And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV)
We live
in a world of trends and fads and “influencers.” Whatever is the latest thing
to come along is assumed to be the best thing. So much of our lives are shaped
by the so-called trend setters that we often don’t every see it. We just follow
along blindly, accepting whatever is given to us as the latest thing.
In some areas of life, this is relatively harmless. Fashion trends come and go, and really don’t make a lasting impact on our lives. But subtly, under the surface, is a movement that is leading us into deeper waters. Technology is an example of how trends can shape us. There are two “hidden” agendas of technology that are masked by the hype of the newest and the best. The first is the idea that whatever we have now is not good enough. I have to have the newest iPhone or my life isn’t fulfilled. This is fostering a consumer mentality that is great for industry, but can be devastating to the financial well-being of individuals.
The greater threat, as I see it, is
our increased dependence upon technology. Technology is a great tool and a
diabolical master. The more dependent we are on technology the less we develop
our skills of thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. We don’t have to learn
things any more, we can just Google them. With the rise of AI, we face even a
greater threat to our intellectual health. AI can write our research papers and
deal with our correspondence without us having to put much effort into the
process. I point out technology not as the ultimate evil, but as an example of
how we are losing our ability to think for ourselves.
In Paul’s
letter to the Philippians, he prays a powerful prayer for them that applies to
us today. At the heart of Paul’s prayer is a request for discernment so that we
can see what is best. The foundation of discernment is a growing love for God
and others that results in greater and greater knowledge and understanding. The
love that Paul refers to is not self-love, but an outward focused love that
looks beyond the boundaries of our small, personal universe. The more that we
know and love God, the more our insight into life is deepened and expanded.
Through the lens of God’s wisdom, we can see things as they really are and not
be fooled by a flashy façade.
Paul
says that the outcome of this growing love for God is genuine discernment. It
helps us to see things more clearly so that we can distinguish between the
good, the better, and the best. Often, we forfeit the best by settling for the
good. Paul challenges us to seek the best, to have our lives purified so that we can
become more and more like Christ. As Paul said in Romans 12:2, Do not
conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's
will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Godly discernment allows us
to be transformed in our mind so that we think and act differently from the
world around us.
The
goal of discernment is for us to be filled with the fruit of righteousness in
Christ Jesus. When we purchased our home, we inherited a number of fruit trees.
The first couple of years we lived in our home the fruit trees did not produce
much fruit. But the more I have learned about caring for fruit trees, the
quality and amount of the fruit that they produced has increased. This year I
had the best harvest of peaches I have ever had. The ability to discern what is
best in life is like learning to care for my fruit trees. The more we see
things from God’s perspective, the more spiritual fruit we will produce. It
will look like a transformed, more loving character. It will also look like
better relationships and a greater, positive influence within those relationships.
Through the years I have heard it said that Christians are mindless. They just blindly follow along with whatever the church tells them. In fact, one of our former Presidents
actually called Christians ignorant. As I look around at our society today,
what I see is a mindless population who just follows along with whatever the latest
trend-setters tell them, without thinking things through for themselves. Whoever has the
loudest voice, the biggest platform, or the most popularity wins the day. As
followers of Jesus, we cannot afford to be mindless. We need to pray, with
Paul, for godly discernment, so that we can see what is best, and then
passionately pursue it to the glory of God.
The mocker seeks
wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.
Proverbs 14:6 (NIV)
The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of
fools is deception.
Proverbs 14:8 (NIV)
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