Prove all things: faith and technology

🎯 Objectives

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• explain the biblical principle for evaluating every tool: prove all things and hold fast what is good;
• recognise the two opposite mistakes we make with technology: rejection and enthusiasm without discernment;
• use a simple guiding question to decide whether and how a tool serves your ministry.

📖 Receive

Read these verses slowly:

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (KJV)

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” — Zechariah 4:6 (KJV)

Then read 2 Timothy 4:9-13. Paul is in prison and senses that the end is near. Among the last things he asks for are his cloak and “the books, but especially the parchments”. Ask yourself: what does this request say about the way he studied and served?

🔍 Examine

A world changed in a few decades

Anyone with a few grey hairs today remembers a church without screens. You prepared a study with a Bible, a paper concordance and a notebook. If you wanted to find every occurrence of a word, you leafed through pages for hours, and often you could not find a whole phrase at all.

In a few decades we have gone from pencil to computer, and from computer to always-connected devices that fit in a pocket. Today, on one screen, we have translations side by side, original-language texts, dictionaries, atlases and commentaries. It is an enormous gift. But the same connection that brings us a library also brings distraction, shallowness and content that wounds the soul.

Faced with this change, believers cannot pretend nothing has happened. We need a criterion.

The criterion: prove all things

Paul writes to the Thessalonians to prove all things and hold fast what is good. In context he is speaking about prophecies: do not despise them, but test them. The principle, however, has a broader reach. It is the same attitude as the believers in Berea, who received the word eagerly but checked it against the Scriptures (Acts 17:11).

Applied to technology, this principle says two things:

• the medium itself is neither holy nor sinful. A spreadsheet, a presentation, a website are tools. They become good or bad depending on how we use them and the heart with which we use them;
• the use must be examined, not taken for granted. It is not enough for a tool to be convenient or popular: it must be weighed in the light of the Word.

Two opposite mistakes

In church history we often find two wrong reactions to new things.

The first is rejection. Many communities have looked with suspicion on every innovation, considering it a danger to the spirit. Sometimes there was some truth in this: certain innovations have multiplied opportunities for sin; just think of the spread of online pornography. But total rejection has also meant losing precious opportunities for study and for proclaiming the Gospel.

The second is enthusiasm without discernment. It is the attitude of those who adopt everything new because it is new, without asking what it brings with it. Worship gets filled with effects, more time is spent in front of the screen than in front of the text, and quantity of information is mistaken for wisdom.

📌 Neither fear nor naivety Rejection and enthusiasm look like opposites, but they share the same flaw: they do not examine. The BereaWay Method asks us to do the hard work of discernment: receive what is good, examine it, and connect it to the purpose that matters.

God has always used the means of the time

The Bible itself reached us thanks to the “technologies” of each age. The apostles wrote letters that were copied and circulated among the churches (Colossians 4:16). Paul, at the end of his life, asks for his books and his parchments (2 Timothy 4:13): a student to the very end.

Many centuries later, the printing press made it possible to spread the Scriptures in the languages of the peoples as never before. The Reformers used this new medium with determination: pamphlets, catechisms, translations of the Bible. The tool was new; the message was ancient.

The same is true today. A Bible study program or a recording of a sermon can serve the same Word that Paul wrote on parchment.

The Spirit, not the tool

There is, however, a limit we must not forget. Zechariah reminds us that God’s work is done “not by might, nor by power”, but by his Spirit. No tool produces faith, conversion or holiness. A beautiful presentation does not replace a heart prepared in prayer.

That is why technology does not do away with the discipline of study. Of Ezra it is said that he had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, to do it and to teach it (Ezra 7:10). These three verbs remain the same even with the most modern computer: study, live, teach.

The real risks

Examining also means honestly recognising the dangers:

• distraction: notifications and messages constantly interrupt concentration and prayer;
• shallowness: we read a lot, but in a hurry; we collect quotations without meditating on them;
• harmful content: the psalmist resolves to set no wicked thing before his eyes (Psalm 101:3), and Paul invites us to think about whatever is true, pure and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8);
• dependence: the tool that was meant to serve us ends up directing our time.

A guiding question

Before adopting a tool, and from time to time while you use it, ask yourself:

Does this tool help me love God and my neighbour, and understand and pass on his Word better?

If the answer is yes, use it with gratitude and discipline. If the answer is no, or if you notice that it draws you away from prayer and from people, cut it back or let it go.

Discernment in a diagram

We can summarise the path of this lesson in a simple diagram. It is not a mechanical formula, but a help so that you skip no step when something new knocks at the door of your life or your church.

flowchart TD
  A["A new tool"] --> B{"Does it help me love God and neighbour?"}
  B -- "No" --> C["Cut back or let go"]
  B -- "Yes" --> D{"Does it help understand and pass on the Word?"}
  D -- "No" --> C
  D -- "Yes" --> E["Use it with gratitude"]
  E --> F["Re-evaluate from time to time"]
  F --> B

Notice the arrow that goes back: discernment is not done once and for all. A tool that helps you today can, over time, become a habit that distracts you.

A concrete example

Think of Luke, who leads a youth group. Someone suggests opening a group on a messaging app for all the young people. His first impulse is to say yes immediately, because “everyone uses it”. Then he stops and asks the questions in the diagram. Would the group help people love their neighbour? Yes, if it serves to remind them of meetings, share prayer requests and encourage one another. But it could also become a place of constant chatter, inappropriate jokes or late-night messages.

So Luke decides to open the group, but with a few simple rules: at least two responsible adults present, reasonable hours, no sharing of photos without consent, and a tone that builds up. After three months he reviews, with the other leaders, how it is going. Here is the principle of 1 Thessalonians 5:21 applied to an everyday choice: neither rejection nor naivety, but careful and honest examination.

🔗 Connect

The principle of this lesson runs through all of Scripture:

• Acts 17:11: the Bereans do not reject Paul, but they check what he says. It is the same balance between openness and discernment.
• Romans 12:2: do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed so that you can discern God’s will. Technology is part of the “world” we live in: we use it without adopting its mindset.
• 1 Corinthians 10:23: all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful or build up. A perfect criterion for digital tools.
• Colossians 3:17: whatever we do, in word or deed, is to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Even preparing a slide or organising an archive.

🙏 Apply

Take a few minutes to reflect, on your own or with your group:

1. Which digital tools do you use today to study or teach the Bible? Which ones really help you, and which ones distract you?
2. Do you recognise yourself more in the temptation of rejection or in that of enthusiasm without discernment? Why?
3. Is there a digital habit (notifications, social media, videos) that steals time from prayer or study? What can you change this week?
4. Ask the Lord, in the words of Zechariah 4:6, to remind you that the fruit of your service depends on his Spirit and not on your tools.

📚 Go Deeper

• Read 2 Timothy 4:9-18 and imagine Paul in his cell: what strikes you about his relationship with books, friends and the Lord?
• Try a small experiment: for one week, note how much time you spend in front of screens and how much you give to reading the Bible without devices.
• If you have not done so yet, take the course How to Study the Bible: digital tools are only useful if you already know what you are looking for.

In the next lesson we will see what digital resources exist for Bible study and how to use them with order and with the heart of the Bereans.