this use of the "senses" to arrive at the "sense" is by the employment of what is called

"commonsense" which is but reason dressed in lowly garb.  Reasoning can be an

indication of unbelief, and the verb dialogizomai is employed many times in this sense

(see Matt. 16: 7; Mark 2: 6), yet who will accuse Mary of unbelief when we read that

she "cast in her mind" what manner of salutation it was that the Angel had given her?

(Luke 1: 29), or shall we accuse Caiaphas of indiscretion when he use this same word

saying "nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people"?

(John 11: 50).

Paul however is the great "reasoner" of Scripture, yet who is his equal as a man of

faith? Not only does he "reason" out of the Scriptures, but his epistles abound in logical

particles. First, let us acquaint ourselves with passages that tell us that in the exercise of

his ministry Paul "reasoned". We shall find the word in the Acts of the Apostles, and it is

translated "reason", "dispute" and "preach", while the one occurrence in the epistles is

found in Heb. 12: 5 where the reference is to God Himself, and the word is translated

Let us tabulate the references in the Acts:

Let us note the following facts. This took place in the synagogue, a place devoted to

the worship of the Lord, to prayer, to the reading of the Scriptures, and to exhortation and

teaching. Even if this had been the only record of Paul's teaching, the words "as his

manner was" would compel us to recognize that "reasoning out of the Scriptures" was a

characteristic of his ministry. Moreover this took place upon the Sabbath, was repeated

on successive Sabbaths, so that "reasoning" was a calculated method adopted by the

apostle, not something done in the heat of the moment and regretted afterwards. Finally,

note that Paul did not simply "reason" he reasoned "out of the Scriptures".  The

Scriptures were his premises, his teaching was but the drawing of conclusions, the

method was that of comparison and observation of things that differ. Would to God that

there were more such "reasoners" and "reasonings". The choice really lies between such

acceptable preaching and the blind acceptance of "authority" which no true Berean can

tolerate. In the same chapter of Acts that tells us that Paul reasoned out of the Scriptures

on the sabbath day, we find him "disputing" not only with the Jews in their synagogue,

but in the market place at Athens.

Dealing with pagan idolators and philosophers, Paul could not reason with them out of

the Scriptures, for they did not accept his premises, he simply "disputed" (same Greek

word) and based his argument upon the conscious failure of their religion, "the unknown

god" (Acts 17: 23) and of their accepted teaching concerning the nature of man (28).

Here therefore, is a warrant for sanctified "reasoning" where the Scriptures are unknown.