Discernment Part 1

As I look around me I notice huge problem in our Churches. I see a lot of very passionate people, with good hearts, wanting to do the right thing, and with absolutely no discernment whatsoever.

Discernment is defined as; “Keenness of insight and judgment.” [Discernment. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved April 26, 2010, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discernment]
Yes, it is critical for us to be discerning, to judge what we hear, and what we are taught, so that we may be sure that what we are holding fast to is the truth of God, and not the unholy musings of fallen men.

Certainly we know that the Pastors and Teachers in our Churches should be on the lookout for such things, but all the more committed to teaching the truth to the people of God so that they will know the truth and not be led astray by false teachers. In Ephesians 4:11-16 Paul says, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” [ESV]

However, the responsibility does not fall to them alone; we all share together in the responsibility to study God’s Word and to know the truth so that we are not “carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” There are a few reasons for this. One is that our teachers simply cannot teach us everything, and especially not all at once. That kind of instruction takes time, especially when getting to the real depth of truth that is revealed to us in the Bible. Another reason is that these people are human, and no matter how careful they are, there is still the possibility of error, no matter how hard they try, it is possible for them to teach something wrong. Further, there are some who really have no care for the truth, but are themselves pushing “human cunning” rather than the truth of the Word of God.

This is something that scripture does warn us about (see Jude, 2nd Timothy 2) and instructs us that we must be on guard against such things.