The Aquila Report

Your independent source for news and commentary from and about conservative, orthodox evangelicals in the Reformed and Presbyterian family of churches

Providence College
  • Biblical
    and Theological
  • Churches
    and Ministries
  • People
    in the News
  • World
    and Life News
  • Lifestyle
    and Reviews
    • Books
    • Movies
    • Music
  • Opinion
    and Commentary
  • General Assembly
    and Synod Reports
    • ARP General Synod
    • EPC General Assembly
    • OPC General Assembly
    • PCA General Assembly
    • PCUSA General Assembly
    • RPCNA Synod
    • URCNA Synod
  • Subscribe
    to Weekly Email
  • Biblical
    and Theological
  • Churches
    and Ministries
  • People
    in the News
  • World
    and Life News
  • Lifestyle
    and Reviews
    • Books
    • Movies
    • Music
  • Opinion
    and Commentary
  • General Assembly
    and Synod Reports
    • ARP General Synod
    • EPC General Assembly
    • OPC General Assembly
    • PCA General Assembly
    • PCUSA General Assembly
    • RPCNA Synod
    • URCNA Synod
  • Subscribe
    to Weekly Email
  • Search
Home/Biblical and Theological/Discernment Without and Within

Discernment Without and Within

We desperately need to value and exercise discernment in our hearts, minds, and lives.

Written by Nicholas T. Batzig | Friday, November 6, 2020

Discernment must be exercised by Christian both in the personal and public realm. It must shine the light of truth of Scripture on what is within and on that without. As the writer to Hebrews makes clear throughout the letter, believers must discern the sin within their own hearts—in order to gaurd against it—while recognizing the threat of false teachers and persecution from without.

 

With the potential for the entire world to stream into our minds and hearts by means of the internet, it is safe to conclude that there has never been a time when Christians needed discernment so much as at present. But what is discernment? How do we get it? And, in what areas of our lives does God call us to exercise it? These are some of the more important questions upon which we ought to focus our attention, for the simple reason that there is a noticeable lack of discernment in the church and in our own hearts and lives.

Sinclair Ferguson rightly noted that discernment is not simply to be exercised with regard to false teaching that threatens the truth of God among believers. He writes,

“Most of us doubtless want to distance ourselves from what might be regarded as ‘the lunatic fringe’ of contemporary Christianity. We are on our guard against being led astray by false teachers. But there is more to discernment than this. True discernment means not only distinguishing the right from the wrong; it means distinguishing the primary from the secondary, the essential from the indifferent, and the permanent from the transient. And, yes, it means distinguishing between the good and the better, and even between the better and the best.” 1

Discernment keeps us from erring in that upon which we focus our attention and in what we emphasize. It ensures that we value what God values and hold loosely to what we ought to hold loosely. To this end, we desperately need to discover the source of discernment.

Writing to a congregation beset by the threat of their own sin within, as well as the persecution from the Jewish community without, the author of Hebrews brought an indictment against those who were listening to false teachers. He observed,

“You have become dull of hearing.For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 5:11–14).

The believers to whom the letter was written needed to “have their powers of discernment trained.” They needed the solid food of Scripture. In the context, the solid food is tantamount to the deep things of Christ (Heb. 6:1). The “good and evil” between which they were to distinguish were the truths about the fulfillment of all things in Christ (i.e., the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, the great High Priesthood of Christ, the continual intercession of Christ, the superiority of the new covenant over the old covenant, and the need to continue to live by faith in Christ) in contrast with the weak and beggarly elements of the world. There was also their need to heed the warnings about departing from the faith, by a willful embrace of their former sinful lives (Heb. 6:4–8; 10:26–31). The promises and the warnings of Scripture, with a focus on Christ, was the source of training discernment in the minds of hearts of believers.

Read More

Related Posts:

  • The Danger of Loveless Discernment
  • How to Discern Biblical Truth
  • What Is Discernment?
  • Losing Discernment
  • What Christians Misunderstand About Discernment

Subscribe, Follow, Listen

  • email-alt
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • apple-podcasts
  • anchor
Providence College
Kept Pure Conference - 2023

Archives

Books

Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian - by Danny Olinger

Special

God is Holy
  • About
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact Us
  • Donations
  • Email Alerts
  • Leadership
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Principles and Practices
  • Privacy Policy

Important:

Free Subscription

Aquila Report Email Alerts

Special

Letter of Jude
  • About
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Principles and Practices
  • RSS Feed
  • Subscribe to Weekly Email Alerts
Providence Christian College - visit

DISCLAIMER: The Aquila Report is a news and information resource. We welcome commentary from readers; for more information visit our Letters to the Editor link. All our content, including commentary and opinion, is intended to be information for our readers and does not necessarily indicate an endorsement by The Aquila Report or its governing board. In order to provide this website free of charge to our readers,  Aquila Report uses a combination of donations, advertisements and affiliate marketing links to  pay its operating costs.

Return to top of page

Website design by Five More Talents · Copyright © 2023 The Aquila Report · Log in