What Is Discernment?

When I was a young pastor, there was a new convert in our church who realized that he had been chosen to be one of the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11. I had some issues with this, because while he was enthusiastic about breathing fire, he showed some reluctance about being killed and having his body exposed in the street for three and a half days. In addition, I have known at least four of these future witnesses, and by the rules of simple arithmetic, somebody is wrong. I have not heard from this man for years, and I am assuming that he has matured, moved on in the faith, and has given up nonsense.

Why is this? Why do Christians wander into strange teachings and just plain foolishness? One reason is that some are not grounded in the Scriptures. The answer to that is good teaching and sound study habits. Another reason is youth and immaturity. The answer to that is mentoring and a lot of patience. But there is a deeper reason why Christians are open to deception. James 1:14 says, "Each person is tempted when he lured and enticed by his own desire." The fact is that we are all sinners, and there is still in our nature the temptation to short circuit God's plan for us, to know mysteries that other Christians do not, and to pursue ideas and practices that are based on our own understanding rather than on a humble awareness of our need for grace. The assumption that we cannot be deceived is itself a deception.

Definition

The Bible calls the capacity to distinguish between God's light and our confusion "discernment." It is a fairly easy term to define. The Greek word most commonly used in the New Testament means to "judge through," to judge rightly, to perceive truth, or to distinguish between good and evil. Simply, it means to recognize the truth of God, both in doctrine and experience, and to recognize its opposites: error and deception in both our thoughts and actions.

But while defining discernment is fairly easy, practicing it is a more difficult matter. If it is the pursuit of truth, we then have to ask, "what is truth?" Where do we begin to build a foundation? The best way to know what is false is to know the "feel" of the real, just as bank tellers spot counterfeit bills by handling real money. So, where do we begin to define truth?

The Source of Discernment

As a Protestant believer I affirm the following as a basis for discernment: the heart of truth is the Word of God. The heart of the Word of God is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The heart of the gospel is the unconditional love of God for His redeemed people. There is no better starting point.

To develop this idea, let's look at Paul's comments in Philippians 1:9. "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with (in) knowledge and all discernment...." The word for discernment here is a bit different from the more common word. Basically, it means to perceive or understand, and to grow in insight through experience. The important thing is to see that the source of true discernment is love. Or to put it better, love is the soil in which discernment grows, the environment in which it flourishes. Discernment is only as strong as the love that supports it. Paul repeats this same idea in Ephesians 2:17-18: "...that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend (discern) with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth...."

That means that true discernment will be motivated by love, and the truth it seeks will manifest love (for God, for neighbor). We might even say that love contains within itself the power of discernment. This is especially true when we look at love's opposites. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love in not arrogant and rude, selfish and irritable, or vindictive. Any approach to doctrine or action that begins with the self is sure to breed deception.

The Apostle John points out another opposite of love: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:18) Modern Christians are fascinated with conspiracy theories, signs of the end times, fear of the government, fear of the Illuminati, fear of Islam, and fear of secular humanism, all in spite of the fact that Jesus proclaimed that He had overcome the world and was the sovereign Lord of all history. When He described "people fainting with fear and foreboding of what is coming on the world," (Luke 21:26) He was speaking of unbelievers, not His ransomed people.

To base an attempt to discern truth or action on fear will lead to deception, and anyone who deliberately gives counsel or draws conclusions for other Christians on the basis of conspiracies, hidden agendas, or secret truths never understood before, is ministering fear, not the encouragement that comes from the Word of God and the presence of His Holy Spirit with us.

To summarize, discernment of God's truth and will is based on love, and grows from and with it. Where arrogance or fear are substituted for love, deception is not far behind.

The Fruits of Discernment

To this point, we have been defining discernment in terms of its source, its environment, or the soil in which it grows. Now continuing this analogy which treats discernment as a living organism (a tree or a plant), let's look at what discernment produces. What are its fruits? If these fruits, or results, are present, then there is a good chance that real discernment is operating. Paul lists four of these in the same passage we've been considering, Philippians 1:9-11.

First fruit: "...that you may approve what is excellent...." True spiritual discernment will strive to surpass distracting pitfalls and find not only the truth of God in a teaching or a situation, but the highest or the best. One Bible dictionary rightly translates "excellent" as "the thing that really matters." Therefore, discernment looks not just for the good, but for the best. This is one of the most subtle facts about discernment; it finds that the good thing is often a distraction from the best. That means that discerning an idea or issue takes time, and does not assume an immediate answer.

A good example of this is the temptation of Jesus. There was nothing innately evil in His desire to turn stones into bread. He was hungry, He was the eternal Lord of creation, which included stones and bread, and had a divine right to meet His human needs. We might say that the impulse was in some sense "good."

That's true only if we look at that impulse as an isolated event. But when it is put into the context of Satan's agenda, we see it as a prelude to a second impulse, the desire to prove His divinity by a supernatural act (throwing Himself off the Temple) that would short-circuit His Father's path to His glorification through humiliation. This attempt to exalt Himself outside the Father's plan would have led ultimately to the unthinkable adoration of Satan by the Son of God.

My point here is that something "good" may be a prelude to something far worse. True discernment by-passes the good to find the excellent, the "thing that really matters." As hard as it sounds, sometimes discernment has to wade its way from the "good" that may have pride lurking beneath it, to the best, which fulfils James' injunction: "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble." (4:6)

Before moving to the next point, let me add a word of comfort. All Christians fail in discernment, and like all spiritual virtues, it must be learned. God still guides and controls our maturing. Moses failed in discernment when he killed the Egyptian in hopes of starting a movement that would free his people. Instead he was rejected by them and incurred the wrath of Pharaoh. The result was a time of separation in which he learned that God was the true deliverer, and that God needed a broken vessel more than he needed a zealot. God used Moses' failure to work true maturity and discernment in him. Be encouraged! God works the same way in all of us, and He is faithful to complete what He begins.

Second fruit: "...and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ...." Let's examine these words for a moment. "Pure" ("sincere" in the KJV) literally means to be judged or tested by the light of the sun. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:17, "...in the sight of God we speak in Christ." Discernment, therefore, is finding that which will stand up under God's gaze. In the first part of this verse, the apostles declares, "We are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity...." Any esoteric revelation or hitherto hidden steps to spirituality that come with a price cannot stand the light of God's gaze; and any "truth" that is only for the specially enlightened appeals to the ego, and will remain obscure and avoid the light. True discernment will recognize the inherent darkness in both of these.

The other word that Paul uses in this phrase is "blameless," or "without offense." It literally means, "something that will not cause someone to stumble." Spiritual discernment recognizes that anything that damages a little one (believer) is deception, not truth. False teaching and practices leave in their wake believers who are depressed and guilt-ridden because they cannot achieve what is promised by having a secret revelation, more faith, or the key to victorious living. Holding out performance based acceptance feeds guilt and uncertainty, and leads the believer away from his humble rest at the feet of Jesus, who is his only and perfect victory. Anything outside the finished work of Christ for us is a return to law, and law brings bondage.

Third fruit: ..."filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ...." Righteousness does not mean our righteousness based on our efforts or works. It means the righteousness that is imputed or reckoned to us on the basis of Christ's substitution for us. Paul is referring to the same transaction that he describes in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "For his sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." God imputed (reckoned) our sin to Jesus, and he bore both sin and its penalty. Likewise God imputed the righteousness of Christ to us, and accepts us as His sons and daughters through Him.

True discernment will recognize that any teaching or practice that moves off gospel ground is deception. The gospel (the story of what Jesus has done and its application to us) saves totally. Puritan John Flavel wrote, "All that was to be done by way of impetration and meritorious redemption is fully done; no hand can come after his; angels can add nothing to it. 'That is perfected to which nothing is wanting, and to which nothing can be added.' Such is the work of Christ finished. Whatever the law demanded is perfectly paid; whatever a sinner needs is perfectly obtained and purchased; nothing can be added to what Christ has done; he put the last hand to it, when he said, it is finished." (Flavel, Works, The Fountain of Life, Kindle 11374)

There is no such thing as the gospel plus something, the gospel plus works, the gospel plus faith (faith flows from the gospel), the gospel plus a deeper revelation, the gospel plus a more surrendered life (the gospel compels us to surrender), the gospel plus social action. All additions to the gospel that intend to help save us are misleading. There is nothing higher, or deeper, or broader than the gospel, and all legitimate means of growing as Christians are part of it.

Unfortunately, evangelicals for years have been preaching the gospel as merely the first step on the Christian ladder. Supposedly, once we have passed it, we can move on to higher rungs. Instead of the sum total of all we are, the gospel is something we took care of back when we were born again. Michael Horton put it this way in Christless Christianity : "We got in by grace but now we need to stay in (or at least become first-class, sold-out, victorious, fully surrendered Christians) by following various steps, lists, and practices. There was this brief and shining moment of grace, but now the rest of the Christian life is about our experience, feelings, commitment, and obedience." (Kindle 120) Anything that calls us to a higher place in God that leaves the gospel behind is ultimately a move towards darkness and desperation. True discernment will always begin and end with the cross.

Fourth fruit: "...to the glory and praise of God." The word "glory" is almost impossible to define, because it is an attribute of an infinitely perfect God, who rules all His creation according to His sovereign will, and in addition reaches down to redeem and reconcile lost and rebellious sinners to Himself.

Our response to such a God is to "give Him glory." We usually identify this action as worship, and that is entirely appropriate. But the term can also mean "give Him credit" for everything He is and does. We give Him credit primarily in His dual role as Lord and Savior.

First, God is Lord, meaning that He is sovereign King over all the universe, over history, and over our individual lives. That means that any teaching that makes us responsible to save ourselves or solve our own problems or move in a self-motivated direction without His guidance is deception. Anything that implies that we are masters of our own fate is deception. Anything that calls us to do something for God, rather than His carrying out His plans through us is deception. "For from him, and through him, and for him, are all things."

Secondly, we give credit to God as our Savior. This has already been covered in our discussion of righteousness. So let me reiterate by saying that anything that removes Christ from His place as perfect and only Mediator between God and man is deception.

Summary

Spiritual discernment is the Christian's ability to distinguish truth from error, deliberate fraud, or nonsense (in teaching or in practice). It's tools are the Bible, experience, and the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. Discernment grows as the Christian grows, and is rooted and flourishes in love. The more love for God and man increase, the more discernment increases. Discernment protects us from missing God, yet at the same time God uses our failures to discern properly to mature us.

True discernment bears fruit, and that fruit is evidence that we are discerning correctly. True discernment will 1) choose the best instead of the good, 2) recognize what can stand the gaze of God and not cause another to stumble, 3) confess that all our righteousness is Christ's righteousness imputed to us, and 4) give glory to God as our Savior and Lord.

There is one question I ask when confronted with a new teaching or a new spiritual practice: "So what?" If the answer is not rooted in love, or if it fails to lead to the fruit Paul described in Philippians, it is deception.