Discernment: The Safeguard of Revival
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the August 24, 2013
Sabbath School Lesson
“Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be
on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Matthew 16:6,
NIV
Discernment is
sometimes interpreted in different ways depending on the agenda of the one who
claims to be exercising it. The discerner may simply be guiding their life by
the understanding provided by the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, they may be claiming
discernment as a basis for telling others how to live. Most who have walked the
Christian pathway for any length of time have encountered both of these as well
as a fair spectrum of those who fall between these two extremes. The viewpoint
we have of discernment can dramatically impact how we understand revival.
If we see
discernment as a tool for examining the lives of others, we may tend to see
others and their behavior as obstacles to revival. This can result in calls to
clean up the church and return it to some imagined earlier pristine faith.
Never mind that the Bible teaches that all are sinners.[i]
These individuals dwell in this imaginary idyllic past and believe that if they
could persuade everyone to return to that time then Jesus would come. They do
not seem to understand if that were true, He would have come then. But He didn’t,
so perhaps that past was not so perfect either.
Sadly, this
approach not only is based on a fantasy, it also prevents that desired vision
of perfection from being realized in the present as well. Once we begin to
blame the sins of others for delaying the Parousia, we entertain a spirit of
criticism and judgmentalism that may be more destructive to peace and harmony than
some of the sins we feel the need to rebuke. For example, perhaps the one who
rebukes his brother or sister in Christ for drinking a cup of coffee is in more
danger than the one criticized of falling for grieving the Holy Spirit with his
hard-heartedness and his eagerness to wound another soul in a misguided attempt
to purify the church.
How can this
be? Shouldn’t we have standards in the church? Don’t we have a responsibility
to maintain those standards? Initially, many would agree with the need for
standards. However, standards based on man’s understanding of what God requires
are not always the same as what God actually requires.[ii]
If we consider the coffee drinker, although the Bible says nothing about
coffee, some feel that their spiritual well-being is jeopardized by even one
sip of this dangerous beverage. They have taken the Bible and applied a human
derived interpretation of an unrelated passage and created a rule to govern the
behavior of themselves and others within the body of Christ. It was these
derived interpretations that also prevented the Jews from recognizing Jesus as
the Messiah.[iii]
They had the accepted interpretations that had been preserved for generations.
Unfortunately, Jesus did not match their expectations for a savior.
Derived
interpretations of scripture may or may not be correct. Based on the fallibility
of humanity, maybe we should expect some to be incorrect. It is in that
potential for error that we find the greatest danger for such derivations. How
tragic if we succeed in driving an erring person from the fold only to discover
one day that the interpretation we based our judgment on was in error. Even if
it was possible, and with God all things are,[iv]
the work of reclaiming that lost soul may be very difficult. How frustrating it
must be to our heavenly Father to ever have to go in search of sheep that we
have driven from His fold. These are sheep Jesus died for, sheep that were
called to Him and responded to that call. These are sheep that expected safety,
compassion and understanding in the fold but instead found judgment,
condemnation and exclusion by those who felt they themselves occupied a higher
position of favor with the Shepherd. These unkind sheep fail to understand that
God is about saving people, not condemning them.[v]
Some might
feel that I have this perspective because I drink coffee and am defensive about
it. However, those who know me know that I cannot stand the taste or the smell
of coffee. A spiritual justification for coffee drinking would mean nothing to
me. But by the same token, a rule against coffee drinking would mean nothing to
me either. Therefore, if I am to be saved, it must be by some other means than
by coffee abstention as coffee is neither yea nor nay to me spiritually. It is
irrelevant. Perhaps, similar rules are the same for everyone – irrelevant to
their salvation. We have certainly, as a denomination, acknowledged the
foolishness of such rules in the past.
When I
pastored in the Midwest several decades ago, I assisted an evangelist with a
series of meetings. When we reached the end of the series, several made
decisions to join the church. However, at that time, the evangelist could not
baptize anyone who continued to wear a wedding ring. In fact, to do so could
result in loss of pastoral credentials in some conferences. Some who wished to
join the church struggled mightily with this issue. It seemed they were being
forced to choose between loyalty to their spouse or to Jesus. Some were unable
to make the transition and “went away sorrowful.” Sadly, at their departure,
some pastors would even say, “I guess they didn’t love Jesus.” Only God knows how
many souls were thus driven from fellowship.
Now, several
decades later, this is not an issue. Several pastors and many members now wear
wedding rings. They do not see it as challenging their relationship to Jesus. While
there has been no official statement from the denomination regarding the
earlier position being erroneous, the change in behavior and lack of official
opposition to that change is perhaps a de
facto admission of the same. But one cannot help but wonder how we can go
down such rabbit trails with our faith and wound so many who are seeking Jesus
in the process. Maybe it says something about the quality of our spiritual
experience both individually and as a denomination.
At
Pentecost, Peter the Apostle proclaimed a very simple message to the people. He
told them to “repent, and be baptized...” and if you do, you will receive the
Holy Ghost.[vi]
The Bible tells us that thousands responded to that message by uniting with the
church.[vii]
When they did, if we believe Peter, they received the Holy Spirit. To what end
was that Spirit given? Jesus said that the Spirit’s work is to lead us into all
truth.[viii]
Sadly, too
many Christians want to take on this work of the Holy Spirit. They feel that it
is their job to lead other believers into every truth. Never mind they are not
God and so by definition cannot possibly know all truth themselves. Without fear they usurp the role of God in the
person of the Holy Spirit. By doing so they admit that they do not believe in
the power of God, for they demonstrate a belief that God cannot accomplish a
complete work in someone else’s life without their controlling the direction of
that work. Perhaps they are farther from God than the one they are trying to
correct.[ix]
Just as with
so many other things in nature, no two sheep in God’s fold are identical. For
this reason the work of the Holy Spirit is tailored uniquely to each
individual. Since only God can see and understand our hearts, only He, in the
person of the Holy Spirit, has the ability to meet each individual need. We do
not. We tread on dangerous ground when we take what the Holy Spirit is speaking
into our hearts and imply that it is the voice of God speaking to others as
well. This is a danger we all must ask God to help us to avoid. Even Peter
struggled with this issue when he became overly concerned about John’s
spiritual path.[x] But
Jesus gently rebuked him by saying, “What is that to you?”
It is
important that we recognize that God gives the Holy Spirit to all who come to
Him. If we do not believe this then we may be positioning ourselves in
opposition to Peter. If we force God to choose between who is right in this
matter, us or Peter, we may not like the answer. Perhaps it is better to trust
the Holy Spirit to work in other’s lives as well as our own. If we cannot understand
that, is it possibly because we are no longer seeing it in our own lives? If
that is the case, we need only to listen to Peter’s call to repentance.
No amount of
abstention from coffee, dairy, meat, music or any other perceived vice can
restore the Holy Spirit to us. He comes to us not from works, but faith that He
will accomplish a complete work in us.[xi]
Can we trust Him to do so? It is not our work, but His to perform, “For we are
God’s handiwork…”[xii] What
might happen if we went to God and said, “I give up trying to make everything
and everyone right. I’m giving it all to you God. You take it. I trust you to
do it all in myself and everyone else without me worrying about how you are
going to do it or when. I know that you will and that is enough.”
“The Lord is in his holy temple; let
all the earth be silent before him.” Habakkuk 2:20, NIV
