Teasi Cannon/Christian Post
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but unfortunately, abusive churches often do.
One of the most common concerns I hear from survivors of spiritual abuse isn’t simply that they no longer trust their former church. It’s that they no longer trust themselves.
They wonder how they ever believed teachings that now seem so obviously twisted. They replay sermons in their minds, looking for warning signs they missed. Some become suspicious of every pastor. Others avoid church altogether, convinced future deception is inevitable.
Many aren’t afraid of God’s Word. They’re afraid of what people can do with it. They’ve seen Scripture used to justify manipulation, control, and spiritual harm. God’s Word was treated less like His authoritative revelation and more like a stamp of approval placed on behavior Jesus would never have modeled or endorsed.
Spiritual abuse is an extreme example — but the vulnerability it exposes isn’t limited to survivors. Every Christian is capable of being persuaded by a confident speaker who uses Scripture to support a conclusion rather than allowing Scripture to shape it. Anyone sitting in a church pew without the tools to evaluate what they’re hearing is more vulnerable than they realize.
The good news is that God hasn’t left His people defenseless. He’s given us minds capable of reasoning, evaluating, and discerning. In fact, biblical discernment isn’t primarily a mystical ability possessed by a spiritually elite few. Scripture describes it as something that can be trained and developed in all of us.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that mature believers have “their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14). Notice the language. Discernment is trained. It grows. That should bring hope to anyone who feels intimidated sitting under biblical teaching again.
The New Testament repeatedly calls us to evaluate claims, reject false teaching, test what we hear, take thoughts captive, and tear down arguments raised against the knowledge of God. These are intellectual activities. They require us to love God not only with our hearts but with our minds — as Jesus commanded.
One of the simplest questions we can ask while listening to a sermon is, “Is the Bible being taught or used to support a conclusion?” Here are three practical — and easy-to-remember — habits that can help us evaluate what we’re hearing with greater discernment.
1. Be careful with power tools
The Bible isn’t an ordinary book.
Scripture describes itself as living and active. Jesus treated it as God’s authoritative Word. It has power to expose sin, comfort the broken, and point people to salvation. That kind of power demands careful handling.
One simple principle to remember is that the Bible isn’t written to us. But it is written for us. Every passage had an original audience. God revealed His truth through real people living in real places at specific moments in history. Understanding what a passage meant to its original audience helps protect us from reading our own modern assumptions directly into the text.
From there, we can ask what timeless truth God is revealing about His character, His will, and our need. Only then are we ready to consider how the truth applies to our lives today.
When we skip these steps and rush straight to personal application, we can begin treating the Bible more like a horoscope than a revelation. When the process is reversed — when the conclusion comes first and Scripture is recruited to support it — that’s not Bible teaching.
It’s Bible using.
Learning to spot the difference is one of the most powerful forms of self-protection available to us.
2. Turn off the scary music
My son works professionally in music production for film and video games, and we’ve talked about how intentionally music shapes emotion. Just imagine watching “Jaws” without the famous soundtrack — the shark becomes almost comical, and the swimmers look like they’re just enjoying a day at the beach. The music doesn’t change the facts, but it sure changes how we respond to them.
Church environments can contain similar emotional influences — not just music but volume, pacing, body language, dramatic pauses, tears, vulnerability, confidence, charisma, and rhetorical skill. None of these things is inherently wrong. God created emotion, and good biblical teaching should affect our hearts. The problem comes when we mistake emotional intensity for truth.
A helpful exercise is to mentally remove the atmosphere and focus only on the content. If this sermon were printed on paper and read in a fluorescent-lit room with no music, no dramatic delivery, and no emotional buildup, would the message still be compelling? God’s truth doesn’t need manipulation to be powerful. Turn off the scary music and listen carefully to what is actually being taught.
3. Watch for skyscrapers
Skyscrapers are built one story on top of another. Some sermons are too.
Story after story. Anecdote after anecdote. Dream after dream. Vision after vision. Personal experience after personal experience — all sprinkled with a few Bible verses to provide spiritual credibility.
Stories can be wonderful teaching tools. Jesus used them masterfully, and a good illustration can help us understand and apply truth. But illustrations should support biblical teaching — not replace it.
Is Scripture driving the message, or is Scripture decorating the message?
When a sermon is primarily built on experiences that can’t be tested, evaluated, or grounded in Scripture, our discernment should become even more active. The Bereans were called noble because they examined the Scriptures daily to see whether what they were hearing was true (Acts 17:11). Testing what we hear isn’t optional for Christians. It’s a responsibility. And testing requires something objective to test against.
We don’t have to live in fear of every sermon. Nor do we have to surrender our critical thinking at the church door.
With practice, wisdom, and a growing knowledge of Scripture, many of us can learn to listen again — not naively or with suspicion, but with confident discernment.
