Discernment Driven by Love

so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ  (Philippians 1:10 NKJV)

In order for us to have a discernment that allows us to choose between better and best, one that helps us make choices that keep us pure and blameless for Jesus, we need to have the love Paul described in the previous verse that is informed by knowledge and insight.  Paul is telling the Philippians that a love that continues to grow in its ability to embrace the truth is a necessary ingredient in our ability to discern in a way that has eternal value.

Discernment alone will have no value whatsoever if it is not driven by love.  Discernment without love, in fact, becomes quite critical.  By dictionary definition to discern is the ability to make out, pick out, detect, recognize, notice, observe, see, spot; identify, determine, and distinguish.  Nothing in that definition has anything to do with the wisdom necessary to do the right thing with what we discern.  That’s why Paul connects the need for an informed love to drive the engine of discernment. 

Jesus was the perfect picture of discernment driven by love.  No matter who approached Him, He knew exactly what was behind the questions asked, regardless of what they presented to Him on the surface.  His discernment detected the insincerity of the Pharisees and so He refused to play into their narrow-minded plans to entrap Him.  On the surface it may have seemed callous; but underlying the discernment was a love informed by the knowledge that if they were to ever stand a chance of escaping the snare of the enemy, He would have to patiently endure their questions without become entangled in their web.  Perhaps that’s why Paul wrote to young Timothy:

²⁴ And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, ²⁵ in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, ²⁶ and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will (2 Timothy 2:24-26 NKJV).

Jesus was always giving every person who approached a chance and opportunity to come to God, regardless of what their presenting motivation may have been.  In order to do this, it was necessary that His discernment be drenched in love, even if that looked hard or difficult at times on the outside.

While Christ’s discernment defied the Pharisees, it also embraced the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, and the woman who washed His feet with her tears – all to the horror of the on-looking and self-righteous people who did not possess a love that knew these women’s deepest hurts and divine longings.

Discernment driven by an informed love is the key to making decisions that keep us pure and blameless as we await Christ’s return.  In light of this truth, I realize that my lack is not in the area of discernment, but rather love. 

Today I will begin a routine of asking God every day to grant me an informed love that drives my discernment so that when I choose what to do with what I discern, it will produce a decision that keeps me blameless and pure.