The Wrong Kind Of Criticism

Some people are constantly criticising others. Sadly, this can be particularly true within church circles. People can 'nitpick' and be critical often over very unimportant things — perhaps just because a person is doing things differently. There are arguments over different translations of the Bible, taking out the pews in a church, the colour of paint for the building, the hymns we sing or new versions of the Psalms. Church people can get steamed up about lots of things! Religious people in Jesus' time were just the same and they hounded Jesus from place to place because he would not give in to their prejudices or to their false ideas of what God was like or what God's word really said.

The result of all this was that these critical people missed the blessedness of Jesus' company and the real fellowship of the apostles. Their criticism became so bad that in the end they had Jesus crucified. And of course their criticism destroyed themselves as well. Jesus at one stage called them "children of their father the devil." (John 8:44)

Now we can point out the nastiness of these enemies of Jesus but what about our own hearts? Is there a spirit of bitterness or criticism in us that is really the opposite of what Jesus wants to see in us — he wants to see true grace and love and understanding.