In The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described the problem of the Soviets sending stool pigeons into the prison. These Soviet plants spied on the inmates. Solzhenitsyn describes that a “sensory relay” trait developed within him that helped him distinguish who was the spy. Even when they were skilled in pretense, Solzhenitsyn could tell there was something fishy about them.¹

All Christians would benefit from a sharpened ability of discernment. Discernment is more than a “sensory relay.” It is a spiritual skill, a God-given capacity, and an example of applied wisdom. Some Christians may be especially sagacious while others lack the natural ability. Yet God may enhance this discerning capacity in either person.

Discernment is the ability to distinguish right from wrong as life comes hurling at you. Today, worldliness hurls itself at Christians. Sometimes it’s obviously a barbaric hunk of bloody flesh. But sometimes it is skilled at pretense. It has an amicable and approachable appearance, parading itself as self-help wizardry, slick psychology, shiny webpages, and beautiful people. Discernment is required for Christians to reject the counterfeit reality that threatens to rob the church of its ability to take its bearings from God.²

Charles Spurgeon described discernment as “keeping one’s eyes open.” In chapter eight of his wonderful book John Ploughman’s Talk, Spurgeon shares proverbs to help sharpen your vision of the world and walk along in faithful discernment. What follows are twenty of Spurgeon’s wise sayings.³

#1 “Nobody is more like an honest man than a thorough rogue.”

#2 “When you see a man with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon it he keeps a very small stock of it within.”

#3 “Do not choose your friend by his looks: handsome shoes often pinch the feet.”

#4 “Don’t be fond of compliments: remember, ‘Thank you, pussy, and thank you, pussy,’ killed the cat.”

#5 “Don’t believe in the man who talks most, for mewing cats are very seldom good mousers.”

#6 “By no means put yourself in another person’s power: if you put your thumb between two grinders, they are very apt to bite.”

#7 “Drink nothing without seeing it; sign nothing without reading it, and make sure that it means no more than it says.”

#8 “Don’t go to law unless you have nothing to lose: lawyers’ houses are built on fools’ heads.”

#9 “In any business never wade into water where you cannot see the bottom.”

#10 “Put no dependence upon the label of a bag; and count money after your own kin.”

#11 “See the sack opened before you buy what is in it; for he who trades in the dark asks to be cheated.”

#12 “Keep clear of the man who does not value his own character.”

#13 “Beware of everyone who swears: he who would blaspheme his Maker would make no bones of lying or stealing.”

#14 “Beware of no man more than of yourself, for we often carry our worst enemies within us.”

#15 “When a new opinion or doctrine comes before you, do not bite till you know whether it is bread or a stone; do not be sure that the gingerbread is good because of the gilt on it.”

#16 “Never shout ‘hello!’ till you are quite out of the wood; and don’t cry fried fish till they are caught in the net.”

#17 “There’s always time enough to boast—wait a little longer.”

#18 “Don’t throw away dirty water till you have got clean; keep on at scraping the roads till you can get better work; for the poorest pay is better than none, and the humblest office is better than being out of employment.”

#19 “Always give up the road to bulls and madmen; and never fight with a coalheaver or contend with a base character for they will be sure to blacken you.”

#20 “Never ride a broken-kneed horse; the trader who has once been a fraudulent bankrupt, is not the man for you to deal with. A rickety chair is a dangerous seat.”

Footnotes

¹ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956 An Experiment in Literary Investigation I-II (Harper and Row, 1973), 185-186.

² David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Eerdmans, 1994), 55.

³ Charles Spurgeon, The Complete John Ploughman (Christian Heritage, 2007), 50-53.