Basic Biblical Principles of Discernment

The biblical principles of discernment are based on the seven foundation blocks of the previous chapter: Discernment is God-given, Christ-centered, Spirit-guided, prayer-saturated, Scripture-based, corporately-confirmed, divinely-balanced. Eight biblical principles of discernment, based on the acronym DISCERNS, include the following:

1. Discover Biblical Precedent.
2. Investigate for Scriptural Harmony.
3. Scrutinize for Sound Doctrine.
4. Confirm with Experience.
5. Examine the Fruit.
6. Receive Supernatural Discernment.
7. Note Examples and Lessons from the Past.
8. Sift and Weigh for Divine Equilibrium.

As we look at these principles, to make it simple, spiritual discernment is a bit like driving a car. We need to learn when to press down the accelerator, apply the brakes, or continue to move forward with alertness and caution. The illustration of approaching a traffic light while driving helps to picture the process of discernment: Green Light means Go for discernment. Red Light means Stop; go no farther. Yellow light means slow down and get ready to stop. A blinking yellow light is a modified green light when crossing some busy intersections, meaning continue to proceed with caution, looking both ways in case there are crosswinds or someone else wasn’t paying attention to the lights.[i]

 

Discernment Principle 1: Discover Biblical Precedent

Is the teaching, practice, or manifestation clearly found in Scripture? “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17). Biblical precedent may be demonstrated in one of three ways: 1) Commands—a direct command to do or not to do something (for example, the Ten Commandments); 2) Principles—guidelines for common or normal practice (for instance, most of the proverbs are observation of life truth, not commands); 3) Examples—demonstration through something that is said or done or not said or done (illustrations, real life instances, patterns, experiences). Based on these, we then can ask two questions:

• Do any biblical commands, principles, or examples clearly question or condemn this teaching, practice, or manifestation? This is an automatic red light.

• Do any biblical commands, principles, or examples permit or sanction this teaching, practice, or manifestation? This may be a green light, but it also may be a blinking yellow light that requires looking in all directions for further confirmation.

Further Confirmation of Two or More Scriptures.

“Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” (2 Cor 13:1). This is the testimony of Scripture confirming itself. Just because something occurs in Scripture does not necessarily mean it is repeatable. We must not base a doctrine or practice or acceptance of a manifestation on something we find just once in Scripture. That is called “proof-texting.”

For example, Mormons practice baptism for the dead based on an obscure statement by Paul: “Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?” (1 Cor 15:29). This is an unclear passage with questionable meaning, and this practice is found nowhere else in Scripture. It is not commanded or recommended. Therefore, we cannot build a doctrine or practice around a singular occurrence.

We need to compare Scripture with Scripture. If we see something repeated two or more times, we can perhaps discern a general pattern (but still not an absolute). New Testament scholar Gordon Fee notes, even that which is normal does not mean that it is normative: “Unless Scripture explicitly tells us we must do something, what is merely narrated or described can never function in a normative way. …  We would do well to …  not confuse normalcy with normativeness. …  the precedent does not establish a norm for specific action.”[ii]

If we do not have a definite green light from clear scriptural precedent, then we need to proceed with a blinking yellow light caution by exercising the other discernment principles that follow.

Discernment Principle 2: Investigate for Scriptural Harmony

If no biblical precedent can be found, is this teaching, practice or manifestation in harmony with Scripture? Lacking biblical precedent may be cause to question its validity, but it does not automatically rule it out as being from God. This means proceeding with a blinking yellow light, looking in all directions and prepared to stop if warranted. At least five questions need to be considered:

1. Does any other precedent exist for this teaching, practice, or manifestation that is in harmony in Scripture? Paul cites sources outside of Scripture—pagan philosophers and prophets—to make his points. Likewise, both Peter and Jude cite writings outside of the Bible that are consistent with Scripture. Blinking yellow light that could turn to green.

2. Does this teaching, practice, or manifestation contradict or compromise Scripture? Red light!

3. Does this teaching, practice, or manifestation take anything away from Scripture? Red light! “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you” (Deut 4:2). (See also Deut 12:32).

4. Does this teaching, practice, or manifestation add to Scripture, making Scripture insufficient for salvation and truth? Red light! “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar” (Prov 30:5-6). (See also Eccl. 3:14 and Rev 22:19).

5. Does this teaching, practice, or manifestation go beyond Scripture—outside the bounds of Scripture? Red light! “Do not go beyond what is written” (1 Cor 4:6, NIV). Paul’s use of the Greek term translated “what is written” always means Scripture.

6. Do any biblical commands, principles, or examples question or cast doubt on this teaching, practice, or manifestation as not being in harmony with Scripture? Yellow light, be prepared to stop if necessary.

7. Do any biblical commands, principles, or examples allow for the possibility of this practice, teaching, or manifestation as being in harmony with Scripture? Maybe— blinking yellow light—proceed with caution.

Discernment Principle 3: Scrutinize for Sound Doctrine

Is this teaching, practice, or manifestation consistent with sound biblical theology, interpretation, and/or practice? Scripture itself gives us three guidelines:

Is it accurate use of Scripture? “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). Yes—green light; maybe—blinking yellow light; no—red light.

Is it sound teaching in agreement with what Christ taught? “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing” (1 Tim 6:3). Yes—green light; maybe—blinking yellow light; no—red light.

Is it in accord with Apostolic Traditions—teachings handed down from the apostles? “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us” (2 Thess 2:15). (See also 2 Thess 3:6 and 1 Cor 11:2). Yes—green light; maybe—blinking yellow light; no—red light.

These are not human traditions (which Jesus opposed), but the apostolic teaching handed down by Paul and the other apostles and New Testament writers. These traditions include: the deity and humanity of Christ, the Trinity, salvation by grace through faith, the atoning death of Christ, the virgin birth, the resurrection of Christ, the authority of Scripture, heaven and hell. Therefore, we must ask the questions of such teaching, practices or manifestations:

• Does it compromise the deity or humanity of Christ?
• Does it negate the Triune Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
• Does it make salvation by works or a mixture of faith and works?
• Does it compromise the atoning blood of Christ?
• Does it compromise the resurrection of Christ?
• Does it compromise the authority of Scripture?
• Does it compromise the reality of heaven and hell?

If the answer is “yes” to any of these, it is an automatic red light.

 

Discernment Principle 4: Confirm with Experience

Does this teaching, practice, or manifestation have confirmation from real life experience?[iii] A person should never base his or her discernment solely upon experience apart from the Word of God, but Spirit-inspired experience may confirm the validity of the teaching, practice, or manifestation. Mark notes the importance of confirming the Word of God by experience, writing, “And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed” (Mark 16:20). The Word was confirmed by the testimony of Spirit-inspired experience—the signs that followed.

The author of Hebrews emphasized the role of experience in developing discernment: “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Heb 5:14). The Greek word hexis, translated “practice” means habit, constant use, or repeated experience,[iv] a discernment that guided by the Spirit through the experience of the senses that have been repeatedly exercised (the Greek word for train is gymnazo—to exercise). It is through repeated training and repeated experience through practice that discernment is learned.  Yes (if in harmony with Scripture)—green light; maybe—blinking yellow light; no—red light.

 

Discernment Principle 5: Examine the Fruit

Does teaching, practice, or manifestation bear good fruit? This was one of the key discernment principles used by Jesus: “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit” (Matt 7:16-18). Some of the fruit-bearing questions we can ask are:

• Is Jesus Christ lifted up and glorified?
• Does it edify spiritually?
• Are people saved, and/or are lives transformed?
• Does it bring people closer to Jesus?
• Does it build godly character?

Green light if the answer is “Yes”; Red light if the answer is “No”; Blinking Yellow light if there are continuing questions or the answers are mixed.

Discernment Principle 6: Receive Supernatural Discernment

Pray for the gift of discerning of spirits to shed light. “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. …  to another the distinguishing of spirits” (1 Cor 12:8, 10). Many times the Holy Spirit gives a witness or a check where Scripture says nothing. You intuitively in your spirit through the Holy Spirit sense a peace (green light) or lack of peace (yellow light or red light). Robert Jaffray, pioneer missionary statesman of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, called it “a supernatural God-given instinct.”

A biblical example of this gift is demonstrated by Peter when he tells Simon the Magician: “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity” (Acts 8:23). Even though Simon had made a confession of faith in Jesus Christ, Peter perceived supernaturally that something was still not right in Simon’s inner being. Through discernment of spirits, he specifically “saw” a spirit of bitterness and chains of sin remaining in Simon’s life.

 

Discernment Principle 7: Note Examples and Lessons from the Past

Can we find similar precedent in teaching, practice, or manifestation in church history? (Green light if the answer is “Yes”; Red light if the answer is “No”; Yellow light if there are continuing questions or the answers are mixed.)

This combines the four elements of spiritual knowing, what is known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience. God frequently teaches or authenticates by example through the lives of Christians throughout the history of the church. As someone has quipped, “History is HIS-Story.” Hebrews 11 cites the biographies, history, and events of men and women of faith both inside and outside of Scripture as “a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1), examples or testimonies of living faith. A basic biblical principle of discernment is to learn from the past:

“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls” (Jer 6:16).

“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom 15:4).

“Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor 10:11).

Spiritual discernment is not new. A strong emphasis on discernment can be found throughout the history of God’s people both biblically and in church history. We can learn from the ancients and avoid mistakes of the past. This includes both the gift of discernment of spirits and the collective discernment of the Church through the centuries.

A.J. Gordon explains the principle of capturing the Spirit of the Word in the church and the working of the Holy Spirit throughout church history: “The Spirit is in the Word; the Spirit is also in the Church, the body of regenerate and sanctified believers. To follow the voice of the Church apart from that of the written Word has never been safe, but on the other hand, it may be that we need to be admonished not to ignore the teaching of the deepest spiritual life of the Church in forming our conclusions concerning the meaning of Scripture.” ^[v]

How Do We Discern the Ancients? The church fathers do not always agree with each other in their interpretations of Scripture. How then do we discern which of the church fathers we can trust? Some guidelines we can use include the following:

• How faithful are they to the original intent and context of the Scriptures?

• How close in time are they to the first century church? It is more likely that the earliest church fathers following the apostles and apostolic church more faithfully continued apostolic teaching and interpretation. The farther we get from the apostolic church, the more likely we are to have reinterpretation, novel thought, and watering down of apostolic truth.

• Therefore, as we look at later fathers, how closely do the follow or how far do they diverge from earlier fathers? Do they build upon and further explicate earlier teaching or do they diverge from earlier teaching? Do they retain the early Hebrew-Gentile Christian flavor, or are they more influenced by other thoughts and philosophies? For instance, while Origen in the third century taught much that we glean from, his theology is greatly influenced by Alexandrian Greek thought—especially his allegorization and his universalistic divergence from both the Scriptures and the apostolic fathers.

 

Discernment Principle 8: Sift and Weigh for Equilibrium

Does this teaching, practice, or manifestation represent a biblical balance or is it one-sided? (balance—green light; imbalance— blinking yellow light, yellow light, or red light). This is based on the biblical discernment foundation of equilibrium. The Apostle Paul portrays the precariousness of imbalance: “we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, in the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming …” (Eph 4:14-15). Charles Spurgeon describes this instability as swinging like a pendulum: “He is unsteady because, while his faith perceives the truth, it does not perceive the harmonies of truth. …  He is half-blind, and cannot see far.”[vi]

Truth Has Two Wings. A.W. Tozer advocated the two wings principle of balanced discernment: “Truth is like a bird; it cannot fly on one wing. … Dr. G. Campbell Morgan said that the whole truth does not lie in “It is written,” but in “It is written” and “Again it is written.” The second text must be placed over against the first to balance it and give it symmetry, just as the right wing must work with the left to balance the bird and enable it to fly. …  Truth has two wings.”[vii] We will explore this further in Chapter 10.

 

PR

 

This excerpt from Paul L. King, Is It Of God? A Biblical Guidebook For Spiritual Discernment Volume 1 (Newberry, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2019) is used with permission.

Further Reading:

Read John Lathrop’s review of Is It of God?

Read the interview with Paul King about the book: “Wanting What the Lord Wants, an Interview with Paul King”

 

Notes

[i] I have adapted this analogy from my friend Barry Raeburn, an evangelist from New Zealand, who used a green light, orange light, red light image to describe theological balance and discernment in his book The Truth is in the Balance (Tulsa, OK: Barry Raeburn Evangelistic Assn, 2017). They must have orange lights in New Zealand instead of yellow lights!

[ii] Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1982), 100, 101.

[iii] John Wesley used four methods for knowing truth, which became known as the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral.” These include Scripture, experience, reason, and tradition (theology and practice through church history). Scripture is the pinnacle, as we have already mentioned above. The other three must conform to Scripture and find their origin and support in the Scriptures themselves.

A.J. Gordon, 19^th century Baptist pastor and founder of what today is known as Gordon-Conwell Seminary and Gordon College, used a similar grid to determine the reality of healing in the 19^th century, which included the testimony of: 1) Scripture; 2) reason; 3) the Church and missions (tradition and experience); 4) the theologians (reason & tradition); 5) experience. See A.J. Gordon, The Ministry of Healing (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, n.d.),

[iv] The New International Version uses the phrase “constant use” and the J.B. Phillips New Testament translates it “developed by experience.”

[v] A.J. Gordon, “The Ministry of Women,” Alliance Weekly, Dec. 15, 1928, 821.

[vi] Charles H. Spurgeon, 1000 Devotional Thoughts (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1976), 148.

[vii] A.W. Tozer, That Incredible Christian (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1964), 59, 61.