The other day I walked in to the bedroom and my wife noticed my finger was bleeding quite heavily. I told her I just cut it on the window. Putting the little information she had together, logically, she got a bit excited and said she hadn’t heard the sound of broken glass and asked if I was hurt bad.
What actually happened was I was closing the sometimes sticky window by pushing the small lip of the frame at the bottom of the window pane. My fingers slipped off and I rapped my knuckle a good one on that lip, scraping off a small piece of skin. It didn’t bleed at first, but then decided to bleed quite profusely. It wasn’t as bad an injury as it looked and certainly was not as bad as the image brought to mind by “cutting my hand on the window.”
The situation brought to mind how quick we all are to jump to conclusions and make assumptions. And how slow (lazy?) we are to make sure we have accurate and complete information before drawing conclusions.
The Bible warns us of this in a number of places. Acts 17:11 “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” There are two great examples in this passage. First, they were eager to receive God’s Word. We are much more likely to pay attention to the details if we start out wanting to know. Second, the Berean’s acted to verify the message. They studied, and checked it out. Again, because they wanted to get it right.
These principles are vauable to us today. It is critical in our Bible study, listening to teaching on the radio, or conversations among co-workers and friends. It also helps to be accurate and not make assumptions in our communications with each other. Nothing breaks down a relationship faster than assuming someone else’s motives or not getting all the facts.
God’s Word is complete enough for us to know about salvation and simple enough to actually follow it and receive salvation. It is now our stewardship responsibility to communicate it clearly to everyone and make sure they get “all the facts.”
