The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment
a review by Adam Pohlman
Contemporary American churches are growing less discerning. There is a rising lack of wisdom being used to judge whether a teaching, movement, or program is in alignment with Scripture. Anyone who labels themselves a Christian is immediately welcomed into fellowship. Someone who gives a profession of faith is instantly assured of their salvation based on their profession. Music that simply mentions God or the name Jesus is heralded as a moving Christian performance. If anyone inquires about the validity of any teaching, profession of faith, or music lyric they are branded as divisive and judgmental with Matthew 7:1 thrown out as a proof text against judging.
Other Christians abuse the command of discernment and spend their time seeking out false doctrine; not merely defending the truth against attack, but going on the offensive hunting for error. This “discernment” has given a bad name to biblical discernment as those who claim to be discerning are often seen as unloving and condemning. A quick search at a local Christian bookstore will yield very few results for books on biblical discernment; which is why Tim Challies wrote the book The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment.
In the book, Challies seeks to describe many biblical references to discernment and related terms. The first few chapters of the book are explanations of texts that command us to judge, discern, and test everything. Based on his study, Challies defines discernment as, “the skill of understanding and applying God's Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong.” (pg. 61) The most important emphasis he makes throughout the book is that we cannot have discernment as described by the Bible unless we study and know the Bible.
“A survey of passages of Scripture relevant to the subject of discernment, words dealing with testing, judging, approving, and the like, will reveal nothing that would allow us to believe that the Holy Spirit will provide some type off subjective sense of discernment apart from the Bible...We discern truth from error and right from wrong by using our minds to search Scripture, to recall Scripture, and to compare everything to Scripture. Without the Bible and its objective truths there can be no discernment.” (pg. 68-69) Many well-meaning Christians try to make decisions or discern truth based on subjective feelings or experiences instead of searching the Scriptures for truth.
Today, however, many Christians either are bored with theology and doctrine or think it is not as important as active ministry. Mr. Challies quotes Richard Phillips and then expands on it himself, “'Theology bores today's Christians, which is another way of saying we are bored with God himself.' ... Sadly, ... many Christians have separated theology from practice, knowledge of God from their practice of serving him. Some Christians delight in their ignorance, claiming that they don't want theology; they just want to love Jesus. These people tend to build their faith upon feelings and experiences rather than upon the truths of the Bible.” (pp. 48-49) God reveals himself through Scripture. The only way to know God is to know Scripture. The better we understand our Bibles, and thus understand God, the more our actions and methods will please Him.
The book suggests that much of the reason for poor discernment is a misunderstanding of the gospel, the need for holiness, and the sufficiency of Scripture. “Many Christians ... downplay the holiness of God ... Christians have increasingly absorbed the world's understanding of a God who is fun, who exists for our benefit, and who can be the butt of endless jokes ... As we have lost sight of the holiness of God, we have lost our emphasis on personal holiness.” (pg. 49-50) We tend to look for things about God that make us more comfortable and happy instead of trusting God even when it appears it will be difficult.
The final few chapters of The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment are more practical in the practice of discerning truth from error. Mr. Challies walks through a few of the problems that arise in attempts to be discerning. Many people trying to be discerning end up losing sight of the truth, focusing so much on error. They become unloving and divisive, instead of seeing discernment as a means to the end of bringing people together in Christ for His glory. Challies sees discernment as more of a defensive posture that guards against an attack from false teaching instead of seeking out and revealing error. Discernment is very closely related to judging, and he warns that when we are to be discerning we must seek to understand what and how we are to judge. The author says that many of these errors are due to laziness in discernment. Those who seek to be discerning must do much work to study God's word and absolutely must emphasize humility, recognizing their own weaknesses and relying on the setting of the local church and its leadership to be complete in defending the faith. “When our discernment is driven by poor motives it will become a negative, critical discipline rather than a positive, uplifting one. We need to see discernment as an opportunity to defend what is right and to serve other Christians.” (pg. 150)
A book on this topic is extremely important in our culture where there are more subtle false doctrines floating around that contain much truth and can sound enticing to the undiscerning ear. It is critical for the health of the church and the spreading of the gospel for followers of Christ to see discernment as vital to ministry. “Spiritual discernment allows us to keep the gospel central and allows us to see and guard against error. Spiritual discernment is absolutely crucial to the one who would understand and heed the gospel. Nothing less than the gospel is at stake.” (pg. 34)