Discern Your Discernment

“Be a good Berean.” If you have a history in the evangelical church, even a short one, you’ve likely heard this charge. It comes from Acts 17:10–11 where Paul and Silas leave Thessalonica and enter the town of Berea to proclaim the gospel in the synagogue there. The Jews in Berea are said to be “more noble than those in Thessalonica” because they were “examining the Scriptures daily” to see if Paul’s teaching was in accordance with the Old Testament.

So, if you’re going to be a good Berean, you need to exercise discernment when you’re listening to someone who claims to be speaking (or writing) God’s truth. This discernment is utilized by running any given teaching through the filter of God’s Word. Are the teacher’s words consistent with what God has revealed in Scripture?

Amen! There is a lack of discernment in our churches, and we need to promote this kind of intentional care with our ears and hearts before we can accept what is being taught. But is that the only reason the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians? Let’s look at all of verse 11:

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so (emphasis mine).

Before Luke writes about the Bereans examining the Scriptures, he tells us that they received what Paul was teaching with a posture of zeal. As one author says, “They were leaning in and expecting something great to come from God’s Word. They anticipated that it would speak to them, guide them, and not fail them.”¹ This attitude, combined with their careful examination of Scripture, demonstrates that they weren’t gullible, but neither were they spiritually cold and calculating. In other words, biblical discernment has a certain heart behind it.

What is the heart behind what you call discernment in your own life? Does it match that of these noble-minded Bereans? Does it lean forward with passionate expectancy, longing to behold God’s glory in His Word? Or does it look more like what Derek Thomas describes when he says, “Some Christians have developed a critical spirit by which they are no longer able to appreciate the good or helpful aspects of a sermon and merely focus on what is deficient. Behind it lies a form of spiritual snobbery and arrogance”?²

When we’re not eager for God’s truth, the heart behind our “discernment” can quickly become eager for being right or pointing out how others are wrong. Censoriousness among Christians has become far too prevalent a characteristic on social media. Certainly, believers must be on the alert against false teaching, and false teachers must be confronted. But without a Berean heart behind our discernment, secondary issues are seen as litmus tests for heresy, and believing comrades are seen as enemies.

Sadly, on the subject of spiritual discernment, there is a text in Mark 9 that I rarely hear referenced:

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us (vv. 38–40, emphasis mine).

No Christian should be naïve in ministry, but having a heart that rejoices when Christ is being followed keeps us from having a prideful “Gotcha!” attitude when someone isn’t towing the line of our specific tribe. This text along with Acts 17:11 tell us that the heart behind true discernment is a heart that desires to know Christ and see Him be known by others, even when the ones who are making Him known aren’t from your circle. 

The reality is that without this kind of heart, your “discernment” will continue to shrink your circle until it becomes an island where the only ones welcome are those who flash the badge of your meticulously precise brand of Christianity. Brothers and sisters, even our discernment needs to be discerned, because discernment is not just about making sure the teaching is biblical. It’s also about an eagerness for Christ—His Word and His mission.

¹ Jonathan Landry Cruse, “How to Be a Berean,” Table Talk Magazine, March 2023.

² Derek Thomas, Acts, p. 494.