Be The Fruit

Idolatry Thursday – Criticism.

by Bill Blair on 29/05/08 at 4:12 am

Have you ever been around people who seem to have to criticize everything?  Everything is either bad or wrong.  Most of the time such people seem to have all the answers if someone, anyone, would just ask them.  One person needs a new job, another needs a date.  One person needs a diet, while another needs a shave.  You get the picture.  Sometimes, criticism can become so rampant in a person’s life that it becomes the central and driving force in their life, and therefore becomes an idol.

Back in my days as a heathen, I knew some people whose favorite pastime was to sit around, go through a pack of cigarettes a piece, and talk about people.  I would venture to say that it would not surprise me if they still engage in this activity.  In fact, I would be more surprised if they didn’t.  On one occasion I was with this group of people and they began their favorite activity.  In this instance, they were offering a critique of the dreaded “in-laws” of their son/brother.  After discussing the in-laws’ clothes, hair, attitude, and many other things they came upon the greatest criticism.  One of them stood up, as to make an emphatic point, and said, “Do you know what those people do?  They go over to their house and they sit around and talk about people.”  Pot meet kettle.

The point of this story is to show how wrapped up we can get in criticism.  These people got so lost in it that everything they said was “true.”  They could not even see the obvious hypocrisy of criticizing people for criticizing people.  Let’s remind ourselves as to what Jesus said we must do before criticizing others:

“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matt 7:3-5, NASB).

This passage is very familiar, but I think the need to practice it is alive and well.  In fact, think about times you have used or heard people use this passage in an argument without actually practicing it.  What happens is that one person comes with criticism and another responds that they should “take the log out of their eye,” with no intent of removing their own log first.  My point is that we all need to remove our logs.

I wish I could say that such criticism was limited to people outside the church, but unfortunately I can’t.  It seems like everyone has opinion on what songs should be sung, what type of sermons should be preached, what children’s ministry should be like, or any number of other issues that might be at hand.

Much of my thought on this topic has come out of a recent study of the book of James; specifically his teaching on controlling our tongues in chapter three.   Criticism is an outflow of not controlling our tongues.  James states:  “the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell” (Jas 3:6).  The tongue can defile our entire body as well as set the course of our lives.  When we engage in criticism we become blinded to our own sin (log in the eye) which defiles us.  This blindness then sets the course of our lives in that we engage in more and more criticism of other people.  It is at this point when criticism shapes our lives, and therefore becomes an idol.

We all have to be careful not to get wrapped up in criticism.  I think the point at which our critiques become criticism is when we are only willing to talk about issues and never actually do anything about fixing them.  If we are willing to talk about issues, we need to be willing to get our hands dirty to do something about them. 

I will leave you with one final verse:  “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear” (Eph 4:29).  (That works for your mouth as well as your blog, email, text, etc…)

Until next time, put God first and “be the fruit.”