“Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls’” (Jeremiah 6:16).
The passage above has been rightly used by brethren to emphasize the need to go back to the word of God for our standard rather than following after something “new” that has been invented in the mind of man. We are to “retain the standard of sound words” which has been preached by the apostles (2 Timothy 1:13).
However, we should not confuse “the ancient paths” with what we have always thought, heard, or been taught. They are not always the same thing. In other words, the word of God is true whether we have heard it before or not. The Biblical teaching on any given issue is right, even if we have never previously considered it. God’s word is perfect (Psalm 19:7; James 1:25); man is not (Romans 3:23). Therefore, any conflict between what the Bible says and what man says can be easily resolved – the Bible is always right. Paul wrote, “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar” (Romans 3:4).
When Paul preached in Athens, there was interest in his message. Some brought him to the Areopagus and said, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean” (Acts 17:19-20). This “new teaching” interested them because they would “spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21).
However, Paul’s teaching was not “new.” He was “preaching Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18). This message of Jesus and the resurrection had been proclaimed since the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:22-24, 32). So the Athenians were not listening to Paul teaching something “new,” but it was new to them.
The lesson we need to take from this is that we must always go back to the word of God to find the truth. Jesus prayed to the Father and said, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17). The psalmist expressed this same point: “The sum of Your word is truth” (Psalm 119:160). If we want to know what the truth is, we must examine the source of truth – the word of God.
We must also be humble enough to recognize that we do not have a perfect understanding. There may be things that sound “new” to us that are, in reality, part of the “ancient paths.” We must have the humble attitude in our approach to the Scriptures that James admonished us to have: “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).
God’s people should not be quick to accept “every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). Instead, we must be like the noble-minded Bereans who “received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). As we do this, we must accept the truth, regardless of whether it is “new” to us or we have heard it many times before. We have the responsibility to “examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22). We must accept “the ancient paths, where the good way is” (Jeremiah 6:16), even if it is “new” to us.
