Spiritual Discernment

Maybe spiritual discernment is simply having our understanding opened by God.

The apostle Paul wrote that the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, because they seem foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are discerned spiritually.

But what does it mean to discern spiritually?

Luke tells us that, after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples and opened their understanding so that they could understand the Scriptures.

They already knew the Scriptures. They had walked with Jesus, heard his teachings and witnessed his works. And yet there was still something they could not understand.

It was Jesus who opened their understanding.

In the same chapter, Luke records that the eyes of two disciples were opened and they recognized Jesus. And that their hearts burned while he explained the Scriptures to them.

Eyes to see. Ears to hear. A heart to understand.

Centuries earlier, Isaiah had announced an astonishing human condition: people who see, but do not perceive; who hear, but do not understand.

Jesus took up this prophecy and repeated many times:

Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.

Maybe the problem is not the absence of eyes, ears or intelligence, but the inability to discern what is right in front of us.

And here we find repentance.

Jesus began his preaching by announcing the Kingdom of God and calling people to repentance.

The Greek word metanoia, translated as repentance, is related to a change of mind, of understanding and of direction.

To repent is not only to acknowledge our behavior, but to experience an inner transformation that allows us to discern good and evil.

The letter to the Hebrews reminds us that solid food is for the mature, who by constant practice have trained themselves to discern both good and evil.

Paul wrote:

“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

And he added the purpose of this transformation: so that we may test and approve what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.

Our natural mind is able to learn, reason, build knowledge and discover many truths. But it is also able to deceive us.

And deception is not always obvious.

A little yeast is enough to leaven the whole batch of dough.

Like a small virus that compromises how a computer works, a lie welcomed as truth can corrupt our way of understanding many other things.

The most unsettling part is that we may be sincerely convinced that we understand what is good, when we still cannot discern the evil that may be present in our own convictions.

The Scriptures, however, show us that even the great men of God were subject to fear, deception and serious mistakes.

Elijah was human like us. Abraham, David and Paul also experienced the limitations of the human condition.

If even the great men of the Scriptures needed to be corrected, why do we still have so much difficulty admitting that we need it too?

As the wise man wrote:

“All a man’s ways seem pure to him, but the LORD weighs the spirit.”

Maybe our greatest deception is precisely believing that we are not deceived.

That is why the Scriptures advise us to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not to lean on our own understanding.

Jesus declared:

“I am the way, the truth and the life.”

And also:

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Speaking of the prince of this world, Jesus said that he had nothing in him.

The one who is the truth was not subject to the dominion of the one who is called the father of lies.

And Paul, speaking of spiritual discernment, concluded:

“But we have the mind of Christ.”

Maybe this is the path of repentance in the Kingdom of God: allowing the truth to reveal the deceptions we still cannot perceive, transforming our understanding and our way of living.

Having our eyes open to see.

Our ears open to hear.

Our heart open to understand.

And our understanding continually renewed by the Spirit.

Until Christ is formed in us.

Maybe spiritual discernment is not the ability to claim that we already understand the truth, but the freedom to keep having our understanding opened by the one who is truth himself.