When I was growing up, many church leaders advised me not to read or interact with certain books, blogs, or sermons of particular people. My church leaders believed that these people taught error and thus their writings should be avoided. Additionally, there were many times when they knew that the author was not a member of the Churches of Christ, and they automatically raised a red flag for them and it was reason enough to click on the blog article or open the cover.
In hindsight, I would have missed out on many enriching resources if I had limited myself like my leaders had advised me. In fact, 99% of what I read was not written by a member of the Church of Christ, but that does not mean that what I read is not good, beneficial or true. The church does not have a monopoly on the truth. Caiaphas, the high priest who put Jesus to death, prophesied the truth in John 11:50-51. Paul quotes pagan authors because what they say is true (Acts 16:28; Rom 7:24;1 Cor 15:33; Titus 1:12-see me if you want to talk more about these pagan sources). Therefore, we can and should look to other sources that can help us understand God’s word and the world.
The Rabbis themselves understood that we should have a healthy skepticism of everything we hear and read. In Pierke Avoth, a tractate written around 200 A.D. the Rabbis say, “There are four types of people who sit before the sages: a sponge, a funnel, a strainer, and a sieve” (Avoth 5.15, my own translation). We may think that we should be sponges. After all, the sponge absorbs everything that it touches. However, the rabbis had a different answer, “The sponge: that which absorbs everything. The funnel: that which brings into itself and then lets it out. The strainer: that which discharges the wine and retains the dregs. The sieve: that which discharges the coarse flour and retains the fine flower.” Thus, we do not need to be like a sponge and take in everything, but rather we should be a sieve and approach everything with a healthy skepticism. Whenever we read any book, we should follow the old maxim, “eat the meat and spit out the bones.”
Next week, I will give advice on how to practice discernment. Until then, try to read everything with skepticism before you accept it as true, especially if it is on social media.
