How to Study the Bible Accurately, Part 1: Become a Berean
This is Part 1 of our 10-part series, “Delighting in Biblical Truth: A Complete Guide to Accurate Bible Study.” You can find the rest of the series in our free Bible study articles.
I have one goal for anyone who opens a Bible: I want you to become a Berean Christian. If you’re not sure what that means, stick with me. By the end of this article you’ll see why it matters, and why it may matter more now than at any point in church history.
Everyone Has an Opinion About the Bible
Spend five minutes on social media and you’ll run into a dozen “biblical insights,” a few theological hot takes, and some spiritual advice, much of it contradicting the rest. Think about how many truth claims hit you in a single hour of scrolling. It’s a lot, and it’s quietly changing how people decide who to trust.
So who should you trust when everyone has a platform and an opinion about what the Bible says? Honestly, not anyone automatically. That includes me. If you lead in a church, or you’re being prepared to, learning to tell truth from error isn’t optional. It’s the job.
Galatians 1: Even an Apostle Can’t Change the Gospel
Look at Galatians 1:6-9. Paul uses some of the harshest language in the New Testament here. If anyone, even Paul himself or an angel from heaven, preaches a gospel different from the one first delivered, let him be accursed. In modern terms, he’s saying “let them go to hell.” That isn’t Sunday school language.
His point is that authority, influence, and even supernatural experiences don’t outrank the gospel. Paul is saying, in effect, “I don’t stand above this message. I don’t get to rework it because I’m Paul. And if an angel shows up with a new revelation that doesn’t match it, that’s not an angel from God.”
That sets a basic rule for Bible study and for leadership: the truth stands above every human authority, including spiritual leaders and spiritual experiences.
1 Thessalonians 2: Receiving God’s Word for What It Is
Now look at 1 Thessalonians 2:13, where Paul commends the church in Thessalonica:
“When you received the word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.”
The Thessalonians recognized that Paul wasn’t just sharing his opinions or his philosophy. As an apostle, writing and teaching under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he was delivering the word of God, and they received it that way. That’s spiritual maturity.
But Luke tells us about another church that did even better.
Acts 17: Why the Bereans Were “More Noble”
After hostility forced Paul out of Thessalonica, he went to Berea and taught in the synagogue. Luke writes in Acts 17:11:
“The people here were more noble in character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
The Thessalonians were a great church, and Paul said so. Yet Luke calls the Bereans more noble. Why? They received Paul’s message gladly, just like the Thessalonians, and then they checked everything he said against Scripture.
Checking Isn’t Rude. It’s Right.
You might wonder if that was a little disrespectful. Paul was an apostle, called and sent by the Lord himself. Who were they to double-check him?
Paul didn’t take offense, and Luke praises them for it. Here’s why. The Holy Spirit doesn’t speak truth in one breath and error in the next. Truth can’t contradict truth. The Bereans knew that anything genuinely from God would line up with what God had already said.
Remember who Paul’s audience was. These were synagogue attendees who hadn’t yet trusted Christ, and Paul was telling them that the Old Testament promises were fulfilled in Jesus, and that he was a witness to it. The Bereans’ response was, in effect, “That sounds wonderful. Let’s go back to the Scriptures and see if it’s true.” They expected God’s revelation to hold together, and it did.
The Challenge for Us
So here’s my challenge: be a Berean. If I ever say something that doesn’t hold up to Scripture, I want you to have the courage to ask (graciously, please) “Are you sure that fits with what the Bible actually says?”
This isn’t about being difficult. It’s about loving truth more than comfort, and loving God’s word more than anyone’s opinion of it, including your own. The church needs people who think this way, and it especially needs leaders who do.
Why Isn’t There a Book of Bereans?
Here’s something worth noticing. Paul wrote letters to the Galatians and the Thessalonians, but there’s no letter to the Bereans. We can only speculate why, but maybe they didn’t need correcting. They already had “the prophetic word more fully confirmed” (2 Peter 1:19) and were paying close attention to it.
And think about this: the Bereans had only the Old Testament, and they may have been the most commended congregation in the Bible. More than Galatia. More than Thessalonica. They did it with what we might think of as incomplete revelation.
We have the whole thing. Old Testament and New, preserved over thousands of years, translated by people who sometimes risked their lives to do it, and available today in more formats than we can count. That should excite us.
Why Bible Study Actually Changes People
What makes reading the Bible different from reading any other good book? Isaiah 55:10-11 answers that:
“For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it germinate and sprout... so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
God’s word carries power to do what God sends it to do. You can’t say that about any other book, however well written.
That’s also why a true gospel stated clumsily has more power than a stadium full of false gospel stated beautifully. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the wise.
Reading About the Bible vs. Reading the Bible
Here’s an obvious question. What does you more good: reading a book about prayer, or praying?
Praying, of course.
So what has more power: reading books about the Bible, or reading the Bible?
I know that sounds too simple to say out loud. But I fall into this trap myself. It’s more comfortable to read something pre-digested about Scripture than to dig into Scripture. Baby food is easier than steak.
Commentaries, theology books, and podcasts can be helpful. They’re no substitute for the text itself. Only the Bible can do what the Bible was given to do. (If you want a structured way to work through a book of Scripture yourself, our Bible Book Study manuals are built for exactly that.)
Scripture Is Enough
2 Timothy 3:16-17 is one of the clearest statements about what the Bible is for:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
A few things stand out. All of Scripture is breathed out by God, not just the parts we like. All of it is useful, for teaching, reproof, correction, and training. And the goal is completeness: being equipped for every good work.
That means God’s word is sufficient to train believers for whatever He calls them to do, whether that’s pastoring a church, teaching a class, raising kids, or cleaning the church bathrooms. (You can read more about how we hold to Scripture in our Statement of Faith.)
Becoming a Berean
Being a Berean doesn’t mean being cynical. It means developing a kind of holy skepticism: a love for truth strong enough that you check everything against what God has said.
In Part 2 we’ll get practical and look at the tools that make careful observation of the text possible. For now, here’s where to start:
Receive God’s word eagerly. Don’t come to it out of dread or bare duty.
Look carefully at the text. Take time to see what it actually says.
Check everything against the whole Bible. Let Scripture interpret Scripture.
Obey what you find. Knowledge that never reaches the heart doesn’t go anywhere.
We live with more information and more competing voices than any generation before us. The church needs Christians who can handle God’s word accurately and cut through the noise to what’s true.
The Bible isn’t a book of good advice. It’s the living and active word of the living God. Come to it with the right heart and the right tools, and it will change you and equip you for whatever God has called you to do.
Are you ready to become a Berean?
About This Series
This series comes out of more than 30 years of teaching pastors and church leaders how to read the Bible carefully. It draws on the Bible Training Centre for Pastors curriculum, which has trained over 200,000 pastors and church leaders in 105 countries and many languages.
Most pastors around the world have never had access to seminary or Bible college. BTCP gives them a low-cost alternative: a complete, face-to-face training program taught by local leaders in their own churches. Graduates go on to train others, which is how 2 Timothy 2:2 has played out for us for over three decades.
The training isn’t only for pastors. Our three tiers of training range from foundational courses for lay leaders to the full 10-course pastoral program, so a church can train its whole bench of leaders.
Want to bring this training to your church or ministry? Learn how to start training others, or download the free Program Summary Manual to see how a class works from start to finish.