I struggled to find a good title for this post. “When It’s not Really Discernment” is accurate, but I couldn’t figure out the SEO for that one. I tried “Faking Discernment,” but today’s post isn’t about someone who’s faking. It’s about the ways we think we’re living discerningly, when we aren’t. It’s about false discernment.
False, not fake. It’s what happens when we think we’re living a discerning life. Sure of it, even. And we’re not. Not really. We’re trying to be discerning, but we end up with substitutes. We end up with false discernment.
And that, obviously, is a problem.
Staying the Path
Remember that discernment isn’t really the path as much as how we walk the path. The discerning life is lived as we walk through our everyday life: daily appointments, family time, major events, and forgotten moments.
Discernment is not about what songs we listen to, but the way we listen to songs. It’s not about which speakers or messages we accept, but how we interact with their words and presentations.
And yet, our attempts to live a discerning life can very easily slide into patterns that feel like discernment, but actually aren’t.
Instead of maintaining our place in the daily patterns of discernment, we try to short-circuit the process. We find shortcuts. And while we think these skips save us time and energy, we actually end up far from the discerning life we want so much to live.
False Discernment #1: The Fangirl Phenomenon
I once saw a video of a well-known women’s Bible teacher. As we have limited internet and the video was almost an hour long, I watched only a few minutes, when she came up on stage and got started.
But in less than five minutes of video, I saw this type of false discernment in play. As she walked up, the ladies in the audience gave her a standing ovation. Literally, she had to wait almost two full minutes for the applause to die down enough for her to begin.
She had not opened the Bible. She had not spoken a word. At that point, the only thing she had done was not trip up the stairs. And yet the audience stood and applauded. For whole minutes.
This is the fangirl phenomenon.
Two Problems of the Fangirl Phenomenon
Fangirling is false discernment because, instead of looking at the content of a message, it focuses either on the source or on the result. It can sound like this:
- She is a good teacher. I love listening to her teach the Bible.
- That podcast is always so good.
- Every time I do a Bible study by someone or by that publisher, I know it’ll be good.
Unfortunately, trusting the source is not the same as discernment. No teacher, no study, not one single source of information except the Bible, is true 100% of the time. She’s going to make a mistake. That publisher won’t always provide solid teaching. No podcast is infallible.
And when we accept teaching or message based on the source, we set ourselves up to slide right into deception.
Even more problematic, the fangirl phenomenon focuses primarily on the result, specifically me. I like how she teaches. I get so much from that podcast. That just feels (or doesn’t feel) right to me. I, I, me, me.
Is it okay to have favorite teachers? Of course. But my feelings about a teaching, or its source, are not the same as discernment. And they are a powerful risk.
Our emotions are important, God-given, and real. And a discerning person will take them into account. But whether I like it or not, doesn’t make a message true. And the conviction we avoid by our fangirl preferences is often precisely the road that actually leads us to the truth.
False Discernment #2: Legalism
Fangirling focuses on the source or the result. But we can sometimes fall into an opposite extreme when we substitute a legalistic checklist for discernment.
This form of false discernment happens when, instead of actually thinking our way through a message, we set up an outside set of criteria, a checklist, and then apply messages or speakers to that checklist, instead of to the Bible.
Legalism, as usual, means setting up hard and fast rules and then rigidly applying them. The rules may or may not be biblical, of course. And there is no grace, no wiggle-room, no humility in the application.
An Example of Legalism as False Discernment
I recently saw a website where someone did this very thing. There is a long list of Bible teachers, male and female, and the site’s author labels them as acceptable or not. There is a central page where the criteria used are listed, and they are ruthlessly applied, with “support” in the form of articles or blog posts which agree with the author’s views.
At first, to be honest, it seems discerning. The site uses the word discernment throughout. But as I dug a little deeper, the illogical, even prideful nature of the legalism quickly revealed itself.
The Problems of Legalism
Again, the issue here is a problem of focus. Discernment is a process of carefully thinking through a message or idea, comparing it to the Bible as our standard of truth, and keeping what is true while discarding the rest.
When we substitute legalism for biblical discernment, we are trying to short-circuit the hard work and potential for failure that discernment requires. If we have a checklist, after all, we can jump ahead to the conclusion. And by relying on a checklist, we think we lower the risk of being wrong.
But we don’t. We just end up a different kind of wrong.
Legalism intends to protect and do good. It wants the right answer, which is good. But it always ends in hardheartedness. Always. No grace, no kindness, can survive the application of heartless rules. Checking boxes always destroys.
Discernment discards the junk, yes. But nowhere are we required to do it mean-spiritedly.
Secondly, legalism makes “being right” the goal. Discernment makes “recognizing truth” the goal. They are similar, but distinct. Discernment allows for principles to be applied equally, but not always in the same way. Legalism applies rules with rigid perfection and with no consideration for circumstances or variations.
And finally, legalism makes broad judgments. It is an all-or-nothing mindset. The website I mentioned, for example, set up a rule based on a particular passage and then, based on that rule, declared anyone who disagreed a false teacher.
A false teacher, biblically, is someone who teaches a different Jesus, pretending to be a believer when they are, in fact, not even saved. Based on the checklist provided, this website passed judgment on the very salvation of a variety of well-known Bible teachers and insisted that everything they taught be ignored or discarded.
Avoiding False Discernment
This is simply not okay. And it’s not discernment either.
Throwing out everything someone teaches based on your personal rule (legalism) is as problematic as accepting everything someone teaches just because you like them (fangirling). Neither is discernment. Not even close.
Discernment is a process, a thinking application of Scripture to the messages we hear. Its focus is not my feelings. Not the source. Not how close something comes to my personal checklist of preferred “truth.”
It is a daily attitude that seeks to be sensitive to the truth. It’s about learning to recognize truth and lies and almost-truth, so that, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can keep from being swept away by the tide.
Fangirling causes us to throw ourselves on the currents, assuming that wherever we floated is where God wanted us to go. Legalism refuses to get into the water at all, building a leaky boat while we fervently declare who we will allow to ride with us.
Discernment, though, is about learning to swim through the currents, faithfully and doggedly. It’s both anchored and risky. It’s gracious and truthful. And it’s the only pathway that leads us to maturity.
