More Discernment Please

The discerning sets his face toward wisdom,but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.  (Proverbs 17:24)

John MacArthur often says that the greatest problem in the church today is a lack of discernment.

In The Root of Righteousness, A.W. Tozer has said, “I can only say that I have observed on significant lack among evangelical Christians which might turn out to be the real cause of most of our spiritual troubles; and of course if that were true, then the supplying of that lack would be our most critical need. The great deficiency to which I refer is the lack of spiritual discernment, especially among our leaders. How there can be so much Bible knowledge and so little insight, so little moral penetration, is one of the enigmas of the religious world today.”

Discernment is simply the ability to determine truth from error. It is the wisdom and experience gained from seeing good and better, or better from best. It is what every Christian must have to navigate the worldviews that oppose Christianity. It is what every Christian must have to properly reject false teaching. It is what every Christian must have to snuff out the temptations of worldly amusements.

Christians needs better discernment; Jesus said so (Matt 7:1, 6).

In Psalm 119:66, the writer asks that God would teach him good judgment. He wants to be able to look at difficult situations and courses of action and apply the right morality.

Discernment is seeing the world as the Lord sees it. It is thinking after God (Heb 4:13).

Why do we need discernment? We need it for spiritual growth (Prov 14:6). Christians – in humility – accept the fact that they don’t know everything, but they know where to grow in their knowledge: God’s Word.

May we all echo the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm 119:125 who prayed for discernment.