These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. -Acts 17:11
Many of the biggest problems in the world today could be explained by this one thing: collectively speaking, there is an increasing amount of deception and, therefore, a diminishing belief in the truth. As a result, this is causing an increase in hatred, evil, and division throughout society, as well as in the Church itself.
Why, exactly, is so much deception happening? Why are multitudes of people so deeply deceived? While there are many factors, the chief reason is this: a lack of biblical discernment.
Biblical Discernment: Accurately distinguishing between truth and error, biblical from unbiblical, and truth-based love from counterfeit love.
Fortunately, because of God and His Word there is always hope.
We can see profound improvement if Christians and the Church properly emphasize and equip others in biblical discernment. Better yet, few things are more loving and beneficial than biblically equipping people to accurately discern.
With that in mind, and because discernment is so vital for love and life, we have detailed the most prominent characteristics of those who are actually discerning biblically.
Top 5 Traits Of [Strong] Biblical Discernment
1 | TRULY WALK WITH GOD
They are truly reconciled with the one true God—through the one true gospel. While far from perfect, they have a consistent, loving, and growing relationship with Jesus.
(Dan 11:32; Jn 5:38-40; 15:1ff; Eph 4:11-17; Heb 11:6; cp. Gal 1:6-9)
2 | HOLD TO A HIGH VIEW OF GOD’S WORD
They highly value God’s written Word. This is evidenced by how they strongly believe in, heavily rely on, greatly delight in, and rightly live according to God’s Word of truth—and by how they support their beliefs and teachings with accurately applied Scripture.
(1 Tim 6:20-21; 2 Tim 2:15; cp. Matt 4:1-10)
Their high view of Scripture is also revealed by how they are often derided, diminished, and attacked for proclaiming and standing on God’s Word, and when they warn of sin, error, false teachings, and wolves in sheep’s clothing.
(Ps 1:1-3; 18:30; 19:7-11; 56:10; 138:2; Acts 17:11; Rom 15:4; cp. 1 Kgs 18:17-18; Jer 18:18; Jn 15:18-19)
3 | COMMITTED TO OBJECTIVITY
They work hard at being objective—while also not relying on what is subjective (e.g., mysticism; feelings; experience; man’s wisdom; biased sources; social media/influencers).
Objective: not dependent on the mind for existence; external to the mind; not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or opinions in considering and representing facts.
(Acts 17:11; Lev 19:15; Prov 18:17; Is 8:19-20; Jas 3:17; cp. 2 Tim 3:16-4:5)
4 | PRACTICE TRUTH-BASED LOVE
They live their life knowing that love requires the truth, which means love requires accurate discernment. What is more, they know that love requires warning people about danger.
(Prov 24:11-12; Eph 5:11; 2 Tim 4:1-5)
As a result, they actively and accurately warn others about what is dangerous, such as error, false teachings, sin, and wolves in sheep’s clothing.
(Matt 7:15ff; Jer 23:21-23; cp. 2 Cor 11:3-4)
They also know that without accurately discerning—even if they have the best of intentions—they will cause great harm, which is the opposite of love.
(Phil 1:9-11; 1 Jn 3:18; cp. Is 5:20)
Therefore, because they deeply desire to bless others—and avoid harming them—they are devoted to passionately discerning truth from error in order to love in the right ways, and help others avoid being deceived and harmed.
(1 Kgs 3:9; Jas 5:19-20; Eph 5:6-11; Jude 1:21-23)
5 | PUT IN THE HARD WORK
They eagerly and vigorously test what they read, see, and hear—all according to God’s written Word. In addition, they do not just declare who and what is wrong, and who and what is right. They pour their time and concern into explaining—with reason, logic, and Scripture—why something is good and true, or why it is false and harmful.
(Is 8:19-20; Acts 17:11; 1 Thess 5:21-22; 2 Tim 2:15; Heb 5:14; 1 Pet 3:15; 1 Jn 4:1-6)
Practical Application
The more these things are true of you, the less likely you will be deceived, and the more you will be truly loving God and others.
- With that in mind, how would you objectively assess yourself on a scale of 0 to 10 (10 being best) in each of the five areas above?
- Which areas do want to grow in the most, and why?
- If everyone somehow perfectly discerned truth from error—and, as a result, avoided error and fully believed and lived in the truth—what would happen to our superlative problems of evil, division, hate, deception, and the deadly consequences of sin?
- What does that tell us about the supreme value of discernment?
More On Discernment
There are many people who are very caring and intelligent, who may have great knowledge of the Bible—and are likely truly saved—yet are significantly deceived.
Why? Because, even though they may have great qualities, they lack active and accurate discernment. Worse, to the degree they are subjective-dependent (see #3), they are guaranteed to become more and more deceived, and then go on to deceive and harm others. Worst of all, some here will stray from or “shipwreck” their faith—and many will become adversarial toward those rightly walking in the one true faith. (1 Tim 1:18-20; 4:1ff; 6:20-21; 1 Jn 2:18-19)
Biblically discerning individuals are never really popular, especially with the world (Jas 4:4; 1 Jn 4:1-6). In fact, they are frequently abhorred by those who hate God. They are also despised by many who claim Christ, yet have a low view of His Word—and those who have been deceived by a false gospel. (Matt 7:13-14; Jn 15:18-19; 17:14)
On the other hand, there are many who are self-described discerners, yet, for a variety of reasons, they cause a great deal of harm, often in the name of discernment. *For more, see Destructive Discerners
To accurately detect an error or falsehood is not nearly enough. Christians are called to do all things in love (1 Cor 16:14)—how much more is this true when discernment is involved? Therefore, to correctly discern a problem or error, yet not handle it in the right and loving way, is a failure (1 Cor 13:1ff; Eph 4:30; 5:11; Prov 24:11-12). While some Christians are certainly mean-spirited and unloving in this area, there are times when believers can and should rebuke others, which often leads to being falsely judged as being unloving. (Prov 28:23; Matt 23; Lk 3:7-9; 2 Tim 2:24-26; 3:16-4:4; Ti 1:9-13)
Biblical discerners are not just passionate about the truth—and detecting what is wrong and false—they are equally concerned about avoiding error and false accusations. Out of principle? Yes, and, more importantly, out of love. Why? Because they know that sin, falsehoods, and false accusations grieve God, are the opposite of love, and cause great harm to others. (Prov 6:16-19; Rom 13:10; Eph 4:22-5:2)
False teachers and wolves in sheep’s clothing—even though they are relatively few in number—cause untold amounts of deception, darkness, destruction, and death. However, those who likely cause the most damage today are the people who—because of a lack of discernment—have fallen for and live according to counterfeit love [Compassion – Discernment].
As a result, they become enablers of sin, error, and harm. In other words, these enablers are not only deceived into thinking they are loving, they are actively empowering/enabling deception, division, and destruction in individuals, the Church, and the world. Making this worse, they often attack, hinder, falsely accuse, and undercut those who are loving according to the truth, especially those who are biblically discerning—and they think this is loving on their part. The most destructive force in the world today (after Satan and his demons) could be counterfeit love—as few things, if anything, cause more damage than this deadly imitation.
If so many of our problems today—such as the increase in hatred, division, etc.—can be explained by the increasing amount of deception, and the decreasing belief in the truth, what does this tell us about the value of biblical discernment?
And what specifically should the Church be doing about all of this?
Final Thoughts
But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. -Hebrews 5:14
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. -Hebrews 5:14, NIV
Good biblical discernment does not just happen. Nor is it just a gift that some people have. Discernment is like any skill or muscle. It must be exercised and trained. If not, it becomes weak, and likely worthless, and even harmful.
Therefore, each person must work hard at “train(ing) themselves” to discern between truth and error, good and evil, love and counterfeit love. How so? How often? As the verse above states, we grow and mature in these things “by constant use.”
However, if we do not do this, then we will be stunted in our growth, weak in discernment, and will even cause harm to others and ourselves. Yet the opposite is also true: the more we are trained to accurately and biblical discern, the more we will grow and thrive—and the more we will be able to truly love and bless God and others, as well as increase in our knowledge of God and His love.
Equipping Resources
*For more on being biblically equipped—especially in discernment—we have an abundance of resources on our website. We have many free articles, along with print and ebooks. Please contact us if you cannot afford a particular resource, and we’ll make sure you can access what you need.
Meditation Or Mysticism: Discerning Between Helpful and Harmful Forms of Meditation
The War From Hell: Leftism’s Diabolical War Against God, Truth, and All of Humanity
Learning To Discern: How To Spot False Teachings and Doctrines of Demons
Re-Minded: How To Renew Your Mind, Quiet Your Soul, and Transform Your Life
About The Ministry
Hope For Life Biblical Counseling & Equipping is a non-profit ministry based in the Central Valley of California. We have always been fully committed to providing biblical counseling at no cost to anyone in need, along with classes, books, and other equipping resources for the local community and the worldwide body of Christ as a whole.
Because we truly believe that “everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope,” we are passionate about sharing that Word every chance we get.
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