Spiritual Discernment - Who Am I To Judge?
Leviticus 10:10, 11:47, 20:25; Ezekiel 44:23, Malachi 3:18
You must distinguish... bin (995) - discern the difference
1 Kings 3:9
(Solomon asked the LORD) give your servant a discerning heart...to distinguish between right and wrong.
(ESV - ...between good and evil.)
John 7:24b
(ESV) Do not judge (Krinō) by appearances, but judge with right/righteous judgment.
(Good News Translation) Stop judging by external standards, and judge by true standards.
1 Corinthians 2:15 (1 Corinthians 11:13)
The spiritual man makes judgments about all things...
(Amplified Bible) But the spiritual man [the spiritually mature Christian] judges/evaluates all things [questions, examines and applies what the Holy Spirit reveals]...
1 Corinthians 12:7, 10
To each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one...distinguishing between spirits...
Philippians 1:9-10 (ESV)
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment (depth of insight), so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:21
Test everything. Hold on/cling tightly to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
2 Timothy 1:7 (HCSB)
God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.
Hebrews 5:14
The mature...by constant use of the teaching about righteousness...have trained themselves to distinguish/discern good from evil.
1 John 4:1
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Krinō (Strong 2919) is most often used in the N.T. for ‘to judge' (Matthew 7:1-2, John 3:17). The derivative words Diakrinō (1252) mean to thoroughly examine in order to separate; Anakrinō (350) “to judicially investigate or examine in order to make a discernful decision (Krisis)”; and Katakrinō (2632) “to judge against, reprove, condemn” (used by Jesus in speaking to the woman caught in adultery John 8:11 "Neither do I condemn you.")
How do we discern? What is the test we use?
Is this "good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior" when examined in the light of His revealed will in Scripture? 1 Timothy 2:3, Psalm 119:105, 130
God alone is judge, and God alone condemns (James 4:12, John 8:15-16, Nahum 1:7b/2 Timothy 2:19b “The Lord knows those who are his.”) and all will stand before Christ in judgment (John 5:22, Acts 17:31, Romans 14:10-12, 2 Corinthians 5:10, 1 Peter 4:5) when “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father.” (Matthew 7:21, 25:46.)
God is also just (Psalm 9:8, Job 34:12, 1 Peter 1:17) and we know that His condemnation of those who reject salvation in Christ Jesus, and the eternal punishment (Mathew 25:46) that follows, will be proportional. (Matthew 10:15, Matthew 18:6, Matthew 23, Luke 12:48, Luke 20:46-47, 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9)
We will be judged with the same measure that we use to judge others (Matthew 7:2) and by our willingness to forgive (Luke 6:37-38, James 2:13a).
In our decision making, we should do nothing to cause a brother to stumble or fall (Romans 14:13) and recognize that mercy triumphs over judgment (Romans 14:1, James 2:13b).
But our mercy should never condone nor enable sin; the man healed at the Bethesda pool (John 5:14) and the woman caught in adultery (John 8:11) were told to stop sinning.
We must be discernful, and are commanded to "examine" ourselves:
Our walk (1 Corinthians 11:28-32, Ephesians 4:1, 5:1-15, 1 John 2:6)
Our faith (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Our love (1 John 3:14-20)
Our motives/heart (Romans 2:16, 1 Corinthians 3:13, 4:5, Hebrews 4:13)
Our words (Matthew 12:36, Colossians 3:17, James 1:26)
Our actions (Matthew 16:24-27, 25:40,45, Romans 14:12, Corinthians 5:10, Galatians 6:4-10, James 1:22)
Our inaction (James 2:17,26, 4:17)
If we have proclaimed the “whole will of God” (Acts 20:27)
And others, within and without Christ's church
Those who hinder entrance into the Kingdom/salvation (Matthew 23:13-14)
"Dogs and pigs" (Matthew 7:6 – a reference to evangelistic discernment)
Agents of Satan (Elymas - Acts 13:10, Alexander - 2 Timothy 4:14-15, Diotrephes - 3 John 9-10)
False prophets; wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15-23 “By their fruit you will recognize them”, Acts 20:28-31, 1 John 4:1)
False doctrine and false teachers (2 Corinthians 4:2, 11:4,13, Galatians 1:9, Philippians 3:2, 1 Timothy 1:3-7, Hebrews 13:9, James 3:1, 2 Peter 2, 1 John 2:18-23, 2 John 9)
Those who lead others into sin (Matthew 5:19, 18:7, 2 Timothy 3:2-8)
Those who “cause divisions and put obstacles in your way” (Romans 16:17, Titus 3:10-11)
Unrepentant sin and disobedience within the church (1 Corinthians 5, 2 Thessalonians 3:6,14, 1 Peter 4:17)
Those who by their actions bring reproach (shame, disgrace, or that which brings rebuke or censure) to the name of the LORD, to Jesus, and the church (Nehemiah 5:9, Romans 2:24)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Life Together
Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin.
Jessie Penn Lewis War On The Saints
Hebrews 5:4 The mature, by constant use, have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
There needs to be a choice between good and evil perpetually by every man (Deuteronomy 30:19), and the priests of old were specially called to discern and teach the people the difference between "the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean" (Leviticus 10:10, Ezekiel 22:26). Yet is the Church of Christ today able thus to discern what is good, and what is evil? Does she not continually fall into the snare of calling good evil, and evil good? (Isaiah 5:20)
Because the thoughts of God's people are governed by ignorance and limited knowledge, they call the works of God, of the devil; and the works of the devil, of God, and they are not taught the need of learning to discern the difference between the "unclean and the clean", nor how to decide for themselves what is of God, or what is of the devil, although they are unknowingly compelled to make a choice every moment of the day.
John MacArthur
Discernment - the ability to think biblically about all areas of life - is indispensable to an uncompromising life. It is incumbent upon the Christian to seize upon the discernment that God has provided for in His precious truth! Without it, Christians are at risk of being "tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine" (Ephesians 4:14).
The Gospel According to Jesus
Satan pretends to be an angel of light, and his servants imitate the children of righteousness. (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). When scripture acknowledges the difficulty of telling the sheep from the goats, the point is not that Christians may seem godly, but rather that the ungodly often appear to be righteous. Put another way, the flock is supposed to be on the lookout for wolves in sheep's clothing, not tolerant of sheep that act like wolves.
Tim Challies The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment
To willingly neglect the truth and to live with our eyes closed shut while good and evil stare us in the face is to sin against God, ourselves, our families, and our Church…It is the responsibility of every Christian to learn, to be discipled in the Word, so that we can know how to be discerning. To fail to discern is to walk in darkness.
Pastor Brad Small, "Do Not Judge"
CAUTION I
Be mindful that most things in this world are morally neutral; neither light nor darkness, but can be used by man and Satan for evil, or by man and God for good. The opium poppy Papaver somniferum is just an attractive flower, but it's latex can be used to make heroin which enslaves its users, or to make medicinal morphine to relieve intractable pain. It can become the 'life' of the user, or enable someone to have a life that glorifies the Lord.
CAUTION II
1 Peter 4:17, 1 Corinthians 5:12, Galatians 6:1-4
It is time for judgment to begin with the family of God...and me.
F.B. Meyer on Matthew 7:1-2
Let us be true to the inner light (of Holy Spirit led self-examination), and then with tender and chastened spirits, from which all consciousness of superiority has departed, we shall help others to be rid of their own obstructions (scotoma/blind spots).
CAUTION III
Richard Baxter
“Cases And Directions Against Censoriousness And Unwarrantable Judging”
http://www.puritansermons.com/baxter/baxter26.htm
“The True and Only Way of Concord of All the Christian Churches”, London, 1680
“I once more repeat to you the pacificator's old despised words, ‘Si in necessariis sit [esset] unitas, in non necessariis libertas, in charitas, optimo certo loco essent rcs nostrae.’” (Quoting Lutheran theologian Rupertus Meldenius)
“In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity.”
CAUTION IV
J. R. Miller Morning Thoughts for Every Day in the Year, 1907
Romans 2:1 “At whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself.”
We are not judged according to our advantages, but by what we make of these advantages. Indeed the more light we have the greater is our responsibility and the more will be required of us. If we sit apart, in the comfort of our superior privileges, and judge those who have not our privileges and live unworthily, we must beware, for in condemning others we condemn ourselves.
It is a good thing to be born in a Christian land and to be brought up in a Christian home, but if we do not live according to our advantages, it would have been better for us if we had been born in a heathen land. That was what Jesus said about the people in Capernaum and the other cities where He had lived and preached and wrought, doing his works of love and grace. He said it would be more tolerable for Sodom than for those cities, because having the privileges, they had rejected them. (Luke 10:14)
Be brutally honest with ourselves; tender and humbly gracious with others.