A Test of Discernment

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“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

~ Hebrews 5:14, ESV

To discern means to discriminate or distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong, the Spirit and the flesh, God’s way and man’s way.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

~ Philippians 1:9-10

T. Austin-Sparks has pointed out that the marginal rendering of verse 10 is “distinguish the things that differ.”

According to the author of Hebrews, those who have discernment are spiritually mature. And they’ve exercised their powers to discern over time.

To discern DOESN’T mean imputing bad motives to another human. I’ve met people who regularly judged the intentions of other Christians in the worst possible way then calling it “discernment.”

No, that’s not discernment. That’s called sin (Matthew 7:1-4). It’s also, most often, called projection.

It happens when a person projects what’s in their own hearts on to others.

This article is entitled “A Test of Discernment.” There are many more tests, but the one I’m going to highlight today is pretty simple and easy to implement immediately.

That is, one way to discern where the truth lies has to do with detecting arrogance.

Let’s say two people are in an online fight.

Joe and Bill are hyperventilating on social media over a disagreement.

During their virtual smackdown, Joe is haughty, arrogant, self-important, unimpeachable (in his own mind), autocratic, and acerbic.

Billy, on the other hand, is confident, but level-headed, humble, and gracious. He doesn’t return evil for evil. If he’s attacked, he isn’t defensive. And he ignores the absurd instead of engaging it.

Almost always, the arrogant, haughty soul (Joe in this case) is in the wrong. And often, such people are dishonest autotheists, deceptive cockalorums.

Yet the naïve who have little discernment equate their arrogance with truth and certainty.

Recently, my father came to visit me and my wife. And we watched Equalizer 3 featuring the ineffable, the inimitable Denzel.

In one of the scenes, Enzo, a doctor who is working on McCall (Denzel’s character) asks him, “Are you a good man or a bad man?”

McCall answers, “I don’t know.”

Later in the film when McCall is taking names and cracking skulls (of abusers), Enzo asks if McCall remembers the question he asked him earlier.

McCall acknowledges he did. McCall responds, “You asked, am I a good man or a bad man?,” and I said, “I don’t know.”

Enzo responded, “Only a good man would say that.”

The arrogant, haughty, self-righteous and self-important are never the good guys, despite what they think of themselves.

Can you discern the difference?

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