17 Bible Verses about Distinguishing

So Isaac told Jacob, "Come here, my son, so I can feel you and know for sure whether or not you're my son Esau."

But solid food is for mature people, whose minds are trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

Then they stretched out the richly-embroidered tunic to dry, and brought it to their father. "We've found this," they reported. "Look at it and see if this is or isn't your son's tunic."

Keep watching it. If it goes up along the road to its own territory to Beth-shemesh, it's the LORD who has done this great evil to us. But if it does not, then we will know that he wasn't pressuring us. It happened to us as a natural event."

The descendants of Gilead seized control of the Jordan River's fords along the border of Ephraim's territory. Later on, when any fugitive from Ephraim asked them, "Let me cross over," the men from Gilead would ask him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he said "No," they would order him, "Pronounce the word "Shibboleth' right now." If he said "Sibboleth," not being able to pronounce it correctly, they would seize him and slaughter him there at the fords of the Jordan River. During those days 42,000 descendants of Ephraim died that way.

You will know them by their fruit. Grapes aren't gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles, are they?

So by their fruit you will know them."

"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten, because a tree is known by its fruit.

Now Korah, Dathan, and Abiram stood at the entrance to their tents with their wives, sons, and little children. Then Moses said, "This is how you'll know that the LORD has sent me to do all these awesome works they're not coming merely from me. If these people die a death similar to all other human beings, or if they are punished with a punishment common to other men, then the LORD didn't send me. But if the LORD creates something new, so that the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and everything that belongs to them and they all descend directly to Sheol while still alive, then you'll know that these men have spurned the LORD."

This is how God's children and the Devil's children are distinguished. No person who fails to practice righteousness and to love his brother is from God.

When it was full, the fishermen hauled it ashore. Then they sat down, sorted the good fish into containers, and threw the bad ones away.

because every tree is known by its own fruit. People don't gather figs from thorny plants or pick grapes from a thorn bush.

This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

But whoever continually keeps his commandments is the kind of person in whom God's love has truly been perfected. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:

This is how you can recognize God's Spirit: Every spirit who acknowledges that Jesus the Messiah has become human and remains so is from God.

We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

This is how we know that we love God's children: we love God and keep his commandments.