Since the earliest days of this site, one theme has had greater prominence than any other: discernment. It was the subject of my first book and has been the subject of hundreds of articles. In many ways, it is the reason this site exists at all. “Informing the Reforming” has always been a way of saying this: let’s think carefully together about what is true.
This page gathers the best of what I’ve written on the subject into one place. If you are new to the idea of spiritual discernment, or if you’ve been told it’s just a knack some Christians have for spotting false teachers, I hope this will serve you well.
What Is Discernment?
After spending the better part of a year studying what the Bible says on the subject, I arrived at this definition:
Discernment is the skill of understanding and applying God’s Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong.
Every word matters there, and I’ve unpacked the definition piece-by-piece in What Is Spiritual Discernment? A Biblical Definition. But notice especially the first few words: discernment is a skill. It is not a hunch, an instinct, or a rare gift granted to a spiritual elite. Like any skill, it can be learned, and like any skill, it grows with practice. The book of Hebrews says that solid food is for the mature, “for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).
Why It Matters
We live in a day of unprecedented access to teaching. Every sermon, every book, every hot take arrives carrying the same apparent authority. That makes discernment more important and less optional than it has ever been. The question is not whether you will encounter error, but whether you will recognize it when you do.
Scripture treats this seriously. A lack of discernment is never presented in the Bible as a minor deficiency, but as a mark of spiritual immaturity, and sometimes of something worse. Meanwhile, the presence of discernment is a mark of maturity and life. I traced these threads in an early series, A Call to Discernment, which is a good place to start.
Two Kinds of Separating
Discernment works in two directions. It separates truth from error. This is the doctrinal dimension, the testing of teaching against the standard of God’s Word. And it separates right from wrong. This is the moral dimension, the application of God’s truth to the decisions of ordinary life: what we watch, what we read, how we spend, who we trust, when we speak.
Most people think only of the first when they hear the word. But a Christian who can spot a false teacher at a hundred paces while making foolish, unexamined decisions in his own household has not yet learned what discernment is for. I’ve written about that danger in Discerning in Doctrine But Not Discerning in Character.
How to Grow in It
If discernment is a skill, it can be practiced. And the practice is not mysterious. It begins with knowing the genuine article: bank tellers learn to spot counterfeit currency not by studying counterfeits but by handling real bills until the fakes look, feel, and seem obviously wrong. In the same way, the Christian’s first responsibility is deep, sustained familiarity with the Bible—read, studied, and heard faithfully preached. I’ve described the tests that flow from this in Christian, Do You Test Everything?
Add to that prayer, for James promises wisdom to those who ask for it. Add the local church, because discernment was never meant to be a solo pursuit. God gives pastors and elders, and he gives the plural “you” of congregational life, to guard us from our blind spots. And then: practice. Make the small judgments, test the sermon against the text, and ask questions before you read a book. I’ve listed mine in 5 Questions to Ask of a Book Before You Read It.
The Counterfeit of Discernment
There is a ditch on both sides of this road. On one side lies naivety, the refusal to test anything. But on the other lies something that wears discernment’s clothes while lacking its heart: the critical spirit. Some make a ministry of demolition, and it is worth remembering that it’s far easier to tear down than to build up. True discernment is constructive. It separates truth from error so it can hold fast to the truth, not so it can enjoy the error-hunting. If your discernment leaves you prouder, angrier, and harder to live with, it is not the biblical kind.
Is Discernment a Spiritual Gift?
Many Christians express interest in discernment as a spiritual gift, though the popular description of that gift rarely matches what the Bible actually says of it. I worked through this carefully in a three-part series: The Gift of Spiritual Discernment (with part two and part three). The short version: whatever the gift may be, the discipline is commanded of every believer. None of us gets to outsource it.
Start Here: Essays on Discernment
- What Is Spiritual Discernment? A Biblical Definition. The definition unpacked word by word. The foundation for everything else is here.
- What Does It Mean to Be Discerning? On the difference between discerning tastes and a discerning spirit.
- What Does a Discerning Person Do? Discernment is not an end in itself, so what do you do with it once you have it?
- Christian, Do You Test Everything? Four simple tests, borrowed from the people who spot counterfeit currency.
- A Call to Discernment. A three-part series on why God values discernment and honors those who pursue it. (Part 2, Part 3)
- Discerning in Doctrine But Not Discerning in Character. Why doctrinal precision without character judgment leaves us credulous.
- It’s Easier to Tear Down than Build Up. On the demolition instinct, and why discernment must be constructive.
- What Should We Do with Books by Fallen Leaders?. Discernment applied to a painful and recurring question.
You can browse everything I’ve written on the subject in the discernment topic archive.
The Book
My first book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, grew directly out of the writing collected on this page. It looks to the Bible to see what God teaches about discernment and shows, step by step, how any Christian can cultivate it. John MacArthur, who wrote the foreword, called it “a truly important work.” If this page has been useful to you, the book is the natural next step.
