An elder must also be able to discern if a person's spirit is pure and if his heart is proper. When someone tells you that another is right or wrong, you should not immediately accept this word. Whether or not you should take the word does not depend on whether the words are good or bad, right or wrong. Rather, it depends on the speaker, whether or not his spirit is pure, and whether or not his heart is proper. Sometimes what a person speaks are good words and words of praise concerning the brothers and sisters. Yet behind the praises, you can touch an impure spirit and an improper motive. On the contrary, it is possible that a brother may come to the elders and relate to them the shortcomings of a responsible brother or the mistakes of a serving sister. However, you can touch that his spirit is pure and his motive single. He may be talking about the wrongs of others all the time, but his spirit is pure, and his motive is single. Hence, the elders must not only discern if this is a criticism of the brothers and sisters or a praise of them and if this is about the brothers' and sisters' right or about their wrong. It does not mean that you can take it if it is right and reject it if it is wrong. Instead, you must discern if the speaker is pure in his spirit and single in his heart.
Sometimes problems and arguments arise among the brothers and sisters. If they have enough grace, they will behave according to what is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6, where some should be willing to suffer and to submit before the Lord. The problems will then be solved. But sometimes, neither side may be willing to suffer. Sometimes, one side may be willing to suffer, but the other side is not. Such things as these are often brought to the elders. At such times, how should you arbitrate? You cannot judge right away who is right and who is wrong. If you do this, you will have joined the battle and will be drawn into the dispute of right and wrong. If you really love the Lord and love the brothers, you will surely take their problem as your own pressing problem and will try to solve it before God. You will say to the Lord, "Lord, what shall we do? I do not know how to help these brothers. How should I help them without hurting them? How can they be perfected? How can they know themselves? And how can they have a more desperate pursuit after You?" Right away you can see that the matter is not so simple. This is more complicated than a doctor diagnosing an illness. You cannot base your judgment on right and wrong. You have to go beyond right and wrong to touch their inward condition. While you are listening to the two brothers, you must have the power of spiritual discernment.
The people of the world can only judge who is right and who is wrong; they can only tell who is reasonable and who is unreasonable, who has an argument and who does not. However, in the church we must go beyond right and wrong, and we must touch man's real condition before God. Perhaps a brother has all the reasons on his side, but you can sense that his condition before God is quite improper. I would like the brothers and sisters to know that if we in the church try to take care of such disharmony, disputes, and arguments, and we make judgments based on right and wrong, we will be damaging the brothers and sisters. You will surely say that the brother who has all the reasons is right, but this judgment will damage him. First, it will damage his spiritual condition before God. Second, it will put him into a situation where God will have to give him another chastisement. God will have to stretch forth His hand to chastise this brother once again. For him to be confronted with an unreasonable brother this time is a chastisement from God; it is a discipline of the Holy Spirit. But you have helped him to remove this discipline of the Holy Spirit and have helped him to justify himself. On the one hand, you have damaged his spiritual condition before God. On the other hand, you have put him in a situation where he will have to go through more severe dealings from God. This is not a profit to him.