Growing up, I encountered people of various beliefs at school and in life. Some of my friends and peers came from Hindu and Muslim backgrounds. A neighbor down the street was a Mormon, while a family friend was a Jehovah’s Witness.
At that time, I did not think much about these different religions and cults. However, things changed when a family friend who was a Jehovah’s Witness started regularly visiting with other members of her belief system.
Even before I was saved, I had a sense of unease with their teachings. Once I was saved and began growing in my faith, I learned the need to practice spiritual discernment.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses who visited me were kind and friendly. They would often go out of their way to help me and my family and even offered their support after my mother passed away. As much as I loved these individuals, I increasingly learned that their teachings were wrong.
In my studies of Scripture, I knew the truth that Jesus is God, that He came to die for our sins on the cross, and that He was bodily raised from the dead. Unlike what the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach, Scripture says we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus’ death and physical resurrection.
I began to discern truth from error in the messages I heard from the Jehovah’s Witnesses and their literature by asking God to help me understand the truth and by comparing everything to Scripture.
The Holy Spirit guided me in the truth and urged me to lovingly confront my friend. Although I was afraid and ended up stumbling over my words when I shared the gospel message with my Jehovah’s Witness friend, the Holy Spirit helped me speak the truth.
After months of encounters in which I continued to share the gospel and biblical truth, my friend and the other Jehovah’s Witnesses stopped visiting. I was raising questions and doubts about their beliefs, and that was unacceptable. Thus, they ceased coming.
However, that does not mean I stopped caring. Today, I continue to pray for the salvation of my Jehovah’s Witness friends and seek to faithfully use my outlet in writing to help others learn biblical truth.
Also, from this experience, I learned about the need for spiritual discernment and how important it is in my Christian walk.
Though I am not the first to write about this topic or to advocate for the need to practice biblical discernment in everyday life, here are five things I learned about spiritual discernment.
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1. The Identity of Jesus Is Central to the Topic of Discernment
In my discussions with Jehovah’s Witnesses, I emphasized the biblical identity of Jesus. Scripture supports this approach because we are told that we can recognize false teachers based on their message about Jesus (1 John 4:2-3).
In this passage, John addressed the heresy of Gnosticism, which denied that Christ, the Logos, came in human flesh. The central way to spot false teaching is to compare what the Bible says about the identity of Jesus and His incarnation with the messages we hear in the world.
The Bible encourages us to test the spirits because not all teaching is from the Lord. Spiritual forces are at work in the world, seeking to lead us astray.
False teachers may seem to be working on their own, but their teaching is inspired by demons. Hence, we need to test the spirits, as John urged in his epistle (1 John 4:1). We do so by examining what these teachers say about Christ.
Since discernment is about recognizing the difference between truth and falsehood, or orthodoxy and heresy, we need to ensure that our understanding of Jesus aligns with Scripture. The truth of Jesus’ identity as fully God and perfectly man is central to biblical faith.
If He were not God, He could not save us. And, if He were not human, then His sacrificial death would not apply to humanity. Likewise, if Jesus did not die and physically rise from the dead, then our faith is futile (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 12-19).
What we believe about Jesus is central to our faith and the basis for discerning truth and error.
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2. Discernment Comes from God
Biblical discernment is not a skill we can develop on our own, nor is it something we can gain from reading a book or watching a lecture.
Scripture teaches that wisdom, which includes the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, is from God. He is the One who gives knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6).
Of course, a person must believe that God exists and revere Him before He grants the person wisdom. As Scripture teaches, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).
Someone who does not believe in God cannot have true wisdom. Instead, the Bible says such a person is a fool for denying God (Psalm 14:1).
This does not mean that people who follow other religions are unintelligent or unlearned. They may have received an education and know about a variety of subjects. Some of the individuals may even know teachings from Scripture.
For example, my Jehovah’s Witness friend had an extensive knowledge of biblical passages, though her familiarity was with the New World Translation, the Watchtower-approved version of the Bible.
As much as she and other Jehovah’s Witnesses know this Watchtower version and other literature, they do not have genuine biblical knowledge since the New World Translation is an erroneous version of Scripture.
Since fear of the Lord or reverence for Him is the beginning of wisdom, those who do not know the true God of the Bible cannot practice biblical discernment.
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3. Christians Can Become Discerning by Praying and Reading Scripture
When I began questioning the teachings of my Jehovah’s Witness friend, I sought help from God. I prayed to the Lord, asking Him to help me understand the truth. He answered and guided me with His Word.
Wisdom comes from God. Therefore, if we want discernment, then we must ask God for it. As James explained in his epistle, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5).
Solomon did this when he became king of Israel. Instead of asking for riches or honor, he asked God to grant him wisdom so he could lead the people of Israel (2 Chronicles 1:10).
The Lord blessed this request and imparted Solomon with vast knowledge and judgment. Out of all the kings of the world, Solomon became renowned for his wisdom (2 Chronicles 9:22-23).
Although he was wise, when he stopped following God’s commands, he became unwise. Solomon failed to obey the Lord’s instructions that a king should not take for himself many wives, because they would lead him astray (Deuteronomy 17:17).
Nor should he acquire horses for himself, since the Lord should be Israel’s hope and strength, not military force (Deuteronomy 17:16). Since Solomon turned away from God’s instructions, he increasingly fell into idolatry and turned away from following the Lord (1 Kings 11:1-3).
The example from Solomon’s life shows us the need to keep walking in the wisdom God provides by following His Word. Scripture guides us in the right paths and protects us from going astray (Psalm 119:104-105).
Therefore, we grow in our ability to practice discernment by knowing biblical truth. This, in turn, enables us to spot false teachings.
We can ask God for biblical wisdom by praying to Him and by regularly studying His Word.
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4. Every Christian Needs to Practice Discernment
Some believers think they do not need discernment since they can look to pastors, scholars, or Christian leaders to navigate the tumultuous waters of theological teachings and other philosophies in the world.
However, we will all encounter various beliefs, worldviews, and teachings. We cannot rely on others to guide us in every circumstance, which is why every Christian needs to practice discernment.
For example, a Christian may befriend a Jehovah’s Witness, like I did. Not only will he or she need to know how to evangelize but will also need to be discerning about the literature and teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
If this believer is careless, then he or she could become easy prey for false teachers. Scripture encourages us to be wise and discerning about the messages we hear (Proverbs 14:15; 1 John 4:1).
We also need to be careful with messages we hear from Christian teachers. When discerning if a prominent teacher is biblical or not, we cannot rely on outward signs of behavior alone. We might think someone is kind or genuine, but that person could deceive us.
Jesus warned us that many false prophets (or teachers) would come as wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). Like Satan and his demons, who inspire the messages of heresy and error, false teachers can appear as “angels of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).
The same is true of information we find in books or online. The message could be packaged in ways that appear correct, even using phrases and words that seem orthodox. In these instances, we must be careful not to assume that something is correct if it is merely presented nicely.
Believers need to learn to compare everything to the truth of God’s Word. For truly, the Bible is a sharp sword that can cut through the haze of deceitful false teaching (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12).
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5. Spiritual Discernment Is Not about Being Puffed Up
A final lesson I learned about spiritual discernment is that it should not puff up. Knowledge can make us feel overly important and, at times, even superior to others. This risk is even higher if we have received some form of higher training in the Bible.
Although it is tempting to allow our egos to become inflated when we receive higher education or develop greater discernment about a biblical issue, we need to resist becoming self-righteous or judgmental.
Knowledge puffs us up but love uplifts others (1 Corinthians 8:1). We should practice biblical discernment with the goal of better loving God and others (Luke 10:27).
There will be times when we will need to confront others about sin, false doctrines, and erroneous beliefs, but we should do so humbly and lovingly (Ephesians 4:2).
What kind of testimony for Christ would we leave if we treated non-Christians or Christians living in error or sin with contempt and a self-righteous attitude? To testify to the love of Christ in our lives, we should seek to treat others the way we want to be treated.
One way we can prevent ourselves from developing a critical attitude or puffed-up ego is to remember that Jesus came as a servant to others. As He said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
The Lord of lords and King of kings gave His life for us. If he took the attitude of a servant, then we should do likewise and seek to use biblical discernment to love and serve others.
In today’s world filled with false teachings, believers need to be discerning of what they read and hear. However, we need to ensure that our hearts are in the right place and that we are not seeking discernment for the sake of self-aggrandizement. The goal of practicing discernment is to love the Lord and others more.
For further reading:
What Is the Spiritual Gift of Discernment?
Does the Holy Spirit Give Us Discernment?
Why Is Discernment Important in the Christian Life?
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Originally published Friday, 05 January 2024.