1 Thess. 5:15-22 (ESV) See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
Sometimes we read through passages, and suddenly God is commanding us to do something we aren’t equipped to do. Take verse 21 above. How do we test everything?
Now this could just be telling us just to test spiritual things. That narrows the field quite a bit, at least. We can test prophecies, sermons, and the guys at the door telling us what they think the Bible says by simply studying the Bible further. What is our test, our rule of thumb? The Bible itself. God has given it to us to teach us, to reprove us, to correct us, to instruct us in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). That’s simple enough (not easy, but simple – as in “not complicated”).
If you don’t know how to search through your Bible to find answers, I’d suggest the book The Navigator Bible Studies Handbook. It’s less than $10 on Amazon.com and is written at a sixth-grade level, not some scholarly, high-and-lofty text. It will change your Christian life by walking you through how to dig deeper into Scripture.
I don’t think, though, Paul is telling the Thessalonians just to check spiritual messages. He gives a short shopping list that suggests we should test all things, even worldly things brought to us. Let’s look at how we might do that.
In epistemology, we learn that we can only truly know things if we hold a justified true belief. This is reasonable. If we don’t believe it, we can’t know it. If it isn’t true, we may believe a falsehood, but we can’t be said to know it. And, if what we believe isn’t justified, we can’t really say we know it. So, let’s see how we can arrive at these qualifications.
Justification. Beliefs are justified in just a few ways, through testimony: we believe something because someone we trust tells us it’s true. Through personal experience: we know something because we actually saw it happen. What is called a priori evidence: this means we justify a belief because it aligns with something we already believe is true. And, we can justify our belief logically: If we can’t see the street from our window, but we can see it’s raining, it is logical to believe it is true that the street below is wet.
The most solid evidence for justification is personal experience. This is because we want to seek out the closest source to the actual event or thought. If we saw the rain, we are a very close source. Only by going downstairs to see if the street is wet can we come closer to a more solid justification.
The poorest justification is hearing something from a third party, someone who tells us things not because they saw the event, but because they believe the event took place. This is something like the old “Telephone Game” we used to play at grammar school parties. We all sat in a circle and whispered something to the person next to us, then they whispered to the next person and so on. Almost always, the message is misconstrued by the time it makes it through the circle. We see this when watching the nightly news and an anchor is interviewing another anchor about an event they didn’t witness but have an opinion on.
Cults do this all the time as well. They convince their followers that only the head of the cult should be trusted and to discount all other outside sources. Limited information results in poor beliefs.
We should seek out sources as close as possible to the event, statement, or action in question and seek as many sources as possible, both pro and con, if you can find them. Years ago, there was a news story of a shop owner in Los Angeles who shot a young woman in her store. One evening news program showed security video of only the shooting. Another program showed the young woman had been beating the shop owner, and the shop owner feared for her life. That was why she shot the young woman. Same story, two different presentations. Because the young woman was of another race than the shop owner, the first program made it look like a racial shooting. The second showed it was self-defense. So, context matters as well as several reliable sources. Check all sources available.
Phil 4:8 (ESV) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
“Whatever is true.” Let’s look at truth. I have had people tell me, “It must be true. The guy telling me this used the Bible.” Over the past two thousand years, the Bible has been twisted and contorted by experts to make people believe almost anything (2 Peter 3:14-16). We need to be careful what we take in (Prov. 4:23).
I’d like to make a quick differentiation between opinion and fact here. They are not the same thing. Opinion is, “XYZ makes the best hot dogs in the world.” Fact is, “There are no married bachelors.” Opinions are subjective. They are not the truth. Facts are true.
Whoopie Goldberg once told Bill O’Reily, “My opinion is as valid as your facts.” That simply isn’t true. Opinions carry very little weight in finding truth. Facts do.
Two of the major theories of truth are the Correspondence Theory and the Coherence Theory. The first states that something is true if it corresponds to reality. The second says something is true if it coheres with beliefs you already hold. Naturally, the Correspondence Theory is much less subject to error since it is based on reality alone. Still, most things we believe are based on the Correspondence Theory: things we hear that match what we already believe to be true. What if we’re wrong to begin with, though? Then we are subject to accepting information that agrees with our error.
Why is this important?
We need to be careful in what we accept as true. Is it justified? How certain can we be that it is true? Once we find an idea, a report, or a testimony is well justified because it comes from a variety of sources, especially if they are both pro and con, we would be compelled to believe it – until further notice. We must be open to having our minds changed if the evidence against our belief is more certain and more objective.
It isn’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.– anonymous
Believers Armed and Dangerous 