The Noble Bereans

                  It was shocking to come across an article from The Washington Post entitled “Jesus Won’t Save You – President Xi Jinping Will, Chinese Christians Told.” The article stated, “In the latest campaign, party members involved in poverty alleviation toured villages telling people how the party was supporting agriculture and removing poverty, ‘melting the hard ice in the hearts of religious believers’ and ‘helping turn them into believers in the party.’” The chairman of the local poverty alleviation effort even went so far as to tell the villagers that they, “should no longer rely on Jesus, but on the party for help.” What is the consequence faced by these poor villagers if they rely on Jesus instead of the party? If these people do not put their faith in the party, “they won’t be given their quota from the poverty-relief fund.” Essentially, they are being told to give up their faith in Jesus or starve to death. My hea...

            Benjamin Franklin, the famous American statesman, said, “Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.” As we look around our world today, self-control is sorely lacking in our society. People choose to live anyway they desire, without a bit of concern for how their actions may affect themselves or others. Temperance, or self-control, is what Peter writes we are to add to our knowledge. We cannot just have the knowledge of what is right and wrong, we must also have control over our bodies and minds so that we will act upon what we know. McIlveen wrote: You must not only know what to do , but also have firmness and determination to do it (emphasis mine JS) . Solomon had wisdom, but he lacked temperance. He who would gain the master...

            It is interesting that Peter commands Christians to add knowledge to virtue. When we stop and think about this combination, it makes perfect sense. Virtue is the zeal or determination to do that which is right. Knowledge ( gnosis ) is the act of knowing. Wayne Jackson said that this knowledge is, “The ability to discern truth from error in harmony with sacred revelation.” Why is it so important to add knowledge to virtue? B.W. Johnson wrote, “The moral heroism [virtue] must be guided by knowledge or it will run into ‘a zeal not according to knowledge’ [Romans 10:2].”             Is it possible to be sincere in our beliefs, to be zealous for the Lord, but to be wrong in what we know? Does the Bible give us any examples of individuals who were very passionate about serving God, but were serving Him in the wrong way because they did not have the proper knowledge? S...