Discern (def) -perceive or recognize. We are so influenced by our world and all it offers in information and insights. We born-again believers must constantly be aware of what is being fed to our minds and kick out those things that don't align with God's Word. In 1 John, John is writing to remind those believers and us that false teachers can be very persuasive and cause us to get off track. Some of their false teachings even involved them not believing that Jesus was the Messiah. Sound familiar? Our world continues to reject the truth of God's Word and we need to study God's Word to keep ourselves on track and not get distracted into a humanistic worldview.
Why is this important? Here is where their false teaching led them and where it could lead us too. If you doubt Jesus is the promised Messiah then you have none of the hope His life, death, and resurrection give us. When we doubt we turn inward in our thinking and make up our own truth like "we can become sinless on our own." When we begin to believe that we so no need for the help of the Holy Spirit our power in the battle that we don't see and understand is gone. When our power through the Holy Spirit is not evident and working then we will follow almost anything anyone states as truth. That affects our relationship with God because we have put up barriers that should not be there because of God's grace and the relationship God intended is compromised. If we fully immerse ourselves in this false teaching that is received by "itching ears" then we can write a book and lead others down the wrong path and then the whole purpose God has for life is skewed at best.
That is why I always weigh heavily on things done by other believers to see if they are on the right track in their teaching. My impressions must be based on God's Word and my walk must be secure to discern the truths put forth by that Word. I have seen the weak-minded try to elevate a certain person's teaching that has some of the Bible and a lot of themselves in it to a place where it should not be. John's words in the following scriptures specifically spoke to the problem of those false teachers. Every chapter in 1 John is a great lesson to us to not follow false teachers, but weigh everything and filter it through the Word of God.
A very familiar scripture known by many Christians is the verse in 1 John. 1 John 1: 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. This scripture has been kind of confusing at times for me because I know that my sins, all my sins forever have been forgiven and when God sees me He sees a pure vessel. All of that is because of the sacrifice of Jesus. John was compelling those false teachers of his day who believed they were sinless because of their works religion, to come to Jesus for forgiveness. He was warning them to confess their sins because they would never be good enough to be pure. This warning helped them realize that their sin was enough to be a barrier to their fellowship with God because their righteousness was insufficient to be perfect and pure. Some Christians at times believe they can live a sinless life by following religious practices but that is just as false as the teachers in John's day. We live by grace and we exist because of what Jesus did. We believe He is the Messiah and we believe in the Holy Spirit showing us how to live. I will show you more of what John was teaching in the verses before 1 John 1:9. 1 John 1: 5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
Follow God's Word and you will discern the right way to think with your mind. To clear up the way John presents verse 9, look at verse 7. The Bible is its own best commentary and the truth John gave those doubting if Jesus is the Messiah is quickly dealt with by saying the very light we need to expose the truth is found in the light, Jesus the Christ. By the way, this author is the writer of John's gospel and the writer of Revelation. God had his hand on John when He wrote this and it is a truth we can rely on, as is all the Bible. Just read it and ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to discern it.
Vesselogical Out,
David Warren
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