Quote:
Originally Posted by Jo S
The answer I've been looking for is; spiritual discernment.
Fruits are spiritual so of course they have to be discerned spiritually. The testing of the fruits through spiritual discernment can of course be found in Matt. 7:15-20.
Paul's and James' tests are important yet Jesus' was not worth mentioning?
Since you've been arguing the false dichotomy of 1 John 4:2 and 1 Cor 12:3 as being the only tests to know the spirits, your argument is invalid.
The danger here is, being ignorant to this particular scripture and also personally lacking in this gift results in a Christian having to place their trust in a leader's judgment and consequently also their interpretation of scripture.
It also puts you in the place of being naive toward other sects that can and do confess Jesus as Lord and also believe he came in the flesh yet are wolves in sheep's clothing ready to take advantage of your lack of discernment.
Scripture says if anyone comes to you but brings not the whole of his teaching, do not receive him into your home or even greet him. That included the Yogi's from my previous example which preach a perverted gospel.
It's not your place to tell anyone that a gift from God is not reliable.
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We don't need a special "gift of spiritual discernment" to be able to discern spirits, we just need to apply the two tests in 1 John or Corinthians. John and Paul did not write "just use your special gift of discernment guys", he gave them a clear cut and simple way to test the spirit. Some Pentecostals claim a special "gift of spiritual discernment" or "word of knowledge" but it's more about spine tingles and superstition than real discernment I think. These same people who claim a gift of discernment or special spiritual knowledge also demand tongues as evidence of being filled with the Spirit.
I already gave the tests for "spiritual discernment". They are stated 1 John 4:
..., but
test the spirits to see whether they are from God...
"test the spirit" means "discern the spirit". That's real spiritual discernment right there that doesn't depend upon subjective opinion.
Jesus's test cannot discern whether the spirit is of God or not. If it could, then don't you think John and Paul would have simply said "look at the fruit"? Jesus's test is designed, as He said, to discern false prophets. Discerning a false prophet is different from discerning the spirit of God.
Looking at the fruit is an outward test. The fruit of the Yogi's teaching - peace, love, happiness etc, could be considered good fruit. Therefore the "fruit test" alone could fail. Also, there were many good Pharisees who did many good works, their fruit could be seen as good, but they did not believe in Christ.