something that challenges our theology, let’s commit to taking the time to dig into the Word and determine what the original language said, what the culture of the day might have to do with its meaning, and what God may be trying to say. Prayerfully consider what you’re taught. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the truth. And once you think you’ve exhausted all avenues to investigate it, decide what you believe about it. It really is up to each of us to work out our own salvation, so we have to be responsible to do our research when deciding what we believe.