“Test all things; hold fast what is good“
hold fast what is good
Once we test teaching against the Bible, then we hold on to that truth with the confidence that this is what God says. After we search the Scriptures, there comes the point where we need stability in what we believe. The phrase words “hold fast” means to have and hold. First, we gain truth, and then we retain it.
If we constantly open ourselves to new things without the appropriate testing, we introduce instability into our Christian experience. We come to settled convictions by extensive study, not by impulsively embracing some new ideas.
The word “good” is the term for something profitable or useful. God’s Word is profitable for our lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Principle:
Learning the principles of God’s Word is profitable and aids our everyday living.
Application:
We are not to seek truth to denounce false ideas primarily, but to find what is true in God’s Word. We study the Word to preserve its true teaching and apply it to our experience. Once we establish genuine teaching from God’s Word, then we hold onto it tenaciously.
“These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
