Learn to Discern - Part I

(Instructions for the teacher: Before class time, make enough 3" x 3" cards from construction paper so that each person in the class will have one red card and one green card.) 

(Instructions for the teacher: Read out loud the following instructions and then the premises one at time, asking the class to hold up the appropriate card as their answer for each one.)

Quick Quiz

Take this quick quiz and see how well you do with discerning what the Bible actually teaches.

These statements from Genesis 3 will be given quickly - and they will not be repeated. The quickness and not being repeated give them a more realistic feel just like we would hear things in everyday life. You have to answer them 'off the top of your head' by lifting the appropriate card or cards you've been given. You can review the answers and ask questions at the end of class time, if you like.

Lift the GREEN card when the statement IS TRUE, or BIBLICAL.

Lift the RED card when the statement is FALSE or NOT BIBLICAL.

Lift BOTH cards when the statement is PARTIALLY TRUE and PARTIALLY FALSE.

Premise 1) The devil never speaks ANY truth, so he lied when he said, 'For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'

Premise 2) Eve ate of the fruit and she went to get her husband to come eat of it, too.

Premise 3) The first sin of blame shifting happened when God asked Adam, "Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" and he blames Eve saying, "The WOMAN that YOU gave to me, gave me from the tree, and I ate."

Premise 4) The FOUR CURSES given were to the serpent, the woman, the man, and the ground.

Premise 5) While Genesis 3 doesn't say God killed an animal, it does say He made garments of skin for Adam and Eve and clothed them.

Quick Quiz Answers

(Instructions for the teacher: when you are finished with this quiz continue reading the rest of the lessons to the class. Take any questions and do more practice premises at the end of the class as time permits.)

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Important Question

How can the SAME good, though imperfect, book (or sermon, magazine article, conversation, etc.)…

- be BENEFICIAL for some

- and HARMFUL for others?

It can when:

1. One person has BIBLICAL DISCERNMENT

- and they use it to test everything

- and they HOLD FAST ONLY TO WHAT IS GOOD and truly Scriptural 

- and they DON'T BELIEVE WHAT IS FALSE

- thereby BENEFITING from the good stuff.

2. And the other person LACKS BIBLICAL DISCERNMENT

- so they end up BELIEVING THE WHOLE THING

- even though there are unscriptural things contained in it

- and they are HARMED.

The NEED for biblical discernment is tremendous and we believe training in it ought to be MANDATORY for all believers.

Biblical discernment can come for every true believer EVENTUALLY who will apply themselves over a lifetime to reading and studying God's Word.

But it can come much more QUICKLY and be used much more EFFECTIVELY AND PRODUCTIVELY in their personal lives and the lives of those to whom they can impart the skills, when those skills are TAUGHT SPECIFICALLY AND THOROUGHLY early on.

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A Powerful Dynamic

It's essential to understand the nature and power of God's Word and understand what He's made it to do. This helps to show us the total inability of man's words to be effective like His, and why we must discern between God's words and man's words.

God's Word is inspired (2 Tim 3:16), alive (Heb 4:12), and powerful (Heb 4:12).

God, the Author, is always with the believer as they read His Word (Rm 8:9; 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19; 2 Tim 1:14), and His Holy Spirit will be illuminating it to the believer (1 Cor 2:14; Jn 14:26; Jn 16:13).

KEY VERSE: God says His Word performs its work in those who believe (1 Ths 2:13b).

He says His Word will not go out without accomplishing what He desires (Is 55:11).

He says the word of His grace is able to build us up (Acts 20:32).

He says His Word equips us so that we are complete, lacking in nothing (2 Tim 3:16-17).

And He says we're to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rm 12:2) (His Word renews our mind).

He and His Word are the only things that can do all these things. The Bible does not say man's words, suggestions, ideas, thoughts, advice, etc. can ever do that!

In fact, God kindly explains to us that His thoughts and ways are as high above ours as the heavens are above the earth (Is 55:8-9).

So we must understand:

As a believer is hearing or reading God's Word

- the Lord Himself is right there with them

- His Word - being inspired, alive, and active

- is actually performing its work in that believer

- causing the effect God desires

- renewing their mind… transforming them… causing true spiritual growth.

Man's words can NEVER do this. It's that simple.

POINT: ONLY GOD AND HIS WORD HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE A PERSON'S LIFE IN THE WAY HE INTENDS!

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What Biblical Discernment Is

Biblical discernment is being able to know whether or not something is biblical.

Biblical discernment is spiritual discernment.

The person who's been born spiritually, born again, can see God's kingdom (Jn 3:3), they have received the Spirit of God and can know the things freely given by God… things taught by the Spirit (1 Cor 2:12-13), and they accept and understand the things of the Spirit of God because they're able to spiritually appraise them (1 Cor 2:14).

At its root the word discern (New Testament Greek: diakrisis) means a 'separating.'

- A SEPARATING of things FROM ONE ANOTHER

- AT THEIR POINTS OF DIFFERENCE

- IN ORDER to DISTINGUISH between them.

With God's Word as the Standard everything that differs from it is to be distinguished. We want to distinguish:

- between TRUTH and ERROR

- between GOOD and EVIL

- between GOD'S THOUGHTS AND WAYS and ALL OTHER THOUGHTS AND WAYS.

As we listen to or read something claiming to be biblical, it's like a constant dividing of things in our hearts and minds where we have a running conversation going on with ourselves like this…

"Yes, that's the pure word of Scripture."

"Nope, that is not in Scripture."

"Yikes, that actually goes against what Scripture says."

"Hmmm… Not sure about that one. Better test it."

We want to learn to practice this effectively in our lives --- and to do this, we need to come to know His Word well. 

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Two Important Passages

1) Heb 5:11c-14

Point: We DO NOT WANT to become dull of hearing, needing milk (instead of solid food), because we are not accustomed to the word of righteousness.

Point: We DO WANT to be mature because we've practiced training our senses to discern good and evil (context is according to the word of righteousness).

2) Acts 17:11

Point: We DO WANT to be like the Bereans who were commended in God's Word for:

- receiving the word with great eagerness

- examining the Scriptures daily to see whether the things taught were so (whether they were in accordance with God's Word).

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The Absolute Best Way

The absolute best way to learn biblical discernment --- is to learn God's Word! When we know God's truth - what He has said, we should be able to much more easily recognize what is to be distinguished from it. Saturation in the Bible is crucial, as is working toward an accurate understanding and handling of it, and a correct application of it to our lives.

How wonderful to make knowing the Bible extremely well our life-long goal, because we come to know our God better through His Word. We're thankful as believers we have His Holy Spirit to open our understanding to His Word (He illuminates it for us), and to teach it to us.

Regarding saturating ourselves in the Bible…

Read it regularly, repetitiously, with belief. (Three chapters a day will get us through the Bible once each year.) Memorize Bible verses and passages, and meditate on them (murmuring them under our breath throughout our day). Personalize the Bible as we read it, inserting our name where appropriate (i.e. "Joseph, let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you."). Use Bible passages in our prayers, and as our prayers.

Learn God's Word by getting to know key Bible passage locations and content, main stories - events - people - and geographic locations mentioned in the Bible. Use Bible timelines, charts,  maps, and other visual aids that help solidify important info in our hearts and minds. Learn about God (His names, His attributes, His actions), the parables - miracles - and teachings of Jesus, the Holy Spirit's work in believers, the main theme of each Bible book, the commands we're to obey, and examples of the ungodly we're to avoid.

Find out what God says about every subject He covers, like what our speech should be like… what our work ethic should be… who we're to minister to… what to do when someone sins against us… how to give someone hope directly from His Word… what His specific will for us is… how to live out our heavenly citizenship… how to biblically deal with the problems of living we all face… etc. etc. etc.

Work toward a solid theology. Use simple catechisms and reliable theology books, and go on to produce systematic theology thesis papers and outlines of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith.

Learn God's precious Word well! It is PURE JOY to saturate ourselves in it.

Regarding accurately handling and applying God's Word…

What do we do when we're not called to Seminary, we're not able to go to Bible college, when our primary calling doesn't allow for full-time Bible study, and our local church isn't bringing forth solid expository preaching and teaching from the pulpit and providing excellent Bible classes (the way our present church does!) - yet we are called to correctly interpret the Bible? What do we do? We look to our kind Lord (Jehovah Jireh - God our Provider) to supply tools to help train us to accurately know and correctly handle His Word.

There are many resources available today like books that can be purchased (or borrowed from a church or friend's library), simplified courses that can be taken, teaching videos we can watch, and online Bible studies we can avail ourselves of, to help us be students of the Word, life-long learners that grow in good Bible skills.

Here's just a few of the books that have helped our family…

Bible Study Tools. Of course, basic study tools like Hebrew and Greek concordances, lexicons, interlinears, Bible dictionaries, and Bible word studies, are staples for Bible interpretation. (See Bible Study Tools for a starter list.)

The Inductive Approach. Kay Arthur's book 'How to Study Your Bible' is an excellent resource for learning the inductive approach. Precepts Ministries also trains in this (www.precept.org).

Basic Hermeneutics and Exegesis. Many wonderful books help simplify rightly interpreting the Bible, while using easy to understand language and easy to learn formats. Start with 'Studying, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible' by Henrichsen and Jackson, 'How to Study the Bible For All Its Worth' by Fee and Stuart, and 'Principles of Biblical Interpretation' by Berkhof.

Bible application. Books like 'Applying the Bible' by Jack Kuhatschek are very helpful.

A Call to Discernment. Jay Adams' book 'A Call to Discernment' ('A Call For Discernment' - newer edition) can be monumental in training to look at what the Bible actually says, to test premises (anything presented as Bible 'fact) against what the Bible actually teaches, and to accept only what is firmly established upon / in God's holy Word.

There have been many more things that helped us (books and courses that helped open up God's Word - not usurping, supplanting, nor twisting it). We hope the ones mentioned above will give some direction to get started in and spark ideas for your family.

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Continue to: Learn to Discern - Part II

Go Back to: Learn to Discern - Intro

© 2005 John and Kim Namestnik     www.givengrace.com

Permission is granted to copy and distribute this curriculum - if it's kept intact and not changed in any way, if it's given without charge, and if this copyright notice is included.