Message summary: Obfuscation is all around us. How is your discernment today? Are you in regular training? Are you actively practicing it? Are you discerning good from evil?

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"But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:14). “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

We have various household duties assigned to family members. Among my duties, generally daily, is cleaning up the dog waste in our back yard. We do have a "Poop Genie" dog pooper scooper service available but I can't imagine using that!

It takes just a few minutes and I get some physical exercise in my duty of cleaning up. However in this season with all the leaves on the ground it's a much harder job. I have to walk through the back yard slowly and distinguish between fallen leaves and dog waste! The consequences of failing to distinguish between the leaves and dog waste could leave a mess on my shoes that I might track into the house. Of course I rake the leaves but they keep falling and will do so for a few more weeks.

Distinguishing fallen leaves from dog waste is a relatively minor example considering all the major encounters in life that require discernment. These days we are barraged with information that deals with every subject imaginable. Our increased access to this information grows almost daily. In recent years we have the latest news from practically anywhere in the world instantly on our smart phones as we find ourselves trying to keep up with all that’s going on and sorting out what it means, particularly when it affects us personally.

The “information superhighway” just keeps getting bigger and bigger and provides an abundance of information that can be useful and informative and even spiritually helpful. But not only life-giving truths but disastrous errors crowd the information superhighway. There’s also a lot of information of all types that can confuse or sidetrack us.

Obfuscation and discernment are two bigger words we will consider today.

From the beginning deceptive language has been a tactic of the devil (Genesis 3). Today we face so many forms of emotionally manipulative verbiage and language tricks intended to obfuscate.

Obfuscation describes what is going on all around us, especially in government, education, media and the entertainment "industry". The Merriam Webster dictionary defines obfuscate in this way: “to make (something) more difficult to understand”; “to be evasive, unclear, or confusing and uses this example, "Politicians keep obfuscating the issues".

Wikipedia describes it this way: "The hiding of intended meaning in communication, making communication confusing, willfully ambiguous, or harder to interpret". In many cases it is outright lying though we often hear the words, "mis-statement", "disinformation" and "misinformation" used in place of "lying"!

GK Chesterton wrote, "It is difficult to believe that people who are obviously careless about language can really be very careful about anything else".

Due to this flood of obfuscation we need  strong discernment! Discernment means "the ability to judge well". In a Christian sense we apply discernment in obtaining spiritual direction and understanding.

Bible teacher John MacArthur states, "In its simplest definition, discernment is nothing more than the ability to decide between truth and error, right and wrong. Discernment is the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about truth. In other words, the ability to think with discernment is synonymous with an ability to think Biblically."

The daily text describes the spiritually mature as those "who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil" (NASB). Other versions state, “have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (ESV) or “who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (NIV).

Conversion is the miracle of a moment; maturing takes a lifetime. As a maturing believer I want to increasingly be able to discern good from evil. The world is full of obfuscation making it essential that we practice discernment. We all have a part in this as we choose to regularly feed on God’s Word and apply it to everyday living. This is the sense of the phrase "who because of practice have their senses trained".

The need to discern good from evil is ongoing and will surely increase as we deal with “a spirit of delusion” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12). Our source and guide must be the unchangeable standards of God’s Holy Word, not the fickle opinions of others. Going with the latter would be much like a dog chasing his tail in circles. Don’t we see this in politics, the media, education and, dare I say, even in religious settings?

The Holman New Testament Commentary makes this point,

Obfuscation is all around us so I ask you, "How is your discernment today"? Are you in regular training? Are you actively practicing it? Are you discerning good from evil?

Be encouraged today!  Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber