Discernment: Gray Matters
Boundless Webzine is publishing a series of articles in anticipation of the upcoming New Attitude conference. In the first part of the series, Eric Simmons offers readers five principles of discernment for those seemingly “gray areas” of life.
Gray Matters: Five Principles of Discernment
by Eric Simmons, Boundless.orgGray matters. We all deal with them … those places in our lives where the line between “right” and “wrong” gets fuzzy. Or even disappears.
- Is it OK just to fast-forward the sex scene and watch the rest of the movie?
- Should I smoke a cigar with my unbelieving father?
- How tight is too tight?
- Can a Christian play poker?
- Can I have a beer with dinner?
I can’t tell you which movies to watch or what music to listen to. I can’t give you a list of Do’s and Don’ts. But together we can go to Scripture to cultivate discernment in the gray matters.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Is it at all possible for y’all to go one post without shamelessly self-promoting yourselves? I’m beginning to wonder.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Hey Bill, New Attitude isn’t our event. It’s a conference put on by the group of churches our older brother is part of and which a good number of our readers are part of, as well. Its message of humble orthodoxy is one that has really ministered to our generation and the speakers this year are some of the men Brett and I most admire—men like John Piper, Albert Mohler, and CJ Mahaney.
Actually, if you look through the archives, you’ll see that we look for opportunities to share their work with our generation. This is just another example of that.
May 10th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Wow, I thought that was really good. Thank you for putting this on. I hope everyone on here will get a chance to read it.
-Mercy Joy C.
May 10th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Thanks for the link!
That was a good article!
May 11th, 2007 at 3:41 am
I like the article very much,thanks a lot!
May 11th, 2007 at 5:09 am
I am a little concerned that this article never mentions the biblical teaching of personal conviction. Romans 14 teaches that there ARE gray areas - I would argue that consumption of alcohol and tobacco would fall into this category - and we should be fully convinced in OUR OWN MIND as to our behavior, without judging anyone else’s choices in the same area.
May 11th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Awesome article guys!! it makes a good point to me, And coralie there are no grey area’s , the bible says its white or black, period.
May Hods blessings be on you both!!! bye!!!
May 11th, 2007 at 6:12 am
It would seem that Paul is specifically talking about food in Romans 14:14 (though other bible translations are slightly different)…”As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.”
I do not know how God views smoking and drinking, but I do know that if I was to see a fellow believer do those things that it would cause me to stumble…
Romans 14:21 “It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.”
These are just my thoughts…
God Bless~
May 11th, 2007 at 6:13 am
P.s.
that was in reponse to Coralie…
May 11th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Thanks for sharing that article with us; I found it very applicable/helpful. This is definitely something to work on!
May 11th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I like this artical. It is really good.
Thanks.
May 12th, 2007 at 6:33 am
While Romans 14 may be talking specifically about food, we have to remember that so many things that are common possibilities for people to do today just were not available in that time, so I do think the principle extends. There is also Galatians 5, which talks specifically about circumcision and relates it to freedom from the law. Does that mean that only circumcision is in view? It then leads into a list (certainly not exhaustive)of works of the flesh, and it is interesting how few of which are actually outward things. Then we get to 1 Corinthians 10 which is also about food on the surface, but which delves more deeply into the question of when we might not want to exercise our freedom. Just because we might not want to exercise it at all times does not mean it is not a real component of the Christian life.
With that said, I will say that it is very easy to take Christian liberty as an excuse to sin. We are to have sensitive consciences and pray that we will become more discerning over time. And if someone is in serious sin, it is all right to approach and correct them in a spirit of humility and knowledge that we may be next to fall, and there is also the admonition to cover a multitude of sins with our love, or not to be nitpicky and judgmental. One reason the church exists and has officers is to make the determination when a believer’s sin is serious enough to warrant discipline. Whether that is done much today is another issue.
May 12th, 2007 at 7:07 am
thanks for sharing the article. It was very interesting. GOD’s WORD is always our answer for every problem we might face. once again, thanks.
May 12th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Interesting article! So many people don’t want to see that there aren’t really grey areas. We get so caught up in society’s message of moral relativity and non-judgmentalism that we forget God has a different standard. We have seen firsthand in our church the damage that can be done by a lack of discernment. It causes nothing but trouble and strife and confusion.
The ONLY thing I take issue with in that article was that the Bible they quoted was incorrect - Jeremiah 17:9 really says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” “Sick” is not the same as “wicked”.
May 12th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
If there are no grey areas, is the long-standing principle of Christian liberty a myth? And how, for example, do you know how God feels about the internet or any kind of situation or technology that did not exist at the time the Bible was written?
May 12th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Samantha: I think if you read through the two articles you’ll see that Eric isn’t denying the truth of Christian liberty. A lot of times our “liberty” is used as an excuse to not practice biblical discernment. The point is not that there aren’t gray areas, but that there aren’t gray actions.
May 12th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Yes, I read through the article. I was responding to his direct statement that there “aren’t really grey areas”.
Perhaps I misunderstood. But moral relativism is a totally different issue from whether there are areas of life about which God has been silent in His word and/or areas where people disagree about the application of a Biblical principle. One issue that interests me is the issue of nudity. Christians disagree strongly as to when viewing nudity is acceptable. Is it only acceptable when bathing children or in the context of the marriage bed? Is it acceptable to view non-pornographic fine art with nudity? Is it acceptable to be an artist’s model? Is it all right for a woman to see a male gynecologist? Is it all right for a baby to crawl around without his diaper? I think this is a bona fide grey area, but I also think that the list for discernment given in the article can be helpful in determining your answer to these questions.
May 12th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Just wanted to clarify…I meant to say “she” in the above comment, as I was not referring to the original article in my statement about Christian liberty, but to Valerie’s *comment* .
May 14th, 2007 at 6:18 am
Guys, this is an insightful article, but I am concerned about committing to “distrusting the heart” as an absolute principle of discernment. A simple keyword search of “heart” in both the Old and New Testaments shows that while the heart can often be full of mischief and easily led astray, the heart is ultimately a very malleable thing. The heart can be purified and oriented to the love of God- in fact, this is what God commands! In fact, if we narrowed our search of “heart” to the Gospel of Matthew alone, we would find BOTH warnings about the heart and the following affirmations of the human heart’s potential: the pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8); the repentant can gain from the Lord an understanding heart (Matthew 13:15); and Jesus repeats the Dueteronomic command to love God with all of the heart. (Matthew 22:37).
One of the best sets of instruction on discernment, which is used by Roman Catholic young people discerning vocations to the ministry, is the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Ignatius emphasizes the purification of the heart through total devotion to Christ, such that the heart can gradually come to be trusted as God’s instrument. This principle relies on Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” The principle also derives from a basic principle of Augustine, who taught that when the heart was in love with Christ, the desires of the heart would also be oriented to Christ’s love and service.
May 15th, 2007 at 7:23 am
I thought that was a wonderful article. The only thing I’d like to add is that in the ‘involving others’ section, Mr. Simmons didn’t mention going to parents for accountability, but seemed to be talking more about friends. I could be wrong.
But I did want to mention, that if we are blessed to have a godly Christian parent in our lives, we should be constantly going to them for direction and advice.
May 15th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Excellent point about the discernment of the heart that delights in Christ, Mary. Thank you for sharing that.
Gracie, you’re absolutely right about the importance of our parents in accountability and discernment. Boundless is targeted at college-age students and older, many of whom are away from home, so that is probably why Eric didn’t emphasize it, even though I know he agrees with you.
May 15th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Awesome article. I very much appreciated reading it. It’s so true, there are no in- betweens. Revelation 3:15,16 say’s
” I know they works, that thou are neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
and Matthew 6: 24 - “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:39 pm
I am glad that Samantha mentioned male gynecologists. Most Christians don’t think about this issue. You can find a good article about what is wrong with male gynecologists by going to http://faithfulwordbaptist.org/gynecologists.html. I have no desire to condemn women who have gone to male gynecologists in the past. I believe that this is a cultural blind spot. We often don’t question the medical industry, but the truth is medical professionals are not above us morally.