Misconception #5: My pastor (or Sunday school teacher, Bible study leader, Christian radio/television personality, etc.) will tell me what I should avoid.
Truth: Discernment is necessary for growing up spiritually. “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5:14, emphasis mine
God never intended for any Christian to stay a baby. Babies are selfish. Babies are dependent on their elders. And babies are vulnerable—very vulnerable.
This means staying a baby is dangerous for both the child (what if the adult decides to hurt or neglect the child?) and the adult (the care and protection of child drains resources and places the adult between the child and harm’s way). This is one reason why Scripture admonishes us over and over to grow up. Then when you consider we are in a war spiritually and we have an enemy actively seeking to do harm to all in any way…the danger increases tenfold.
Therefore, developing discernment is a must. For while having mature Christians around us is good, they may not always be there to help and guide. And this is assuming their guidance is perfect—which it is not. Mature Christians are fallible and may unintentionally do things that may hurt the younger ones.
So we each must learn how to distinguish good from evil for ourselves. For how will we learn to avoid harm by evil if we cannot even recognize what evil is?
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
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