By: Therman Hodge

God demands discrimination between the church of the New Testament and false churches (Ephesians 4:4). Christ said, “I am the true vine, and you are the branches…”(John 15:1). He spoke of His church (Matthew 16:18). All others are counterfeits and belong to the men who founded them and to which the members are faithful. There must be a way to tell the difference between the churches established by mankind versus the church Jesus built.

We must discriminate by learning which church bears the marks of identity that the church of the New Testament bore. Who established the church of the Bible? What were the terms of entrance? How did it worship; how was it organized? What was the mission and work of the first century church? Jesus Christ is the Savior of only one body—His body, the church (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18).

God demands discrimination between matters of faith and matters of opinion. How do we distinguish between faith and opinion? Matters of faith concern what the Bible explicitly or implicitly teaches. We learn from the New Testament that we must evangelize (Matthew 28:18–20); we must care for widows and orphans (James 1:27); and we must meet for worship and have the biblical components in the service. On the other hand, how can this be accomplished? This is where opinions or methods may be discussed and adopted. Maturity in the Word (Hebrews 5:13–14) is foundational to matters of faith and a help to adopting a method of deployment in Christian service. Over time, training of the faculties by practice or routine (Hebrews 5:14) support faith in action. There are no borderline Christians with excuses or situation ethics that can satisfactorily rationalize one’s disobedient behavior.

God demands discrimination between right and wrong—good and evil. Why is discrimination necessary? We must imitate good and avoid evil (3 John 11). We must avoid evil and do good to enjoy life and to see good days (1 Peter 3:11). We must avoid all forms of evil and hold fast to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21–22).

How can proper, God-like discrimination be accomplished? Again, we need to embrace maturity by investing time in study of the Word (Hebrews 5:13–14). Once more, training the faculties by practice and routine will lead to heightened maturity (Hebrews 5:14). There are no borderline Christians; we dare not resort to situation ethics, and such like, to rationalize immaturity or disobedience.

God demands discrimination. A great day is coming! It will be a day of discrimination—a day of Judgment. (The Greek word for “judge” is krino, and a form of that word, diakrino, is a verb meaning “discrimination.”) Only those who have the proper discrimination in their life will survive life on earth to spend eternity in Heaven with God.

Author: Therman Hodge