I read a post last night that centered around calling out hypocritical teachers and behaviors. In its closing, it said:
If you teach the gospel you have to hold yourself to a higher standard of personal conduct. You cannot risk engaging in behaviors that disgrace the gospel.
I have wrestled with this in the past, and I sometimes still do. I spent quite some time overnight considering and praying about this. This post lays out the conclusion brought to consciousness for me.
Ultimately I’ve found that seeking God and building a genuine relationship with Him naturally raises my standards of personal conduct. I want to serve and please Him before anyone else, and the Holy Spirit’s conviction guides me, often before I even realize I’m about to act in a way I shouldn’t.
But when he—the Spirit of truth—comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will proclaim to you the things to come. (John 16:13)
Being human means I’ll make mistakes, but being a believer means I learn from those mistakes, genuinely own them, allow that experience to transform me from within, and change my behavior going forward.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, so that he will forgive us our sins and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
A false heart/teacher does the opposite. Instead of allowing a mistake or failure to refine them, they begin protecting it. They make excuses, shift blame, redefine events, or sometimes outright deny their shortcomings and their “mistakes.” In doing so, something subtle but extremely important happens: the mistake stops being a mistake. It becomes a choice.
A mistake is something a person recognizes with humility. It’s the moment when conviction hits the conscience and you say, “I was wrong.” That realization is uncomfortable, but it’s also transformative. It softens the heart, realigns the spirit, and often becomes testimony that helps someone else avoid the same pitfall.
But when a person refuses that moment and their pride steps in to guard the ego, something very different takes place. The error gets defended. The story gets rewritten. Responsibility gets relocated to everyone and everything else.
At that point, the issue is no longer the original action. The issue becomes the deliberate decision to protect the false version of oneself rather than submit to the truth. That is no longer a mistake. That is willful. Accepting someone who knowingly lives in that pattern as a teacher puts you at risk of following them into the same failure, and puts your own spiritual health at risk.
In a Nutshell
There’s a profound difference between someone who falls and someone who builds a house on top of the hole they fell into just so they never have to admit it exists. One produces wisdom. The other produces deception. That difference is often the clearest way to discern the condition of a person’s heart.
When I see preachers or teachers who lack that humility and instead defend themselves rather than grow from correction, I immediately lose trust in them and dismiss them as teachers. As Jesus said:
By their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7:16)
Discernment: The Consequence and the Risk
One consequence I’ve experienced when practicing discernment is this: some people will accuse you of being judgmental. Discerning requires judging to some degree, but those people miss the nuance because they misunderstand the difference.
Discernment and judgment are not the same thing. Judgment assumes authority over a person’s soul. Discernment simply recognizes whether someone’s actions align with truth.
Scripture never tells believers to blindly accept anyone who claims to speak for God. In fact, it says the opposite. We are warned repeatedly to test what we hear and to pay attention to the fruit being produced. One of the clearest examples is found in 1 John 4:1.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. (1 John 4:1)
A quick warning here: when someone, teacher or otherwise, refuses to address the concerns you raise and instead immediately labels discernment as “judgment,” that response itself should raise questions. We are clearly instructed to pause, and to reconsider whether that influence is truly aligned with God.
That is discernment in action. Discernment notices when a teacher says the right words, quotes the right verses, but lives in contradiction to those same scriptures or twists them to suit themselves. To question this, and to point it out, isn’t condemnation. Rather, it is wisdom, and it is a spiritual requirement, if we are walking in the truth of the Spirit, to dismiss those teachers at a minimum.
Jesus Himself told us to be “as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Paul warned Timothy about those who have “a form of godliness but deny its power” and instructed him to “have nothing to do with such people” (2 Timothy 3:5). In other words, discernment isn’t optional for believers. It’s protection.
Living This Out
So how do we embody this kind of discernment and authentic faith? It starts with honest self-examination. A good test is to test even yourself. I do this by asking myself these two questions:
When I’m corrected, do I get defensive or do I get curious? When I mess up, do I make excuses or do I let God use it to refine me?
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. (Psalm 139:23)
The goal isn’t perfection – it’s transformation. It’s allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work in us, even when it’s uncomfortable (Philippians 1:6). It’s choosing humility over ego, growth over self-protection.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:10)
And yes, this means we’ll have to make some hard decisions about who we listen to and follow. Not everyone who quotes Scripture is walking in truth. Not everyone who preaches grace is living it. We’re called to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves – discerning without being harsh, protective without being paranoid.
Closing Thoughts
The beautiful thing about all of this is that when we truly seek God and allow Him to shape our character, the higher standard isn’t a burden – it becomes a joy (1 John 5:3). We want to honor Him with our lives because we love Him, not because we’re afraid of consequences.
If you love me, keep my commands. (John 14:15)
That’s the difference between religion and relationship. And that’s what the world desperately needs to see from those of us who claim to follow Christ.
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