Romans 14:13 (God’s
Word Translation)
So let’s stop
criticizing each other. Instead, you should decide never to do anything that
would make other Christians have doubts or lose their faith.
Criticism—what
an ugly word. Criticism is the opposite
of encouragement. Encouraging others is
taught clearly in the Bible, but criticizing others is to be avoided. Yet, might you agree that the average person
is much more inclined to criticize than to encourage others? Criticism is putting others down, finding
fault, expressing disapproval. Indeed,
in this passage, the word translated as “criticizing” is the same word used for
judging or condemning others. A bad
word, not to be practiced in the Christian life.
Yet,
Christians criticize as much or more than anyone else. Ask any pastor and he will agree with
this. It’s so easy to find fault, to
judge others, to put others down, this has been true throughout the history of
mankind. We are criticized by parents,
siblings, friends, neighbors, teachers, coaches, bosses, and, yes, even other
Christian brothers and sisters.
Remember
what Jesus taught about criticizing others?
In Matthew 7:1-5, He asked why do you look at the speck in your
brother’s eye and not see the log that is in your own eye? (A great example of
the humor of our Lord). Why is it that
the natural tendency of humans is to think of themselves superior to others,
without fault while others are at fault, and not to treat others as you
yourself wish to be treated?
Constructive
criticism can be a kind of encouragement, more like exhortation that the
apostle Paul was excellent at doing (e.g. read almost any of his chapters, but
some good ones examples--Romans 6, I Corinthians 5, and Ephesians 4-6). Good parents, teachers, coaches, pastors,
leaders and mentors are good because they can appropriately criticize constructively
that in the long run is an encouragement to others. Constructive criticism is not judging on the
basis of no respect, no caring, and no love, but the opposite; it is helping on
the basis of respect, caring, and love.
I’ll never forget the courage of a young woman, years ago, who confronted
me over what she thought was my unfair judgment of someone else. It initially hurt me to hear her words of
constructive criticism, but she was right and I was wrong. She helped me, through her criticism in a
loving way, to avoid doing that again.
Criticism
of another believer will cause him/her to have doubts or to lose faith. You are to exhort and encourage others, not
be so critical that they withdraw and lose faith. How many people have been victimized by
zealous, unloving Christian critics?
While
you can do your part to stop criticizing others, you likely will never avoid
hearing criticism from others. The best
you can do is to be wise and not over-react to what you hear. Wise people can
turn something negative into something positive. Wise people are able to learn something from
criticism. Someone wisely noted that if
you even are able to thank the critic for his remarks, you might win him over
because it shows humility on your part.
