If we have no desire to be discerning, we won’t be discerning. Proverbs 2:3-6 says,
If you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
If we are driven by a yearning to be happy, healthy, affluent, prosperous, comfortable, and self-satisfied, we will never be discerning people. If our feelings determine what we believe, we cannot be discerning. If we subjugate our minds to some earthly ecclesiastical authority and blindly believe what we are told, we undermine discernment. Unless we are willing to examine all things carefully, we cannot hope to have any defense against reckless wandering faith.
The desire for discernment is a desire born out of humility. It is a humility that acknowledges our own potential for self-deception—“the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it” (Jeremiah 17:9). It is a humility that distrusts personal feelings and casts scorn on self-sufficiency—“on my own behalf I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:5). It is a humility that turns to the Word of God as the final arbiter of all things—“examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
No one has a monopoly on truth. I certainly do not. I don’t have reliable answers within myself. My heart is as susceptible to self-deception as anyone’s. My feelings are as undependable as everyone else’s. I am not immune to Satan’s deception. That is true for all of us. Our only defense against false doctrine is to be discerning, to distrust our own emotions, to hold our own senses suspect, to examine all things, to test every truth-claim with the yardstick of Scripture, and to handle the Word of God with great care.
The desire to be discerning therefore entails a high view of Scripture linked with an enthusiasm for understanding it correctly. God requires that very attitude (2 Timothy 2:15). So the heart that truly loves Him will naturally burn with a passion for discernment.
(Adapted from Fool’s Gold)
John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, chancellor of The Master’s University and Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry. Grace to You radio, video, audio, print, and website resources reach millions worldwide each day. In more than five decades of ministry, John has written dozens of best-selling books, including The MacArthur Study Bible, The Gospel According to Jesus, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (thirty-four volumes), and Slave. He and his wife, Patricia, have four married children and fifteen grandchildren.
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Yes,Spiritual discernment is vastly different from what is sometimes regarded as discernment. Christ Jesus referred to the true discernment when he said, “If … thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” In these few words he not only pointed to the nature of true discernment but showed clearly what is needed in order that it may be enjoyed. The so-called intellectuality of the carnal mind, which is darkness, counterfeits the intelligence of divine Mind. Spiritual discernment sees good alone as real, thus exposing evil as unreal and powerless.
We may note in the first chapter of the book of the Bible which bears his name that Nehemiah, the great Jewish patriot, while living in captivity, heard reports of the needs of his Jewish brethren, who were living in and around Jerusalem. Later, as related in this inspiring book, when he had practically completed the building of the wall of Jerusalem, his enemies, Tobiah and Sanballat, through their representatives, tempted him with specious arguments. Nehemiah detected the subtlety of this artifice, as we find in his own words: “And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.” Thus spiritual discernment enabled Nehemiah to avail himself through prayer of God’s protection, and empowered him to carry on his useful work to completion.