Discernment
10-11-13
Hebrews
5:14 (NASB) 14 But solid
food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to
discern good and evil.
Man it is gorgeous outside. I enjoy this time of year. If you are a sports
fan then October is your month. Why so Ronnie? Well, we have the baseball
playoffs going on, the NBAand NHL have kicked off, PLUS my favorite, college
football and the NFL. The sports plate is full in October. Only problem is with
October's arrival, Old Man Winter can't be far behind. Oh well enjoy it while
you can, Amen?
That word discernment was on my mind all week. Strong's translates that word
as "an act of judgment"
but that doesn't capture the nuance of the word. Vine's has a better
rendering. It means" to distinguish, or to discriminate." Being capable of
distinguishing between good and evil. Not only that, it seems that this skill of
discernment or distinguishing must be learned through practice. The root of the
word discern in the above verse is "to learn by discriminating."
I heard something this week that put this word 'discern' on my mind. You know
sometimes instead of discernment we operate in judgment. But, I'm getting ahead
of myself. The Bible speaks in many places about discerning this or that. Jesus
spoke of being able to discern the signs in the heavens but not the reality of
who He was. He spoke somewhere about swallowing a camel but straining at a gnat
in our discerning of sin, mercy and judgment. Then He spoke a truth concerning
what true discernment was all about. Discerning good and evil.
Matthew
7:15-16 (NASB) 15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you
in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16 "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not
gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
Paul spoke of the natural man not being able to appraise or discern spiritual
things.
1
Corinthians 2:14 (NASB) 14
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually appraised.
There are untold numbers of false spirits, false teachings, false religions
that we must guard our hearts against. We must practice and learn to discern
between truth and falsehood, good and evil; but, and herein lieth my point.We
are never instructed to distinguish or discriminate between brothers and
sisters, believers if you will. We are cautioned against becoming fruit
inspectors. It's easy to develop a critical or fault finding spirit and we must
constantly guard against it. Let me say something here. If all the people who
behave unwisely, if all the people who sometimes don't live as they should, you
know who I'm talking about....all those sinners... If all the sinners in the
world were disqualified from ministering, praying, giving to the rest of
us...guess what? There would be NO ONE left to minister,pray, give!!
AMEN?? No,no instead of discriminating between one another the Bible is clear
how we should act toward those who name the name of Christ. Instead of
discrimination we need to restore.
Galatians
6:1 (NASB) 1 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are
spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking
to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.
Why restore? Because next time I might be that sinner in need of prayer,
restoration etc.,etc.,
Brothers and sisters there's enough true evil in this world to occupy all our
efforts until Jesus comes. Let's train our sights on the true enemy of our souls
and leave the fruit inspecting to God.
James
2:8-9 (NASB) 8 If,
however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS
YOURSELF," you are doing well.
9
But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are
convicted by the law as transgressors.
Psalm
36:11 (NASB) 11 Let not
the foot of pride come upon me, And let not the hand of the
wicked drive me away.
God Bless
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