“Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right” (Charles H. Spurgeon).

It seems to me that very few American believers exhibit any kind of discernment. If the person speaking is charismatic and gifted, we’re likely to believe anything that person says at face value. We never stop to question whether or not it lines up with the Bible.

The problems for most of us is that we don’t know the Bible. We don’t know what it says. We’ve allowed Hollywood and culture and the world to teach us theology instead of taking it from the Word of God, i.e. the Bible.

I remember the Bible saying that in the last days, people would abandon sound teaching and gravitate toward those who essentially say what we want to hear. That’s why so many professing Christians are affirming and endorsing behaviors that the Bible calls sin.

They believe that Jesus taught us to love God and love others. He did, but He also calls us to repentance. He did love the woman at the well, but He called her out of the lifestyle she was in. He loved the woman caught in adultery, but He also said, “Go and sin no more.” He loved Zaccheus, but called him to make amends with those he had previously cheated.

Jesus told us that to follow Him meant to take up our cross daily. That means dying to self. That means dying to sin. That means we don’t go on in our original behaviors and life choices. We have a change of heart that leads to a change of mind that leads to a change of behavior. That’s what repentance means, and that’s what Jesus calls us to.

Lord, grant your Church true repentance and faith. Grant us true discernment to know what is of You and what is not. Grant us wisdom and boldness to follow You, no matter what. Amen.