The Test...

"Test everything.  Hold on to the good." 1 Thessalonians 5.21

There is a park right down the street from our house.  Most Sunday afternoons, the kids get their bikes, Russ finds the soccer ball, and I grab my ipod, and we head for the only patch of green near us.  Occasionally, we'll meet someone walking her dog along the way.  The kids' first instinct is to hop off their bikes and go directly to the unsuspecting pooch so they can pet him.  However, because the dog's real disposition is not always easy to read, this could be very dangerous.  So, we've trained our kids NOT to walk up and pet strange dogs, no matter how harmless they may seem.  Likewise, we're training them to show the same discretion in all areas of life.

In his letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul holds to the same premise.  He understood the value of testing everything, including his own convictions.  

So, what is the standard against which everything must be tested?  The standard must be stable, uncompromising, immovable, unchangeable.  The standard must be Truth itself.  A very powerful and well-known man in the Bible once asked, "What is truth?"  Unfortunately, this wasn't the right question.   I think the proper question would have been, "Who is Truth?"   Truth is a person.  In John 14.6, Jesus says, "I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life..."  Only when we test our ideas, words, actions and motivations against those of Jesus as defined in Scripture will we be able to properly assess them. In a culture where Truth is seen as relative and absolutes are relegated to the realm of impossibility, our challenge is indeed great.  Therefore, those of us who call ourselves "Christian" must know Scripture!!  How will we be able to test all that the world throws at us if we do not know what Scripture says?  Simple:  we won't.  We'll be deceived because we don't know the Truth.  While I certainly don't claim to have mastered Scripture, I certainly do claim that the more time I spend in the Scripture, the more it masters me!  This gives me the ability to test everything and hold on to the good.