Discernment

Philippians 1:9-10 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,

The dictionary has a lot to say in defining discernment, but perhaps the most important thing for a Christian to consider is that discernment stresses accuracy. This is important in Biblical theology because believing and following false teachers can not only have eternal consequences but, as the ‘Jim Jones’ tragedy illustrated, grave dangers in this world as well. The Bible has many warnings about false teaching and being deceived. Some of them came directly from Jesus who said…. "Watch out that no one deceives you.” (Mark 13:5). To be sure that no one deceives you requires a knowledge of Biblical doctrine. The best way to understand doctrine is through reading and studying the Bible as did the Bereans…. “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). Discernment requires knowledge. Knowledge requires prayer and study (Col. 1:9) (Heb. 5:11-14). Once a person has knowledge, the Apostle Paul tells us the following: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” (Ephesians 4:14). Therefore, a Christian should seek knowledge in order to attain the quality of discernment.