The day is Friday, June 26, 2015. He stood at the podium announcing that this day was a “victory for America” that had “made our union a little more perfect.” In a bit of irony, on the very same day, a person stood at another podium saying, “As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us for he has allowed us to see where we’ve been blind.”
You may be wondering where the irony is in the above paragraph. The victory spoken of, that had made America “a little more perfect” was the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage and the deliverer of that speech was our President. Just hours before, this same man stood in front of thousands, as he eulogized one of those killed in the terrible shooting in a Charleston, South Carolina worship facility. A man who supports the homosexual lifestyle and abortion is given the podium by a group of people who believe such conduct to be sin. They shake his hand, pat him on the back and applaud his words. Where has discernment gone?
Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. 1st Thessalonians 5:21-22
The word, discern, means to distinguish or discriminate. WAIT! For decades our enlightened culture has driven into the minds of so many that discrimination is simply wrong. Many in Christendom hold up signs that say, “God is Love,” disavowing any idea that discrimination is of God. Yet, Paul, as the Holy Spirit guides him, exhorts the church in Thessalonica to “test” (KJV says, prove) all things. This word means to examine, scrutinize (to see whether a thing is genuine or not). It is used in 1st John 4:1, where they were encouraged with these words, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” For the Christian, discernment is not only biblical, it is necessary.
This is one of the reasons we are called to make disciples and teach them to “observe all things that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:20) That insight to the will of God helps to equip them (and us) to recognize right from wrong, truth from falsehood, which in turn leads one to make godly decisions.
Dennis