The Spiritual Gift of Criticism
“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?” Romans 2:1-3 (ESV)
“Criticism…1, The act of criticizing, esp adversely: censure. 2.a. The judgments of a critic. B. A review expressing such judgments.” This is how the Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary defines criticism and from a worldly viewpoint there isn’t anything too offensive in it. We all get criticized every now and again by those around us and our reaction to it is key to gaining an insight to ourselves. But there are those of us who get offended when we are criticized and instead of taking the rebuke and learning from it we forge this into a weapon in which we rage a war of emotional attrition. And we take no prisoners!!!
The Pharisees didn’t take too kindly to Jesus when He called them a brood of vipers. They got really offended when He said to them, “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “ ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” (Matt 15:7-9) Those money changers in the Temple must have had a time as Jesus dump their tables over as He yelled about His Father’s house becoming a den of thieves. Yeah sometimes it takes the spiritual gift of criticism for us to see that we may not be as planted in the Father as we thought we were.
And if it isn’t those of us on the receiving end of this gift who have an issue with it, what about those who are on the giving end of it. If the Pharisees had only knew that the One who they were offended by was in the right to judge them they may have reconsidered their own position in passing judgments. John Gill says it like this…
“Some men may be so vain as to imagine, that though they do the same things which they condemn in others, they shall escape the judgment of God: but such will find themselves most sadly mistaken; there is no avoiding the general judgment; all men must come to it; there will be no eluding it through craftiness and deceit, through bribery and corruption; there will be no escaping condign punishment, through might in the criminal, or through the judge's ignorance of his crimes, or want of ability and power to punish.”
In essence no man has the spiritual gift to criticize anyone. It is like that old saying that goes on to say that when we are pointing a finger at someone we are really pointing the three back at us. But for those of us who suffer from “rebuke-o-intolerance” we are the ones that need the spiritual gift of discernment. Not every criticism is meant to bend us out of shape. We need to receive it, run it through the Cross and see if it tears down or edifies. If it edifies then let it do what it needs to do but if it tears down we must remember that it is not a good idea to return the gift. Chances are the person that gave you the gift doesn’t have the receipt anyway. They weren’t the One who paid the price. Chris Hughes contributes regularly to the Freedom Fighter blog and is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy
Compass Pointers: “Nothing will more effectively arrest the working of the Spirit in the heart than the spirit of criticism.” Days of Heaven on Earth A.B. Simpson
Anchored to the Rock: The Christian on his knees sees more than the philosopher on tiptoe.
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