And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Php 1:9-11)Note that word ... "discernment." We understand it to mean "the ability to judge well." Okay ... but I think there's a shade of meaning lacking there. You see, I think it means the ability to judge between the true ... and the almost true. Generally, we can see the difference between the true and the false, but when that "false" appears true ... or close to it ... we get fuzzy. So we're supposed to have our senses trained to "discern good and evil" (Heb 5:14), especially when "evil" seems, somehow, good.
We're usually pretty good at pointing out what's wrong. We can see the spelling errors or the false statements. We can see the mistakes and the sins of others. But, while that may be a serious part of "discernment," what about the other direction? We might see what's wrong in any given situation, but how well do we see what's right? It's easy to find complainers. What about solvers? People are constantly telling us the problem, but few are offering solutions.
Paul wrote in his letter to Philippi,
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (Php 4:8)Imagine if we applied that to our discernment? What if we dwelt, not on the problems, but the solutions? What if we sought out the true, the honorable, the right, the pure? What if our charge to discern between the false and the true -- between the almost true and the true -- included a drive to correct it to excellence and that which is worthy of praise? What if we sought to become the solution, rather than the problem? I think we're commanded to dwell on those things. We're good at the opposite. Maybe we need to ... oh, I don't know ... "be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:2).
2 comments:
Many of us have heard this quote from Spurgeon: "Discernment is not [only] knowing the difference between right and wrong; it is [also] knowing the difference between right and almost right.”
I also like this one: “Discernment is the ability to hear the hiss of the serpent.”
Finally, I see personal application of your post’s theme in this quote from Corrie Ten Boom: “Discernment is God’s call to intercession, never to faultfinding.”
Many years ago, I was being informally mentored by another woman at our church with similar spiritual gifting as me (including the gift of “judging” :). During a conversation together, in which I was remarking about various shortcomings I saw among our church members (i.e. “they don’t want to grow,” “they don’t study their Bibles,” “the sermons are too light,” etc.), this woman shared with me her conviction that God gives us the gift of discernment (or “perception”)--i.e. “the ability to judge well,” as you say--to prompt us to pray about the situations that need improvement. In other words, we should use our acute sense of how things are in conjunction with a knowledge of how things ought to be to ask God to work according to His will. It’s as if I were to pray, “Lord, things are not good here,” and He were to reply, “Well, what exactly do you want me to do about it?” Then I can move from merely complaining and finding fault to seeking solutions by appealing to the One with the power and the will to change things. I may very readily see all the failings all around me, but I don’t need to leave my focus there.
That's the idea I was going for.
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