Amuse-(vb.) “To divert the attention, beguile, delude,” from Old French amuser “fool, tease, hoax, entrap; make fun of,” literally “cause to muse” (as a distraction), from

Discern-(vb.) “To perceive or recognize the difference or distinction between (two or more things);” also “distinguish (an object) with the eyes, see distinctly, behold;” also “perceive rationally, understand;” late 14c., from Old French discerner (13c.) “distinguish (between), separate” (by sifting), and directly from Latin discernere “to separate, set apart, divide, distribute; distinguish, perceive.”

Introduction: When I was a college kid, there was a popular grunge band named Nirvana. I never cared anything for their music, but I do remember a lyric from one of their songs some of my peers played often: “Here we are now; entertain us. I feel stupid and contagious. Here we are, now; entertain us.” Well, there you have it.

Connections to Depth: Over the last many months in teaching through Matthew’s Gospel to the saints, again and again I discover that Scripture is replete with the command for Christians to be a people of discernment. We are commanded to be a people of wisdom and depth. We are not to be children in our thinking. Here’s how Paul penned it: “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Corinthians 14:20, ESV).

Samuel Johnson wrote that discernment is “the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit” (see Bowell’s Life of Johnson).

Remember when Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi? Do you remember what he wrote? Here’s just a sample. Again, it’s about discernment:

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 1:9-11, ESV).

There’s a world of difference between amusement and discernment. The word amuse literally means “to not think.” A is the negative in Greek. And muse means “to think.”

As a publication of a few years back was titled, Let My People Think. To that, all I can say is, yes and amen.