Discern Correctly

If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 14 and 15. Let me read it for you: "The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments." I have been meditating on these verses for the last couple of weeks, and God has been ministering to me in a special way. I have not heard many sermons preached on them, so at first it was difficult to explore what it means that a person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things and is not subject to any man's judgment.

Let me begin with the popular understanding we have of the new covenant. Hebrews calls it a better covenant. In 2 Corinthians 3, when Paul writes about the new covenant, he says we have better promises. If the old covenant laws were written on tablets of stone, the new covenant laws are written on hearts. The ministry of the old covenant was the letter, a ministry of death; the ministry of the new covenant is of the Spirit, which brings life. So we know we are in better days with better promises. Yet many people know this covenant only as one where more miracles take place, where the spiritual gifts are exercised more than under the old covenant. In 2 Corinthians 3 the old covenant is described as a fading glory, while the new covenant is a permanent glory that does not fade. If the ministry under Moses was glorious, Paul writes that we are now taken from glory to glory — there is a permanency to the glory we are speaking of.

But what is the true glory of the new covenant? With all the words Paul and the other apostles use, and with what the prophets foretold — Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:27, that well-known promise where God says a day is coming when he will give a heart of flesh and not of stone, when he will write his laws on our hearts and move us to obey his decrees — what is it that makes us so special compared with the saints of the old covenant: Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel? I have a feeling there is an area on which we have shed no light, and that is the area of judging. New covenant believers, because we are in better days, should be able to judge correctly in all aspects of life. We should not be like an Old Testament person who might make mistakes in his judgment. We should judge correctly, because we have the Holy Spirit upon all of us. Where the Spirit was given only to selected individuals in the Old Testament, Joel prophesied that a day was coming when the Spirit would be poured out on all flesh — young and old, men and women, no difference. All of us have the Spirit, and so the promise of 2:15 is that the person with the Spirit — meaning all of us — makes judgments about all things. This is the glory of the new covenant.

Unfortunately the church at large has missed this angle of making right judgments. We sometimes end up judging just like the world; there is no difference between how the world judges and how a church or an individual believer judges, and yet we claim to be in a better covenant. That is the irony. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 3:18. When Paul describes the new covenant he says, "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory." Mark that word, transformed. The glory of the new covenant is that there is a transformation happening inside, which was not happening in the old covenant. Inwardly we are being changed, so much so that we are potential image-bearers of God. We can be transformed and become like Jesus, able to make right judgments — because Jesus made right judgments about everything. All of us seated here today are called to make right judgments.

Come back to our text, 1 Corinthians 2, from verse 6 onward. The whole passage is about judgment; you see the word repeating in almost every other chapter. In chapter 4, verses 3 and 4, Paul says, "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court... My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me." In chapter 5, verses 12 and 13: "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?" In chapter 6, verse 2: "Do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world?" And verse 3: "Do you not know that we will judge angels?" And verse 5: "I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge?" In chapter 7, verse 25, "I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment," and in verse 40, "in my judgment." In chapter 10, verse 15, "I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves." We have read and studied the Corinthian letter several times, but have we noticed this thread running throughout it? You are called to judge correctly.

To whom is this letter written? Are these new believers who have just taken baptism and know nothing of spirituality? No. In 1 Corinthians 1:7 it says, "You do not lack any spiritual gift." Name it — prophecy, healing, casting out of demons, discernment — any spiritual gift you can think of was present in that church. They were blessed with every gift, and yet they did not have the capacity to judge correctly. This is a master technique of the devil: to conceal from us an important way of life in the new covenant. It is possible to exercise all the spiritual gifts and still fail here. The Corinthian church was like that, and look at who their pastors were. In chapter 3, verse 6, Paul says, "I planted the seed." I cannot think of a better pastor to plant than Paul. "Apollos watered it," by the ministry of God's word. These were the most blessed people under the sun — they had every gift, Paul as their founding pastor, and Apollos who taught them the word — and yet Paul has to write that a person with the Spirit must make judgments about all things, because they were in error when it came to judging.

Listen carefully to the contrast in the first part of this letter. It is not between believers and unbelievers. We like that contrast, don't we? Unbelievers are perishing, we are being saved; they have no hope, we have hope; they do not have Jesus, but I have Jesus. The contrast here is not that. It is between mature believers and infants. Look at chapter 2, verse 6: "We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature." The Corinthians had all the gifts, but they were not mature. In 3:1, "Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly — mere infants in Christ." They were supposed to be mature, and they ended up being infants. It is possible to be an infant after ten years in the church, or even after forty years in the faith. How do you know a person is an infant? Look at the way he judges. You can never tell by looking at his gifts, for there are many infants who exercise spiritual gifts — the Corinthian church is the best example. Maturity is not determined by the gifts we operate.

My prayer is that by the end of this sermon we will be able to evaluate our own lives. The question is not, do you speak in tongues? The question is not, are you baptized? The question is, are you a mature Christian or an infant — one who is able to judge correctly? And there is a further contrast, between spiritual believers and carnal believers. You may be confused — I thought all believers are spiritual. Not all believers are spiritual. Chapter 3:1 gives the contrast: "I could not address you as people with the Spirit" — as spiritual believers — "but as worldly Christians." The word used there is sarkinos: you are of the flesh. They had the Spirit; that is how they were regenerated and baptized. But they were not being led by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has worked in all our lives — that is why we are here. But the question is, are you led by the Spirit to make right judgments, or is the Spirit only producing an ecstatic, momentary feeling when the worship is on — a little shivering, a little jumping, a little noise? Are you an infant or a mature believer; a spiritual believer, or a carnal believer who has the Spirit but is not yielded to him?

The most dangerous contrast is not between the mature and the infants, nor between spiritual and carnal believers. What surprises me is 2:14. In the church there are not only carnal believers who have the Spirit but do not yield to him; there is another category. "A person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God." There is a group of people in the church who act as though they have no Spirit at all. The carnal believer of 3:1 is different from the person of 2:14. The people of 3:1 have the Holy Spirit — regeneration has happened — but they are not yielding to him daily. The people of 2:14 have no regeneration, no Spirit in them; different Greek words are used. Unfortunately there are people like that in the church. You look at them: they are present on a Sunday morning, but they are not infants and they are not carnal — they are like people without the Spirit altogether. They have the gifts, and they act as though they do not have the Spirit. Is it possible? It is very much possible. It is possible to do a healing ministry and still go to hell. Matthew 7:22 says it loud and clear: on that day many will say, "We have done miracles in your name, we have healed people, we have cast out demons," and Jesus will tell them plainly, "I never knew you."

The danger the twenty-first-century church faces is not that we lack noise — there is plenty of noise in the house of God. The danger is not that people are not speaking in tongues; many are, so much so that at times there is chaos. In some Pentecostal churches 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14 ought to be read aloud, because if an unbeliever walks in he will think everyone has gone mad. What we are missing is not tongues and it is not music. What we are missing is the Spirit working to make right judgments. God is calling us today to be mature believers and not to remain infants.

I often use an illustration everyone can understand. If your five-year-old son holds your hand in the supermarket and says, "I want a Five Star," you are a proud dad — you might even offer him a second one. At the age of ten, if he asks, you may look at him but you will still buy it. But at the age of twenty-five, if he is holding your hand asking for a Five Star — or if he is standing on the stage at his own wedding while the food is served and he looks at his mother and asks, "Can I have food?" — then there is a problem. In every other area we expect maturity; we know a child will grow and learn to make right judgments. Only when it comes to spirituality are we passive about growth. If you plant a tree and after two or three years it bears no fruit, you think of cutting it down, because it is a waste of space. But how about our spirituality?

Look again at 3:6: "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow." The planting happened — we all know that — and the watering happens every Sunday. We have had enough watering. Why, then, is growth not happening? Verse 7: "So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." Growth, maturity, the ability to make right judgments — that is where God is calling us. Look carefully at verse 15: the spiritual man makes right judgments about all things. I like that phrase, about all things. It is not only right judgment about worship or about preaching; it is right judgment about everything — the world, money, position, a vehicle, a house, every area. And that verse continues: such a person is not subject to any man's judgment. A spiritual, mature believer cannot be rightly judged by the people of the world. In their eyes you may seem to be deteriorating day by day; in their eyes you may be a loser, a failure, a big nobody. But a person without the Spirit can never make a right judgment about the man of God.

Why are we able to make right judgments? Because of chapter 2, verse 16: "We have the mind of Christ" — the ability to think as Christ thinks, to see things the way Christ sees them. And because of 2:10: "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." If you are a mature, Spirit-led believer, you have the mind of Christ and access to the deep things of God, and that is why you can judge rightly — even though your judgment will sound foolish to a worldly man, because it is discerned only by the Spirit.

Why should this matter so much? Some of you may be thinking, Pastor, you are making too big a thing of this judging. Here is why it matters: because God judges the world, and when we are transformed we become like God. God judges the world in two areas — wisdom and power. Look at chapter 1, verse 20: "Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" In the sight of the world, power is winning battles and riding on a horse — but has not God reduced that wisdom to nothing? When Jesus rode on a donkey, when he was crucified, on the cross you see the power and the wisdom of God. He was judging the world. God was redefining the words. Wisdom is no longer having a great deal of knowledge; wisdom is giving your life for others. Power is not defeating your enemy; power is being willing to be defeated. So in verse 24: "To those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God." Who in the world would look at Christ on the cross and say, there is the power and the wisdom of God? No one — to them it is foolishness and weakness. But God was judging the entire world. Salvation is no longer found by going to a powerful man; it is found by coming to the cross, by coming to the one who endured the cross. The world, seeing the nails and the spear, would call it powerlessness, defeat, foolishness — and in that very moment God was judging the world.

God judged the world not only through Christ on the cross but also by choosing us. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:27: "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong; God chose the lowly things and the despised things — the things that are not — to nullify the things that are." When God chose me, foolish and weak as I am, he was judging the world; when I stand with the word of God, God is judging the world. You do not need eloquent preaching or great wealth — you only need to be available, and God can accomplish wonders through you. Why are you seated here today? It is part of God judging the world.

Sometimes the very things you did not get in life — exposure, an experience, an interview you did not clear — God was withholding so that you would stay in a low profile and accomplish great things for him. I met a family the other day, and it suddenly became clear to me. Their son is a lovely man, a man of God; I have not seen many like him. His parents told me that as he was growing up they were concerned about him. He could do everything except study. Ask him for any help and he would be the first to be there; ask him about anything happening in Bangalore and he would be the first to know — but when it came to studies, somehow, and not from laziness, something always went wrong, so much so that he failed in the tenth standard. His father held a high-profile job, and as a boy the son used to put on his father's uniform and cap and dress up in it, and the parents would look at him and say, "Son, we wish you would become like your dad, but it looks as though you will never make it; you cannot even clear the tenth standard." And then they said to me, "Now we know why it all happened. God was concealing him so that he could use him later."

I am a living testimony of this. Thirteen years ago, if someone asked me to come up and share, I would almost faint. If the pastor announced in advance that I would bring the greetings, I would not come to church that Sunday. My father was a pastor, and the believers used to ask, "Why is the pastor's son like this? He cannot pray, he cannot lead in worship — a kind of useless fellow." I grew up hearing that. But my godly mother always said, "There is a time for the Lord; he will accomplish his plans through him." Now I can see it — God, you are great. God was judging the world, and it was not through smart people but through nobodies that he would accomplish great things. If "nobody" is written on you, you are qualified to be used by God, because God is in the business of judging the world. He does not call the qualified; he qualifies whom he calls. He calls the nobodies, and he calls the somebodies and makes them nobodies, so that he can judge the world.

Paul too judged the world. Look at chapter 2, verse 3: "I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling." That verse surprises me. Who is saying this? A student of Gamaliel, who had the whole law at the top of his head and could quote the Scriptures, who grew up in a deeply spiritual atmosphere and had the rare privilege of studying under Gamaliel. And yet he says, "I came to you in weakness, with fear and trembling." In verse 4: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." Paul was judging the wisdom of the world by coming as a weak, trembling man who would not lean on the persuasive skills the orators of his day relied on. In verse 13: "This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words." I wish the Bible colleges would take more time to teach this. It is not our brilliant quotations that bring transformation. Quotations are good, stories are good, titles are good — but ultimately it is the power of God that convicts a sinner. Otherwise we think like fools, imagining that by our eloquence we can persuade people. Paul was judging the eloquent speakers who polished their oratory. Preparation must be done — I am not saying we go up unprepared or stumbling — but when we walk to the pulpit with fear and trembling, knowing we cannot do it ourselves, God has to show up and work in the life of a sinner. It is not my words, not my eloquence, not my big stories. Sometimes one word is enough, and God will work.

Now we are at the heart of the message. Listen carefully. Because God judged the world, and because Paul judged the world, we too have to judge the world. Read 1 Corinthians 6:2 again: "Do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world?" When we read that, our immediate thought goes to the end — that when Christ returns we will judge the world, and so we are happy to live as we please now, since the judging will happen later. Wait a minute. The people who will judge the world one day should begin judging now. That is the mark of a mature Christian, for 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 says a person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things.

One of the foundational principles of judging is given in chapter 3, verse 12. If you want to grow in your spirituality, to be mature, to be like God who judges and like Paul who judges, this is foundational: "If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light." Six materials are set before us, and they fall into two groups. The first three — gold, silver, costly stones — are durable, costly, and will stand the fire. The next three — wood, hay, straw — are not durable, are inexpensive, and will not stand the fire. An infant could never tell you which is more valuable. Show an infant a truck full of wood, hay and straw and a single diamond, and he will say, "I want the truck," because for an infant it is quantity that matters. When we grow, when we become spiritual rather than carnal, mature rather than infants, we are able to discern what is valuable and what is not.

Take the church. A spiritual man will make a right judgment about a church. It is often said that a church is not measured by its seating capacity but by its sending capacity. I tend to disagree even with that. When you grow into an adult you will say, yes, it is not seating but sending; but when you grow a little older still, and allow the Spirit to work a little more, you will say the church is measured neither by its seating nor by its sending, but by its capacity to make disciples — because sending too can be done for our own glory. It would be foolish to think that the more people there are, the more blessed a church is; most of the time it is the other way around. A spiritual man will not walk into the parking lot and say, "This church is blessed because of all these cars and all these brands" — that is the comment of an infant. You measure the quality of a church by looking at its disciples: how they interpret the Scriptures, how they handle their personal relationships, how they treat their spouses and their children. You go to their homes and you see godliness, and you give weight to that, because you know that gold, silver and precious stones are more valuable than wood, hay and straw. All our efforts will one day be tested by fire — verse 13: "Their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work." Note that: the quality, not the quantity. When you are mature you know that quality is what matters; if quantity comes along with quality, well and good, but to be carried away by quantity and call it a blessing is to judge wrongly.

A spiritual man also makes right judgments about the ministers of God. Do you know what an infant says about a minister? "Without him I would never be where I am" — giving the whole credit to an individual. In chapter 4, verse 1, because there was such fan-following among the infants at Corinth, Paul corrects them: "This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries of God." Not as heroes or popular stars, but as servants — as gardeners who plant and water a garden that does not belong to them. How I wish every minister of God in this nation would realize that. Then we could be done with these flat-screen churches. Why is it that in some places only one man must preach, and if he is not there the flat screen comes down? Much of it is fan-following, and infants follow that. If you see a person drawing people to himself, he is not connected to the head; if you see a minister pointing people to Jesus, he is connected to the head. That is how you judge, because you are spiritual, while an infant judges by appearance. I share this with deep agony and pain, not in a spirit of condemnation. There are many who are acting as God behind the pulpit, making people look at them. When the time for testimonies comes, an orientation is given: "Say that when the pastor prayed, it happened." We do not need these manipulations. A servant of God knows who he is — a man who waters the plants, while the garden and the building belong to God. Only a mature Christian can do that.

A spiritual man makes a right judgment about his own life as well. Look at what had happened to the Corinthians. They had the Holy Spirit and were very excited about the spiritual gifts, but look at 4:8: "Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign!" This becomes clearer in verse 10: "We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!" A mature believer knows the true measuring rod of success in a godly person's life. Let me say it plainly and clearly: wealth is not the sign of God's favor. We are not Deuteronomy 28 believers; we are 1 Corinthians 4 believers. And remember, when God called the Corinthians (1:27) they were foolish, weak, and unhonored; now in 4:10 the fools have become wise, the weak have become strong, the lowly have become honored. There is a hymn that fits this: "Let the weak say, 'I am strong'" — strong not by influence, but because you have Jesus; "Let the poor say, 'I am rich'" — not because you have money, but because you have Jesus. The one who wrote this letter had all three advantages: when Jesus called him, Paul was rich, strong, and honored; but for the sake of Christ he became poor, weak, and dishonored. That is how you judge a person rightly.

Yet most Pentecostal testimonies echo the reverse of 4:10. "Before I knew Christ I was struggling, but now I have all this. Before, there were days I ate only one meal; now, five. Before, I traveled by bus; now, on a given morning I am confused about which car to take, because God has blessed me so much." Is that how you judge blessing? I am not saying a car is wrong — if you have one, use it for God's glory; I am not saying money is unnecessary — you need money, and so do I to live in this world. It is the love of money that is the problem, and it is dangerous. Keeping things for yourself and calling it blessing is carnality. A spiritual man holds things loosely. God may give you precious things; he may take you to a job where you draw three or four lakhs a month, and I am not saying Satan gave it to you. But never think that four lakhs is the mark of God's favor — for if it were, we would have to go and follow the God of those who draw fifty lakhs and do not know Christ. When money comes into our hands we must know how to use it, because a person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, and we are the ones who must one day judge the world.

Are people able to see in our lives that money is not really important? Are your colleagues able to look at you and conclude, "For him, money is not the main thing"? You are judging the world by the way you handle money — especially by your generosity. God judged the world by the cross; we too judge the world by our giving. In most places it is the other way around. Where I come from, it is often the believers who set the trend for how to build houses; the new styles are introduced by believers, and their testimony is, "It is all by God," while the unbeliever without the Spirit looks on and says, "I too will follow Jesus if I can get all this," and so a kind of church growth happens. But we are actually meant to judge the world even by our house construction — not investing so much that when someone says, "Maranatha, the Lord is coming," our heart says, "No, not now." We should be able to say Maranatha from the heart, because our roots have not gone down too deep into this world. You need a house, I need a house; you need a car, I need a car; but let us not be entangled. "If I have this, it is enough," because I am going to leave this world. When you live like that, you do not come under any other person's judgment — that is what 2:15 says. A person without the Spirit may look at you and call you a fool; do not care. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:3, "I care very little if I am judged by you." I am looking to only one Person to judge me on that Day, with fire, so that what is of quality will remain.

My dear people of God, none of us is here by accident. God has called you and made everything possible for you to come and hear this word. And this is the takeaway: you are to judge the world by your life. Because God judged the world by the cross, and because Paul judged the world by his preaching, you are to judge the world by your lifestyle, by the way you live, by your status before God.