Discernment (2/3): Be Less Anxious about Being Wrong

Let's not be so worried about whether we're right or be so afraid of being wrong in our interaction with scripture. That sort of anxiety is the reason people clamour after teaching and become unwilling and unable to develop their discernment.

Here’s why.

Often discernment is defined as knowing what is right. But that definition tends to mislead us, because we then treat discernment as a gathering of knowledge, which nowadays just degenerates into a gathering of rumours because of our reliance on sermons and teachers. Rather, as we said yesterday, discernment is our ability to hear and understand what God is saying. Discernment is the ability to discover for yourself what is right in God’s eyes. Referring back to Bereans, if discernment really was just about comparing what Apostle Paul was saying to what they already knew was right, they would not have had to spend the time diving into scripture.

Again, you have no discernment if you rely on someone else’s.

So, if discernment is the development of a spiritual ability, rather than the collecting of correct ideas, then:

1. As I said yesterday, it has to come from God and your interaction with Him. And,
2. It is going to take time, and we are going to occasionally make mistakes and develop the wrong perspectives

Look back at Acts 17. We have already talked about how the Bereans did not look for someone else to affirm or refute Paul’s ideas; they were dedicated to figuring it out themselves. There is another important attitude that they demonstrate here. They were not worried or scared about spending a lot of time and energy engaging in and really digesting what could have been heretical ideas. The chapter here here makes it seem like Paul spent mere hours in Berea, but historically his missionary journeys took decades, with years at each stop. He could have spent weeks, months, in Berea. They could have been sitting around for that long working through Paul’s ideas which in the end could have been totally wrong. Yet the passage said they received Paul’s word with eagerness.

That brings us to the topic of risk taking. Allow me to throw some passages at you and we will put them together afterwards.

Firstly, the knowledge of God is something that God gives to us.

John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Colossians 1:9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Secondly, God wants us to make use of what He has given us.

Matthew 25

14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants3 and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents,4 to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.5 You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Now let’s put those 2 together.

First off, what is often taught about this passage is that the last servant was scolded for being lazy. However, his slothfulness (inaction) did not stem from a desire to not do any work. Rather his inaction stemmed from his fear of risking his master’s money. The master recognized this too. He mentions that the servant could have at least chose a lower risk option such as a bank (which in those days had about the same reliability as the US banking system had in 2008), rather than burying it. God scolded the last servant because he was afraid, he sat, and he did nothing with what was given him.

At this point people will shout, YES! We need to risk our lives for God, whoever loves his life will lose it, etc. What they do not realize is that they will not even take the most basic risk of saying that “God said this to me” without someone else saying it first! How are you going to take risks for anything else if you can not even bear the risk or the responsibility of saying God spoke to you? How do you expect to establish any relationship with God at all if all you do is expect someone else to tell you what He thinks?

So many people are in that place. God could be revealing to them so much about Himself, about them, through the scriptures. He could be revealing things that could change their lives and bring them onto His destiny for them, for others even. But they are so afraid of being wrong that they will do next to nothing with these revelations unless someone with perceived authority teaches it first.

Looking at the servants with the 5 and 2 who doubled up, let me tell you, you cannot double(!) your money with no risk. Heck, I cannot even get 1/20th of that nowadays with no risk. I lost money on my 6% (projected) mutual funds this year. Investments with big returns requires risk, big risk at that.

Let’s be diligent and courageous with what God reveals to each of us, through scripture in our particular topic today. Let’s take a risk in pursuing it embracing it, applying it, sometimes be lovingly put back on track by God when that need inevitably arises in our development of discernment. Let’s not sit and do nothing but what other people say is correct, say is safe. You will not double your talents that way, you will not get good and faithful servant that way.

Practical things:

• Firm up. Do not be afraid of concluding an idea like “The NT apostles don’t use the OT scriptures very well in terms of the contextual exposition that people demand nowadays”. You are not discerning for yourself if you are unwilling to make your own conclusions.
• Speak up. It is hard for discern as a community if you are not willing to speak up to wrestle with issues and simply defer to the first opinion or first rebuttal. You also are not helping others discern if you keep the revelations to yourself.

Homework: In groups, answer the following questions: Was the Apostle Paul for or against the use of the sign gifts (tongues, prophecy, interpretation, miracles) in the public church meeting? If no, what were his supporting observations and his reasons? If yes, what were his reasons and what, if any, were his guidelines for their use? Scriptural references will be expected, but for the sake of this exercise, the scope will be limited to 1 Corinthians.