Knowing Times and Seasons by Peter McArthur - HTML preview

Chapter 9

Definitions of Discernment

DISCERN (from The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia). Five Hebrew words are translated as “discern”:

1. bin, yadha, nakhar, raah and shama.

2. It may simply mean “observe” (bin), “I discerned among the youths” (Prov 7:7) Or it can mean discriminating knowledge, “A wise man's heart discerns time and judgment” (Eccel 8:5. yadha)

3. “He discerns him not, because his hands,” etc. (Gen 27:23, nakhar)

4. “Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked” (Mal 3:18, raah)

5. “So is my lord the king to discern good”. (2 Sam 14:17, shama).

In the New Testament the words anakríno, diakríno and dokimázo are translated as “discern”, expressing the close and distinct acquaintance with or a critical knowledge of things. Used in KJV in 1 Cor 2:14 “the things of the spirit of God”; in 1 Cor 11:29 of “the (Lord's) body” in the sacrament; in Matt. 16:3 of “the face of the heaven”; in Heb 5:14 of a clear knowledge of good and evil as the prerogative of a full-grown man.

DISCERNING OF SPIRITS (from The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)

The Greek phrase diakriseis pneumaton means “judicial estimation,” “through judgment or separation”. It occurs in 1 Cor 12:10 as being one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The word also occurs in Heb 5:14 and Rms 14:1: “But him that is weak in faith you shall receive, yet not for decision of scruples.” This translation scarcely expresses the meaning which Thayer has freely rendered, “not for the purpose of passing judgment on opinions”.

Taking these three passages together it’s evident that the Greek term which is rendered “discerning” means a distinguishing or discriminating between things that are under consideration; hence, the one who possessed the gift of “discernings of spirits” was able to make distinction between a person who spoke by the Spirit of God and one who was moved by a false spirit. This gift seems to have been exercised chiefly by those who had the role of teachers, and it was especially important because of the abundance of many false teachers then current (see 2 Jhn 1:7; Acts 20:29-30).

DISCERNING OF SPIRITS (from Fausset’s Bible Dictionary)

1 Cor 12:10. Discerning between the operation of God's Spirit and that of an evil spirit, or unaided human spirit claiming to utter the dictates of God's Spirit.

Acts 5:1-11; Acts 8:28; 1 Cor 14:23,37: "if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write to you are the commandments of the Lord." It is this which assures us of the inspiration of the NT. The books were accepted as inspired by churches having men who possessed "the discerning of spirits" (1 Jhn 4:1; 1 Tim 4:1).

DISCERNING OF SPIRITS (from Vincent’s Word Studies)

1 Cor. 2:14 “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Concerning “the natural man”, the contrast between the soul, life, and spirit is a man governed by the Holy Spirit and one in whom the Holy Spirit is absent. But natural, is not equivalent to fleshy. Paul is speaking of natural as contrasted with spiritual cognition applied to spiritual truth, and therefore of the soul, as the organ of human cognition, contrasted with the spirit, as the organ of spiritual cognition.

The man, therefore, whose cognition of truth depends solely upon his natural insight is natural, as contrasted with the spiritual man to whom divine insight is imparted. In other words, the organ employed in the apprehension of spiritual truth characterizes the man. Paul therefore “characterizes the man who is not yet capable of understanding divine wisdom as natural, i.e., as one who possesses in his soul the organ of purely human cognition, but who has not yet the organ of religious cognition in the spirit.

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