BIBLICAL DISCERNMENT

This is something very close to my heart and an attitude that I believe is often lacking in the church today. The dictionary definition of discernment is “Recognise, perceive distinctly”. There is no haziness or doubt; no room for question.

Many say, “Why should we bother, surely if we just leave everything alone God will sort it out.” But this appears at odds with the New Testament. Heresy and wrong doctrine are not new, they lived with it in the Early Church and, as such, it is not surprising that we find ways to deal with it in the Scriptures. For instance:

Jude 3, 4

Although wanting to write some nice encouraging words, Jude was prompted by the Holy Spirit to write about “contending”, literally, ‘being earnest”. The word is epagonizesthai and alludes to the Grecian games. Not found elsewhere in the New Testament, it means “to contend upon” and indicates the earnest effort put forth in those games to obtain the prize.

For the faith – once and for all delivered to the saints. The word hapax and could mean either “once for all,” in the sense that it was then complete or that it had “formerly” been delivered by the author. The more usual sense of the word is that it was done once and not to be done again, therefore, it was complete and nothing was to be added to it; compare 1 Peter 3:18. The “delivering” of this faith to the saints is by revelation, or through His word and everything which He has revealed, we are to ‘contend for’. Not passive – God said it leave it to Him!

The reason given, for this need to contend, is that some who were against the truth and the faith that had been delivered had “crept in without being noticed”. This is the translation of just one Greek word - only time used in New Testament - pareisduno, which literally means to ‘enter secretly’ or ‘slip in stealthily’. To do this they must have blended in by pretending to be ‘Christian teachers’, but their doctrines and actions denied the very grace of the God they said they served.  2 Peter 2:1 mentions the same type of people – this was not unusual! Because they had not been noticed there needed to be a ‘litmus test’ (not knowing whether the original substance was acid or alkaline until the effect on the colour of the paper) to discover who they really were and this would be by seriously checking what they were teaching (doctrine) and examining what they were doing (lifestyle).

Acts 20:28-31

We then have Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders.

Once again we are told that some men will rise up from within the church and seek to draw away even the disciples. They will not teach things completely wrong but perverse, distorted or twisted things. Greek word is diastrepho – see its use in Acts 13:8 – “turn away” and Acts 13:10 “make crooked the straight ways” Teachings that have a resemblance to the truth but, just like looking at yourself in a hall of mirrors, it has distorted the original and is therefore not the whole truth. We need to be on the alert for this and not just do nothing. Again note that this is in the context of the receiving God’s Word as our safeguard.

True discernment is not being judgmental as Luke 6:37 shows. The difference between discernment and judgment is that judgment leads to condemnation butr the word diakrisis translated ‘discern’ appears three times in the New Testament and does not lead to condemnation but to something positive, for instance:

Hebrews 5:14 – know what is good and what is evil – the knowledge we can do something with but not condemning anyone.

1 Corinthians 12:10 – discerning of spirits that leads us into the knowledge of Christ, as all gifts do.

Romans 14:1 – clearly not for the passing of judgment

Let’s not be lax in our attitude towards God and His Word but let’s be as the New Testament saints and discern what is wrong so we can reject it but then embrace fully that which is right. Let’s grow in him to mature Christians who know their God and know His heart.