21 My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment,
do not let them out of your sight;—The words of King Solomon from Proverbs 3:2114 The discerning heart seeks knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.—The words of King Solomon from Proverbs 15:149 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
—The words of the Apostle Paul from Philippians 1:9-11
Can you tell the difference between the truth and a lie?
“That depends on the skill of the liar,” you may respond.
We all like to think of ourselves as clever and wise. Have you ever said, “You have to get up pretty early in the morning to put one over on me!”? Is that so? I’m quite certain that an experienced liar, if he or she wanted to do so, could weave a very believable tale that you would swallow “hook, line, and sinker.” Think back across the span of your life. Has anyone ever successfully deceived you, at least for a time? I’ll bet at some point in your life, somebody told you a lie and you believed that lie.
The truth is that most of us believe a lie from time to time. In fact, on a daily basis, the media bombards us with lies. Well, they wouldn’t consider them lies. They would say that what they’re peddling is “entertainment.”
For example, have you ever watched Ice Road Truckers? This show depicts the terror of driving heavily loaded tractor-drawn trailers across the icy wasteland of northern Alaska and northern Canada. In almost every episode, one of the truckers faces a dire set of circumstances. The story has a way of pulling a viewer into the middle of each crisis. You began to wonder how the trucker can possibly survive this latest peril, especially when he or she labors all alone in the vastness of this northern wilderness.
Wait a minute! All alone? What about the camera operator and support crew? What about the technicians riding in the van that follows each particular trucker wherever he or she roams? You see, it’s really all an illusion. Oh, it’s a great story. But, the trucker never actually faces any peril alone. It’s all a lie.
I have heard people recounting the latest episode of IRT with all seriousness. They speak of how terrifying it must feel to realize you face a difficulty in such a bitterly cold climate with no one around to help you for miles and miles.
From the safe distance of reading this blog, you may chuckle with me at how easily make-believe becomes reality when portrayed in such a compelling manner. But, have you ever stopped to think about the people around you every day who may also portray a condition or situation in such a compelling manner that, without thinking the matter through, you readily accept the truthfulness of whatever yarn they spin?
As the Scripture passages at the beginning of this blog post illustrate, God warns us throughout the Bible that we need to exercise discernment. God feels so strongly about this matter that He has even given certain brothers and sisters in Christ a spiritual gift of discerning the presence of evil in another person or situation.
Even so, God expects every believer to exercise discernment. You simply dare not blindly follow anyone. God expects His children to exercise discernment in every situation of life. You must not make any decision without expending a wholehearted effort to discover the truth.
Let me give you a concrete example. Suppose you serve on a church ruling board. The pastor comes to the board and says that you board members must terminate the employment of one of the staff members. When you ask why, the pastor says that he/she will not tell you what the staff member has done because he/she does not want to besmirch the reputation of that staff member. The pastor asks you to trust him/her that the staff member has committed a series of horrible offenses that the pastor can no longer tolerate. Further, the pastor wants you to keep this matter absolutely secret. When you press a little further, another board member speaks up and says that this staff member has a long history of problems getting along with previous pastors. Satisfied, you vote to terminate the employment of the staff member.
Have you exercised discernment? No! In fact, you have failed the “Discernment Test” miserably!
Here's where you went wrong:
- You took the pastor at his/her word without seeking factual substantiation. You can no more trust a pastor than you can trust any other person. Pastors are human, too. They, like you, are merely sinners saved by God’s grace. No matter how much you may like your pastor, or respect him/her, or think of him/her as trustworthy, he/she is subject to all the foibles of sin. So, just because your pastor tells you something, you dare not automatically and non-critically and non-discerningly believe it.
- You didn’t ask for proof. The minute the pastor said he/she wouldn’t tell you what the staff member had done, all of your discernment alarm bells should have begun to ring. If you, as a member of the church ruling board, cannot know all the necessary details in order to reach a proper decision, then something is radically wrong with what you’re being told. Never, never, never accept unproven allegations against anyone. And, even when you’re given “proof,” study it carefully to weigh the accuracy of the information. Investigate for yourself. Ask questions. Talk to the parties involved. Do not ever, ever, EVER make a decision based on heresay!
And, just as you should not have taken the pastor at his/her word, you should not have taken the unsubstantiated testimony of your fellow board member at his/her word. Demand proof. Stick to the rule: “No written, concrete proof—no action!”
- You didn’t ask the pastor whether or not—in dealing with the offenses of this staff member—the pastor followed Matthew 18:15-17. None other than Jesus, Himself, requires every believer to follow the instruction in that passage when faced with a situation where another believer commits a sin. The pastor should have followed Jesus’ instruction. Failure to do so completely invalidates his/her request to terminate the staff member. The pastor’s failure to follow Matthew 18:15-17 should have ended the matter right there. But, you didn’t ask the question, so you contributed to the failure. In fact, by firing the staff member without the due process provided by Jesus’ instruction, YOU have sinned against that staff member. Shame on you!
- You didn’t ask to have the staff member appear before the church board and be examined regarding the charges the pastor has made. Instead, without practicing discernment, you made a choice. You chose the pastor over the staff member without even giving the staff member a proper hearing. Scripture absolutely forbids such a choice. We are told in 1 Timothy 5:21 that we must not show preference for one person over another.
In the Kingdom of God, no hierarchy exists. The pastor is no more important than a staff member. In fact, the pastor is no more important than you are. We are all equal in the sight of God. Did you get that? As it clearly states in Galatians 3:26-29, we are all equal in the sight of God!
- You allowed the pastor to insist on secrecy. There are no secrets in the Kingdom of God. Do you understand that? There are no secrets in the Kingdom of God. Because we are all equal in God’s sight, nothing truthful and righteous need ever be done in secret. No one has the right to withhold information from another believer. Over and over, the Bible gives instruction that anything secret will be revealed. (For example, see 2 Corinthians 4:2)
Don’t fall into the trap of believing that because you are on the church board you have become a member of a very special club that knows secrets the ordinary members of your church don’t know. As a board member, you are what Scripture calls a “steward.” Do you know what a steward is? A steward is a slave elevated to a position of responsibility in his/her master’s household. A steward has responsibility, but a steward is still a slave, still a servant. When you are elevated to the position of steward, you do not become a master. You are still a slave. You are no better than any of the other slaves (or, more correctly, “bond-servants”—see Deuteronomy 15:16-17 and 1 Corinthians 4:1-2).
If you’ve found yourself in a scenario similar to the one I used as an example, you have fallen into sin. You have participated in the destruction of a staff member’s reputation, even his or her very life. You have blindly followed a pastor who has not, himself/herself, followed the dictates of Scripture. It doesn’t matter whether his/her fellow pastors have rallied around him to affirm the rightness of his actions. Sin is sin! Disobedient denial of Christ’s teaching is grievous to the Lord and, thus, grievous to the body of Christ, the church.
Ultimately, the truth always triumphs. That’s why God expects believers to use the discernment He has given them to seek out and follow the truth. Let me offer that conclusion to you again: God expects believers to use the discernment He has given them to seek out and follow the truth.
“Well,” you may say, “what do I do about it now? We fired the staff member. It’s too late to fix that.” No, it’s not! It’s never too late to confess your sin, repent of your sin, make restitution for your sin, and receive total reconciliation.
Whatever you do, don’t treat this like the workman treated the damaged gypsum board (drywall) in the ceiling of my garage. A leak in the roof damaged the drywall. Instead of cutting out the damaged section, the carpenter who came to make the repair just applied some “mud” and then painted over the damaged spot. In no time at all, the damage became visibly apparent again.
To truly repair something as serious as sin, you must “cut out the bad spot and replace it with new material before you repaint it.” Said another way, you must confess your sin, repent of your sin, make restitution for your sin, and receive reconciliation with God and with your brother or sister in Christ. Nothing less than these four elements will do.
Maybe in your life you have not experienced anything at all like the example I gave. Yet, from time to time, you have been deceived by someone whom you trusted. You must learn from your mistake. You must make a conscious decision to practice discernment. You must do this because God expects believers to use the discernment He has given them to seek out and follow the truth.
(And, by the way—especially in reading what I have written in this blog post—please exercise your discernment. If the Holy Spirit testifies to your mind and heart that what I have written here is true, then act accordingly. If the Holy Spirit does not affirm that what I have written is true, then cast my words to the four winds.)
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God for loving us. Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to be our Savior. Thank You for teaching us through Your Word to use our discernment to seek out and find the truth in every situation.
Help us to allow the Holy Spirit to point us in the right direction. And, when we meet with our fellow believers, help us seek out those in our number to whom You have given the gift of discernment of spirits. Help us to allow them to make us aware when evil wanders near.
Please help us—where we have failed to discern the truth and this failure has caused us to sin—to confess, repent, provide restitution, and receive reconciliation. We pray this prayer in and through the powerful and protective Name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
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