Introduction: I was in Philippians 1 recently. Paul, writing from prison due to his Christian witness, wrote to a Christian congregation. In the opening remarks of his letter, do you know what he wrote about? Discernment.

“For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 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, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:8-11, ESV).

Discernment: Keenness of insight; accurate judgment.

Question: Is discernment an outlier, a one-off, an issue with which the Christian should dispense and/or minimize?

Answer: No. God forbid. Scores of times in Scripture, believers are commanded to be people of discernment. Why? In order to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. It’s just one example: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1, ESV).

Here are just some of the others:

• Psalm 73:17
• 2 Samuel 19:35
• Ephesians 5:10
• 1 Corinthians 2:14
• Isaiah 27:11
• Philippians 1:9
• Hebrews 5:14
• Proverbs 2
• 1 John 4:1

The list could go on, but you get the idea.

Romans 12:9 tells us to “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” How can we know what those things are unless we have our powers of discernment trained?

I run the risk of beating the same drum, but I’m nothing if not persistent. Folks, God commands his people to be people of depth, of discernment, of wisdom. It is shameful the levels of entertainment and kitsch that pass for biblical Christianity in some places. God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7).

Encouragement/takeaway: We ought to strive to be a people who use our minds well; we should not settle for antics or sentimentality when the souls of men and women are before us. We cannot love that which we do not also grasp with the mind. Emotionalism is not Christianity. Traditionalism is not Christianity.

But we will not know these truths if we do not first learn to discern.