SOPATER, SON OF PYRRHUS OF BEREA, WAS A COMPANION OF PAUL

By Akin Ojumu | Originally Published on Wednesday, December 31, 2008

There is a particular disease that has infected large sections of contemporary Christianity, especially in our part of the world. It is the disease of sanctified intellectual surrender. The symptoms are easy to recognize.

“Daddy G.O. said it.” 

“Papa has spoken.” 

“The Apostle revealed it.” 

“Prophet said the Lord told him.” 

“My spiritual father cannot be wrong.”

And once any of those sentences is uttered, the discussion is supposed to end. Close your Bible. Switch off your brain. Suspend your judgment. Fold your arms. Nod reverently. The man of God has spoken. Case closed.

A few years ago, while returning home from a visit to Connecticut, a friend and I became engaged in a rather heated discussion about Christian beliefs and doctrines.

Well, to be more precise, I was producing most of the heat.

At some point, perhaps exhausted by the theological combustion coming from my direction, my friend said something along these lines:

“I take everything by faith. I don’t question the origin of my beliefs.”

It sounds spiritual. Very spiritual. Almost humble.

After all, Christianity is about faith, isn’t it? Why ask questions? Why investigate doctrine? Why examine where our practices came from? Why trouble yourself about whether what Pastor said on Sunday is actually in the Bible?

Just believe. Have faith. Receive it. Don’t question.

That sounds pious. The problem is that it is not biblical.

I have reached a point in my Christian journey where I can no longer swallow everything served from a pulpit simply because somebody wearing a clerical collar, designer suit, prophetic shawl, flowing agbada, or apostolic title said it.

“The pastor said it” is not an argument. “Daddy G.O. taught us” is not exegesis. “Papa revealed it” is not Scripture. “The prophet saw it” does not make it true. And “touch not mine anointed” is not a divine gag order forbidding Christians from checking whether a preacher is talking nonsense.

At some point, the believer must grow up. At some point, you must stop outsourcing your mind. 

There is a hunger within me to know whether what I hear is actually true. Not whether it sounds powerful. Not whether thousands shouted “Amen.” Not whether the preacher has five million followers. Not whether he owns a university, a private jet, or a camp ground the size of a local government area. Not whether his name carries weight in Pentecostal circles.

The question is much simpler: Is it true?

And more importantly: Can it survive Scripture?

That is why I keep coming back to the Bereans.

Acts 17:11

“Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.”

Please notice what Luke did not say.

He did not say the Bereans were rebellious. He did not say they lacked faith. He did not say they were cynical or argumentative. He did not say they were too focussed on the letter of the Law instead of the spirit of the Law. He did not say they had a spirit of dishonor. He did not say they were attacking apostolic authority.

He called them noble.

Why?

Because they fact-checked Paul.

Yes. Paul. The Apostle Paul. The man who wrote a substantial portion of the New Testament: 13 (or 14) of the 27 books, to be precise. The man who saw the risen Christ on at least 4 distinct occasions. The man who planted Churches across the Roman world. The man whose letters now sit inside the Bible on your lap.

The Bereans listened to that Paul and still went home to verify what he said.

Meanwhile, in some Churches today, if you ask Brother apostle where his doctrine is found in Scripture, somebody will accuse you of having a rebellious spirit. Ask Daddy G.O. to prove his claim from the Bible and suddenly you are “touching the anointed.”

Ask the prophet for evidence and you are told you are “too carnal.” Ask the bishop whether the text he quoted actually means what he said it means and some spiritually intimidated devotee will whisper: “Be careful. That man carries grace.”

Carries grace where? In a briefcase?

The Bereans were listening to Paul, and they still checked the Scriptures. You are listening to a man who misquotes Greek words from a concordance, and you are afraid to ask questions because he has “apostolic oil.”

Something has gone badly wrong.

The Greek word translated “examined” or “searched” in Acts 17:11 is anakrinō. It carries the sense of examining, investigating, interrogating, scrutinizing, questioning, evaluating.

This is not casual listening. This is not religious spectatorship. This is careful examination.

The Bereans did not attend Paul’s meeting, buy the recording, post his quotes on Facebook, shout “More grace, sir,” and go home.

They opened the Scriptures. They checked. They investigated. They compared what Paul said with what God had already revealed.

That is Christianity.

What many people practice today is ecclesiastical personality cult.

There is a difference.

And here is where Sopater becomes important.

Acts 20:4

“Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus…”

Sopater came from Berea and later became one of Paul’s traveling companions.

Think about that.

Paul did not blacklist the Bereans for scrutinizing his teaching. He did not declare them disloyal. He did not say, “These people are dishonoring my grace.” He did not complain that they lacked spiritual covering. He did not warn other Churches: “Beware of those Bereans. They ask too many questions.”

Instead, one of those Bereans later traveled with him.

There is a lesson there for both preacher and congregation. A preacher who is terrified of scrutiny is already telling you something.

If your doctrine cannot survive questions, the problem is not the questions. If your revelation collapses when somebody opens the Bible, the problem is not the Bible. If your authority depends on keeping your followers intellectually dependent, what you have built is not discipleship. It is control.

The modern Church has produced far too many believers who know how to say “Amen” but do not know how to ask, “Where is that in Scripture?”

They know how to kneel before “Papa.” They know how to carry the man of God’s Bible. They know how to post his birthday tribute. They know how to scream when he enters the auditorium.

But ask them to explain the doctrine they have believed for twenty years and suddenly there is silence.

Ask: “Where does the Bible teach that?”

And the answer is: “That is what our Church believes.”

My friend, that was not the question. There is an enormous difference between “The Bible teaches it” and “Our church teaches it.”

Sometimes the two overlap. Sometimes they do not. Your responsibility is to know the difference.

Many Christians have confused loyalty to Christ with loyalty to religious personalities or denominational affiliations. They have been trained to believe that questioning the man of God is equivalent to questioning God Himself.

That is dangerous.

No pastor is the Holy Spirit. No bishop is the fourth member of the Trinity. No General Overseer is the final court of appeal for biblical interpretation. No self-appointed apostle owns the anointing. No self-professed prophet has divine immunity from scrutiny. And no “Daddy in the Lord” is above Scripture.

If Paul could be fact-checked, your pastor can be fact-checked. If Paul could be examined, your prophet can be examined. If Paul could be scrutinized, your bishop can be scrutinized. If the Bereans could verify the claims of an apostle, you can verify the claims of your Daddy GO.

The problem is that many believers no longer read the Bible to know what it says. They read it to find support for what their denomination has already told them to believe.

That is not study. That is theological confirmation bias. 

And this is how absurd doctrines survive. This is how fabricated testimonies spread. This is how private revelations become public dogma. This is how one preacher’s imagination becomes an entire congregation’s theology.

Nobody fact-checks. Nobody asks. Nobody examines. Everybody just receives.

“Receive!” “Amen!”

“Receive!” “Amen!”

“Your miracle is coming!” “Amen!”

“Your mother-in-law is the marine spirit delaying your destiny!” “Amen!”

At some point, beloved, you must ask: Where is this in the Bible?

Thinking is not unbelief. Discernment is not rebellion. Investigation is not dishonor. Questions are not evidence of spiritual coldness. The Bible itself commands us to test what we hear.

1 Thessalonians 5:20-21

“Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.”

1 John 4:1

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Paul told Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:15

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

You cannot “rightly handle” what you refuse to study. You cannot discern error when you have surrendered your judgment to a preacher. And you cannot test doctrine if every question is treated as an attack against “the anointed.”

Some Christians have been trained to fear questions more than false doctrine.

That is completely backwards. 

False teaching should frighten you more than inquiry. Error should disturb you more than scrutiny. A preacher twisting Scripture should trouble you more than the person asking him to explain himself.

The Bereans understood that. They received the word eagerly. But they also examined it carefully.

That is the balance.

Open heart. Open Bible. Active mind. There is no contradiction.

So, the next time someone tells you: “Daddy G.O. said it.” 

Smile politely. Then open your Bible.

When they say: “Papa cannot be wrong.”

Open your Bible.

When they say: “Don’t question the man of God.”

Open your Bible.

When they say: “Just receive it by faith.”

Open your Bible.

When they accuse you of dishonor because you asked for chapter and verse:

Open your Bible.

Because Christianity does not ask you to choose between faith and thought. And biblical submission does not require intellectual lobotomy.

The Bereans examined Paul. Scripture called them noble. Sopater came from among them. And Sopater eventually traveled with Paul.

So no, beloved. It is not a sin to think. It is not rebellion to ask questions. It is not dishonor to demand biblical evidence.

The real danger is raising generations of Christians who can shout “Daddy!” louder than they can say: “It is written.”

Think. Search. Examine. Test. And for the love of truth: 

OPEN YOUR BIBLE.