Discerning Love
Illustration★★★★Lack of discernment often accounts for the failure of those in the pew to realize the full import of unsound teaching from the pulpit.
A brilliant modernistic preacher, who had pleased his audience with flowery oratory and beautiful perorations, as he discoursed glibly of the importance of breadth of view and the danger of bigoted opinions, was bidding farewell to his congregation as he was about to leave them for a new parish. One of his young men approached him and said, “Pastor, I am sorry we are losing we are losing you. Before you came I was one who did not care for God, man, or the devil, but through your delightful sermons, I have learned to love them all!” This is mere sentimentality – not discerning love.
Henry Ironside, Illustrations of Bible Truth.
The point
A modernistic preacher's flowery sermons lacked doctrinal substance; his young listener mistook sentimentality for spiritual growth. Discernment distinguishes true faith from mere emotion.