Lesson 4–2: Perception—Discernment

p. 185Romans 12:32 Hebrews 5:23–24 Philippians 1:9–11

Most of the pain in our lives is self-induced. Every day we by-pass wonderful things that God wants to give us for our pleasure and for our good. Every day, we take hold of horrible things that Satan wants to give us to cause us pain, and for our destruction. The main reason we make stupid decisions, to spurn what God offers and to grab what Satan offers, is that we lack discernment.

The enemy is a master of illusion; he knows how to make evil things look beautiful. We fall for his enticements because we have not cultivated the ability to distinguish between good and evil. Without discernment—the ability to make wise distinctions and decisions—our spiritual defeat is inevitable.

“Do not be overcome by evil ...” (Rom. 12:21)

“Do not be overcome” is a present, passive, imperative of the verb nikao with the negative me. In Greek, when a negative is used with a present imperative, it is a command to stop doing something that you are doing. These believers in Rome were being conquered by evil.

The preposition hupo, translated here “by,” means “under the control of.” There are several words for “evil,” but the word used here, kakos, refers to something rotten to the core, harmful, malignant, but something which may look very, very good. The Romans were being deceived by appearances. They were thinking of some evil things as good. But Paul orders them, by the authority p. 186of the Lord Jesus Christ, to stop being conquered by this rotten cancer. The prophet, Isaiah, issued an even harsher injunction to the people of his day: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those p. 187who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight!” (Isa. 5:20–21).

Perhaps the greatest test in our lives as believers is the test of evil, yet most believers do not even know what evil is. Evil is the policy of Satan. As such, it is anything that opposes God’s creative intent. The essence of evil is independence of God. Anything that man does on his own is evil, because man was never intended to function independently of God.

Christianity is weak today because most Christians think that evil is simply sin, and because they think that, they are waging a war that has already been won and totally ignoring the war that is still in progress. Sin is only one manifestation of evil. The war against sin was won at the cross, where judgment for every sin that had ever been or would ever be committed was poured out on Jesus Christ. No one will ever be judged for their sins!

But evil has other manifestations, the most often ignored of which is human good. The human good produced by believers is the wood, hay, and stubble that will be burned up at the Judgment Seat of Christ (1 Cor. 3:11–15; 2 Cor. 5:10). The human good produced by unbelievers is the deeds judged at the Great White Throne. Apart from faith in Christ, none will measure up to the righteousness of God and, therefore, their deeds will condemn them (Jude 14–15; Rev. 20:11–15).

Paul had a solution for the evil in these defeated believers’ lives. Instead of being conquered, Paul says, “overcome.” He uses alla, the strongest conjunction of contrast in the Greek language, with the present, active, imperative of nikao. He is saying, “In total and complete contrast to your being conquered, you should choose to stand up and keep on conquering evil.”

How are they going to do that? There is only one way evil can ever be conquered—with good. The phrase translated “with good” is en to agatho, “in the good” or “in the sphere of good.” Agathos is one of two Greek words for “good.” It means “absolute good, intrinsic good.” Paul is talking about divine good—that which can be produced only by God.

Divine good is produced through believers by the working of the Spirit of God together with the Word of God. The Spirit works through us only when He is in control, when we have no p. 188unconfessed sins in our lives, and so are filled by means of the Spirit. But if we do not have truth stored in our souls, we have made the Holy Spirit a workman without tools. The work He wants to do in and through us He will do only with the Word. That is why we feed on the Word every day. The more we store in our souls, the more the Holy Spirit has to work with and the more He will accomplish through our lives.

Active discernment is a product of this balance of the Word and the Spirit in our souls. Wisdom, which comes only from the Word, is insight into the true nature of things and the ability to know what action to take. But knowing what to do is never enough—we need courage, and the kind of courage we need comes only from the Holy Spirit—the Paraklete, the Encourager.

“For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Heb. 5:13–14)

The word “partakes” here is the present, active, participle of metecho. It refers to someone who is constantly feeding only on the “milk” of the Word—the basic doctrines. The author calls that person “unskilled.” Apeiros is a Greek word that was used for an unskilled workman, someone lacking in experience, someone who was unable to make practical application of a certain tool or a certain amount of information.

He who partakes of milk is unskilled; he lacks experience in the Word of righteousness. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 2:15 to study to show ourselves “approved [un]to God.” The only way we can be “approved” is through our study and application of the Word, but if we are lacking, unskilled, or unable to apply the Word, then we are what the author here calls “infants” (babes), nepios.

Nepios does not refer to physical infants. Homer used the word to describe grown men who were childish and infantile in their thinking—heroes who came home from battle and then could not handle life. The nepios in Homer’s writings were military heroes who had the inspirational courage to stand firm on the field of battle, but who lacked the moral courage to stand in the day-to-day grind of normal life. The author is saying here that the believer who has had time to get to spiritual maturity, yet who is still feeding on p. 189milk, is childish, infantile, lacking in the perseverance that is the hallmark of moral courage. In contrast to the nepios are the teleios, the people who have arrived at the goal or objective, in this case spiritual maturity. The solid food of the Word—the advanced doctrine—is for the mature believer. These people have discernment, but not by accident— they have sweat it out in the gymnasium of the soul.

“p. 190Practice” is the Greek hexis, which means “a habit resulting from consistent, perpetual discipline.” Discipline produces habits. Good habits are just as easy to establish as bad habits. They come the same way; they come through repetition of decisions. Bad decisions, repeated over and over, lead to bad practice. Bad practice leads to bad habits. Bad habits lead to bad character. But the mature have practiced making good decisions; they have established a pattern of personal self-discipline. They have their senses—their perceptive faculties—“trained.” This is the Greek word gumnazo, from which we get “gymnasium.” Mature Christians have good habits because they live their lives in the “gym.” Every day they work with the Word; every day they function in the energy of the Spirit. Every day they strive for higher achievement in the spiritual realm. And because they work out in the Word, they have their senses trained every single day—they have learned discernment.

“p. 191Discern” is diakrino. Krino means “to judge,” dia means “between.” They have the ability to judge between good and evil.

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment ...” (Phil. 1:9)

Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers begins with hina, “that,” which introduces a purpose clause. His prayer has a purpose, “that your love may abound.” The love here is agape, the unconditional love that can be produced by no one but God. Every reference to agape in the Scriptures is a reference to the power, the dynamic, of the Spirit of God.

Agape is not human love. Human love cannot begin to match the love produced by the Spirit of God (Rom. 5:5; 1 Corinthians 13; Gal. 5:22). Agape is the foundation of the Christian’s orientation to reality. If we want to orient to the way that God sees things in this world, we have to start with love. There are two paths we can take in life: the path of love, light, and truth or the path of hate, darkness, and deception.

Agape in Scripture always has a two-fold connotation for man. In Matthew 22:37–39, we are given two commandments: to love God and to love others as ourselves. Our love for God is personal love, love based on the virtue of the one loved. God is worthy of our love. Love for others is unconditional love, based on the virtue of the one loving. The highest expression of the love of God operating in our lives is when we love those who are absolutely unlovable. But it is impossible to love others if we do not love God and if we have not learned to love and accept ourselves based on God’s love for us.

This love, Paul tells the Philippians, is to abound, to overflow. The “real knowledge” he wants them to have is epignosis, “experiential knowledge.” “Discernment” is from aisthesis, a word that means “insight, perception, skillful application.” It was originally used of common sense and the ability to make distinctions. Paul’s prayer is that their love will overflow in two areas: practical application of the Word to life and the ability to make common-sense distinctions in life. This is the beginning of discernment.

“p. 192so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Phil. 1:10–11)

When the ability to make common-sense distinctions leads to making common-sense decisions, we have “approved,” dokimazo, “to prove by putting to the test.” We have put something to the test with a view toward approval. We need to develop, through experiential knowledge and discernment, the ability to put things to the test. Discernment is proof by testing.

“Things that are excellent” refers to things that are of value, worthwhile, as opposed to things that are worthless. We put things to the test, we identify the things that are excellent in order to be “sincere and blameless.” “Sincere” is from eilikrines and means “to be judged by the sun, to be open to the light, to be unmingled with darkness.” Aproskopos, “blameless,” means “without stumbling.” When we approve the things that are proper, excellent, and fitting in God’s plan, we can stand in the light because we have nothing to hide and we can walk in the light without stumbling. Paul wants these believers to be open to the light and without stumbling until “the day of Christ,” a technical New Testament term for the Rapture of the Church.

“The fruit of righteousness” in verse 11 is a reference back to the love of God. “Having been filled” comes from the Greek verb pleroo, a word with four shades of meaning: “to fill a deficiency, to fill with quality, to fully influence, and to fully possess.”

We all have deficiencies in our lives. But they are filled when we allow the Word of God, in the function of the love of the Holy Spirit, to become practical and experiential, to work in our lives. Only then do we begin to orient to God’s reality instead of our subjective emotions. We begin to understand where we stand with God, that we are forever “accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6, NKJV).

Once we really understand what that means, we are able to take the rejection of other people and do what no one is able to do apart from the Spirit of God—to love unconditionally—to love others not because of anything attractive in them, but because God loves us and pours that love through us. Unconditional love is a wonderful thing to be able to give. When we can love unconditionally, we have been filled with the fruit of righteousness.

p. 193That love gives us the ability to have discernment and to make good decisions. It gives us the ability to adjust to whatever conditions we face in life. Because we are filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ, God receives the glory and the praise.