There’s the story of the conscientious wife who tried very hard to please her ultracritical husband, but failed regularly. He always seemed the most cantankerous at breakfast. If the eggs were scrambled, he wanted them poached; if the eggs were poached, he wanted them scrambled. One morning, with what she thought was a stroke of genius, the wife poached one egg and scrambled the other and placed the plate before him. Anxiously she awaited what surely this time would be his unqualified approval. He peered down at the plate and snorted, “Can’t you do anything right, woman? You’ve scrambled the wrong one!”
I want to talk to you today about criticism, or, as the Bible calls it, judging. While it is true that some criticism is helpful—we call this kind of criticism constructive criticism—most criticism is destructive.
One of Aesop’s fables tells of an old man and his son bringing a donkey to the market. Passing some people on the way, they hear one remark, “Look at that silly pair—walking when they could be riding comfortably.”
The idea seemed sensible to the old man, so he and the boy mounted the donkey and continued on their way. Soon they passed another group. “Look at that lazy pair,” said a voice, “breaking the back of that poor donkey, tiring him so that no one will buy him.”
The old man slid off, but soon they heard another criticism from a passerby: “What a terrible thing, this old man walking while the boy gets to ride.”
They changed places, but soon heard people whispering, “What a terrible thing, the big strong man riding and making the little boy walk.”
The old man and the boy pondered the situation and finally continued their journey in yet another manner, carrying the donkey on a pole between them.
As they crossed the bridge, the donkey broke loose, fell into the river, and drowned.
Aesop’s moral: You can’t please everyone.
Here’s an alternative moral to the fable: Destructive criticism never helps.
We hear criticism all the time. People criticize their boss, their pastor, the government. George Burns once said, “Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.”
After a minister preached a sermon on spiritual gifts, he was greeted at the door by a lady who said, “Pastor, I believe I have the gift of criticism.” He looked at her and asked, “Remember the person in Jesus’ parable who had the one talent? Do you recall what he did with it?” “Yes,” replied the lady, “he went out and buried it.” With a smile, the pastor suggested, “Go thou, and do likewise!”
The believers in Rome were divided over special diets and special days. Some of the members thought it was a sin to eat meat, so they ate only vegetables. Other members thought it a sin not to observe the Jewish holy days. If each Christian had kept his convictions to himself, there would have been no problem, but they began to criticize and judge one another. The one group was sure the other group was not at all spiritual.
Read Romans 14:1-12.
Matthew 7:1-5
1 Judge [criticize] not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judge: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
The New Living Translation translates these verses this way: “Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged.”
DeWitt Talmage remarked, “Without exception, the people who have the greatest number of faults are themselves the most merciless in their criticism of others. They spend their lives looking for something lowly rather than something lofty.”
A preacher, capitalizing on this fact, devised an effective way of handling such critics. He kept a special book labeled, “Complaints of Members Against One Another.” When one of them would tell him about some fault of a fellow parishioner, he would say, “Well, here’s my complaint book. I’ll write down what you say, and you can sign you name to it. When I see that person, I’ll take up the matter with him.” That open ledger, and the critic’s awareness of his own faults, always had a restraining effect. Immediately the complainer would exclaim, “Oh, no, I couldn’t sign anything like that!” In 40 years that book was opened a thousand times, but no entry was ever made.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote [speck of sawdust] that is in they brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam [plank] that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Let’s think about this illustration that Jesus gives us. You’re on a construction site and you accidently get a big piece of wood stuck in your eye. But instead of doing something about your problem, you ignore it to go tell your coworker that he has a speck of sawdust in his eye. We would call this kind of behavior foolish. What you should do is take care of your big problem—the chunk of wood in your eye–before you worry about correcting you coworker’s little problem—the piece of sawdust in his eye.
But this is often what we do when we criticize others. We look at some little matter in another persons’ life and criticize them for it while ignoring a much worse sin in our own life. Before we get too concerned about correcting others, we need to correct ourselves.
At the turn of the century, the world’s most distinguished astronomer was certain there were canals on Mars. Sir Percival Lowell, esteemed for his study of the solar system, had a particular fascination with the Red Planet.
When he heard, in 1877, that an Italian astronomer had seen straight lines crisscrossing the Martian surface, Lowell spent the rest of his years squinting into the eyepiece of his giant telescope in Arizona, mapping the channels and canals he saw. He was convinced the canals were proof of intelligent life on Mars, possibly an older but wiser race than humanity.
Lowell’s observations gained wide acceptance. So eminent was he, none dared contradict him. Now, of course, things are different. Space probes have orbited Mars and landed on its surface. The entire planet has been mapped, and no one has seen a canal. How could Lowell have “seen” so much that wasn’t there?
Two possibilities: (1) he so wanted to see canals that he did, over and over again, and (2) we know now that he suffered from a rare disease that made him see the blood vessels in his own eyes. The Martian “canals” he saw were nothing more than the bulging veins of his eyeballs. Today the malady is known as “Lowell’s syndrome.”
When Jesus warns that “in the same way you judge others, you will be judged” and warns of seeing “the speck of sawdust” in another’s eye while missing the plank in our own, could he not be referring to the spiritual equivalent of Lowell’s syndrome? Over and over, we “see” faults in others because we don’t want to believe anything better about them. And so often we think we have a firsthand view of their shortcomings, when in fact our vision is distorted by our own disease.
10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ.
11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue confess to God.
12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
New Living Translation: “So why do you condemn another Christian? Why do you look down on another Christian? Remember, each of us will stand personally before the judgement seat of God.”
J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English: “Why, then, criticise your brother’s actions, why try to make him look small? We shall all be judged one day, not by each other’s standards or even by our own, but by the judgement of God.”
The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary Language: “Eventually, we’re all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgement facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren’t going to improve your position there one bit.”
Paul asked the weak Christian, “Why are you judging your brother?” Then he asked the strong Christian, “Why are you despising you brother?” Both strong and weak must stand at the judgement seat of Christ, and they will not judge each other—they will be judged by the Lord.
Second Corinthians 5:10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
The judgement seat of Christ is that place where Christians will have their works judged by the Lord. It has nothing to do with our sins, since Christ has paid for them and they can be held against us no more. The word for “judgement seat” in the Greek is bema, meaning the place where the judges stood at the athletic games. If during the games they saw an athlete break the rules, they immediately disqualified him. At the end of the contests, the judges gave out the rewards.
Read 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.
First Corinthians 3:10-15 gives another picture of the judgement seat of Christ. Paul compared our ministries with the building of a temple. If we build with cheap materials, the fire will burn them up . If we use precious, lasting materials, our works will last. If our works pass the test, we receive a reward. If they are burned up, we lost the reward, but we are still saved “yet so as by fire.” He personally will be safe, though rather like a man rescued from a fire.
How does the Christian prepare for the judgement seat of Christ? By making Jesus Christ Lord of his life and faithfully obeying Him. Instead of judging other Christians, we had better judge our own lives and make sure we are ready to meet Christ at the judgement seat.
The fact that our sins will never be brought up against us should not encourage us to disobey God. Sin in our lives keeps us from serving Christ as we should, and this means loss of reward. Lot is a good example of this truth. Lot was not walking with the Lord as was his uncle, Abraham and, as a result, he lost his testimony even with his own family. When the judgement finally came, Lot was spared for the fire and brimstone, but everything he lived for was burned up. He was saved “yet so as by fire.”
Paul explained that they did not have to give an account for anyone else but themselves. So they were to make sure that their account would be a good one. He was stressing the principle of Lordship—make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, and let Him be the Lord in the lives of other Christians as well.
Criticizing another person will be called into account at the judgement seat of Christ. We should not be wasting our time by criticizing others. If we turn the searchlight within our own hearts, we will find plenty to keep us humble before the Lord without being occupied with other people. We will have enough to do at the judgement seat of Christ answering for our own behavior without worrying about the actions of others.
If you don’t want to be judged then don’t judge others.
If you want heavenly rewards, judge yourself.
