How Discernment Is Being Quietly Redefined
- Jane Isley
- Jan 7
- 3 min read
I’ve been mulling over a few words lately that are sparking fierce debates among Christians; one of those words is “deconstructionism.” While I may take that on another time, it isn’t the word I’m concerned about today.
The word on my radar is discernment.
When Discernment Was Respected
Discernment was once a respected word. It was a word that belonged to religion; it spoke of faith, wisdom, and connection to God in Christianity.
But somewhere along the way, a snake has slithered into the landscape and begun subtly reshaping that word.
At first, this may all seem harmless, but look at the current culture we live in; no word is sacred anymore and allowed to hold a concrete definition, and satan is thriving in this confusion; he is thriving in his ability to undermine a definition and use it to his advantage.
That is the pattern I’m watching emerge with this word.
Dictionary Definition
So let’s start with the definition of discernment:
How do I describe discernment to people?
It isn’t a “feeling.” It isn’t opinion, logic, your knowledge, or experience. It is a supernatural force of God, crashing into the soul like a battering ram.
It is the ability from Him to see past flashy language, “good” intentions, and the appealing packages, and to recognize the snake hiding underneath that no one else sees.
It is God having a conversation with your soul.
Where It’s All Going Wrong
These headlines reveal how far the word has drifted from its original meaning.
“News Finds Me as the illusion of competence: evidence for overconfidence in discernment of political misinformation” (1)
“Reading news on social media boosts knowledge, discernment and trust” (2)
“The media literacy dilemma: can ChatGPT facilitate the discernment of online health misinformation?” (3)
“Professor’s “News Literacy” Guide Provides Tools to Discern Fake News” (4)
“Expediency Discernment Council of Iran Approves Conditional Accession to CFT” (5)
This past weekend, I overheard sports commentators debating a football play. One of them used the word discernment to describe a player’s decision. And earlier, I heard a talk show host use the same word to discuss a cookie recipe.
From Respected to Common
I’m in my forties, and never in my life did I expect to hear the word discernment used to describe football or a recipe. That’s why I used the word respected earlier, because it should be to us.
Discernment should not be a buzzword used to sound intelligent or authoritative, and satan is in bliss right now, knowing the masses are getting hit with this word, and its definition is becoming muddied, just what he wants.
Check out this quote:
“The term discernment” is most commonly used in a religious context to describe an individual’s decision-making process in regard to a vocation. To think about it, though, discernment is part of many people’s daily lives, without knowing it!” (source)
That statement shows the problem perfectly.
Discernment is not something people unknowingly practice in daily life; it is not an instinct or a skill that develops through daily experience or work efforts. Discernment comes from a
relationship with God.
By reframing it as a common human ability, the quote quietly edits discernment out of the spiritual realm and plants it into the self. That is not clarification, it is redefinition.
What’s At Stake
I get it, by dictionary definition, it technically can be expanded and added to, but, for us, Christians, this word has a full and powerful meaning.
If we don’t keep the word discernment safe and correctly used, if we don’t teach what it means Biblically, how are Christians in the future going to be able to recognize discernment as distinct from the self?
How will people be able to see that this: “discernment is part of many people’s daily lives,” is a lie unless they are a believer?
How will they recognize the deception that is not just coming, but already here, when the very definition of what it means is now mixed up in Google titles and social media comments?
Language helps shape belief, and when spiritual language is redefined by culture and media, faith itself is affected.
If discernment becomes nothing more than a cognitive human skill, stripped of its spiritual power, then how can it be recognized?
(1) Oxford Academic: Human Communication Research
(4) News Wise
(5) WAWA
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