Are You Critical?

Jonathan Rupprecht

jhr12447@aol.com

This question can mean two things. But here the question is not if you play an almost indispensable, “critical” role in a group of people who would have trouble functioning without you: family, church, job, team, etc. Rather it’s simply asking if you criticize a lot.

But there too the question can have a positive and a negative aspect, and it is becoming more and more important for us to recognize and apply that key distinction. On the one hand, no one likes a person who is constantly voicing negative, critical remarks about other people, events and things. And God doesn’t either. Think of Jesus’ familiar comment in His Sermon on the Mount about the speck in our brother’s eye on which we focus vs. the plank in our own eye that we ignore. He brings this up because this type of blind, reactionary criticism of others is such a common, natural, sinful weakness in all of us, even if more common in some than in others. He introduces that comment by saying, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. (Matthew 7:1).

And right there is where this key distinction starts. Those words of Jesus have been cited so readily by those being criticized or hearing criticism of others, and so often they grossly misapply them to any and all criticism; they take them out of context. Jesus in that context was clearly applying that phrase to being lovelessly critical of others while being selfishly blind to our own faults, shortcomings, sins, which may be much more serious than the faults of those we are criticizing. But with those words Jesus is by no means forbidding all criticism.

The context there clearly shows this. Only a few verses later Jesus commands criticism: “Watch out for false prophets. . . . By their fruit you will recognize them.” (vv. 15&16) We clearly are to make a critical judgment about what people say, judging their words by God’s Word. This applies also to making critical judgments in issues of our daily lives in this world: discerning truth from falsehood, good from evil, wisdom from folly; again judging by God’s Word, not by mere popular human thoughts, preferences, prejudices, tastes, trends. Also, when Jesus tells us that “in the same way you judge others you will be judged” (v. 2), He refers to us making a loveless judging of others’ hearts, emotions, motivations; factors which only God Himself can fully, properly judge and criticize.

But we are to judge, to criticize. How else could we determine “whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely admirable, excellent or praiseworthy” (Philippians 4:8) without sound, Scripturally critical discernment? How else could we “test everything; hold on to the good, avoid every kind of evil”? (I Thessalonians 5:21)

This is pretty basic Christian living and thinking, but in the face of growing societal changes and pressures today, Christians are losing sight of it, even in daily critical thinking. The world today exerts strong pressures against being critical about its own designated aspects of life. And too many Christians, who see some Scriptural virtues in some of that pressure, uncritically adopt this general anti-criticism approach as their own.

A tragic example of this, which triggered this essay, has surfaced in recent times with reports about Muslims becoming Christians, especially in Europe – a fascinating factor in and of itself. The problem that has arisen in this amazing development is that Christians who have let themselves become wrongly and overly sensitized against proper and necessary criticism, willfully avoid criticizing Islam, in spite of the depraved paganism at its core, because they don’t want to be seen as “critical”!

But the result of this refusal to criticize is that these Muslim converts to Christianity find their new alliance with God’s revealed truth about the Gospel and life itself to thus be horribly de-valued, negated, even illegitimized, because their new Christian brothers and sisters refrain from criticizing the spiritual hell-hole from which these converts have just escaped. These Christians act as if there’s at least some degree of moral equivalence between Christianity and Islam!

Meanwhile, these former Muslims have typically been disowned by their families, lost their employment, left their homeland, and often face threats on their life and/or torture – and for their families as well – if they are exposed as converts to the Christian faith! All that for the sake of this new religion which now, judging by its adherents, turns out to be maybe nothing more than just an alternate approach rather than the liberating, saving Gospel Truth that they thought they had finally found.

What an unspeakably horrible stumbling block! No lie could be bigger, nor could any mistake be more serious, than this refusal to be clearly critical when that is obviously called for and is so essential!

Now of course this particular example goes back to the more fundamental error of relativizing Holy Scripture and the Christian verity to the status of just another religion, something that a person is free to accept or reject, based on personal preference. But even among Christians who hold to Scripture as the revealed Word of God, this aversion to criticism plays out in various other serious situations, and it shows itself in various related approaches: “I don’t want to get involved”; “They’ll think I’m being arrogant”; “How can I win them over or gain their respect by criticizing their background?” “People don’t put up with criticism nowadays”; “It’s all just political”; etc. There’s an often misguided embarrassment about criticizing, about saying anything “negative” about anything or anyone.

When such approaches become typical – as seems to be an increasing trend – error wins the day! Tolerating error on grounds of freedom of speech and/or freedom of religion gives it legitimacy, exactly what Satan wants and loves! This is a serious confusion of political religious freedom with God’s insistent condemnation of it. Our American society demonstrates this in countless secular ways, and unfortunately too many Christians have also been doing so, with that horrible and misguided aversion to constructive, Scriptural criticism.

After all, how did homosexuality and its depraved derivatives become so widely accepted and approved in our society today, where as recently as 50 years ago these perversions were regarded with widespread abhorrence? Because they were no longer criticized; and those who still attempted to do so became instead the objects of criticism! And how did the fatal cancer of grossly relativizing the basics of the Christian faith become so common in the Christian church at large today? Again, because criticism of these lies of Satan became muted until it was virtually silenced in many places. And silence is seen as approval.

“If you see something, say something” is a relatively new byword in our society, but it’s not new for us as Christians; and we need to apply it rigorously and vigorously. God’s often-cited stern commission to Ezekiel makes this case quite directly: “I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel. . . . When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die’, and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.” (3:17-19, repeated at 33:7-9) Thus God positions us also to be critics for His sake and for the sake of others; to be watchmen against evil in words and actions and to speak up clearly in our commissioned criticism of it. Criticism is our God-given responsibility! After all, if we love God’s truth, will we not instinctively criticize all errors and all behaviors that oppose it?

But criticizing other people? Isn’t that discrimination? Well yes, guilty as charged! God not only calls us to discriminate between right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood, but also, along with that, to criticize those people who promote the wrong sides of those pairs. There are bad people out there! Our society only recognizes this in its subjective, politically correct and woke judgments. But we have almighty, eternal God’s objective, timeless standards of judgment – and critical discrimination.

But don’t we need to be careful, thoughtful, sensitive when criticizing? Yes, absolutely. Two common sayings come to mind: “It’s not just what you say but how you say it”; and “People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. And we can’t fake that caring. Both of those sayings reflect Scriptural truth. For example, we are urged to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). That rules out the hostile, spiteful, antagonistic, in-your-face approach that comes so easily when criticizing. The truth must be spoken, but in a manner that not only testifies to it but lovingly considers the recipients of our criticism.

Thus we encounter that key issue of balance. On the one hand, we are commissioned to criticize; but at the same time we need to consider the subject matter, the timing, the circumstances, and certainly the persons whom we criticize. And we need to keep in check any delight in criticism simply for its own sake. We mentioned initially the important distinction between positive and negative criticism. Negative criticism speaks in impatience, rudeness, prideful derision, even hatred. Positive criticism “speaks the truth in love”: love for God, for His Word of truth, for His values, and love for the persons whom we criticize. Thus we need to criticize our criticism: which of those two ways is it going?

Yes, of course, there will be those times when people ignore or resist or attack our criticisms; we can’t be caught by surprise when this happens. And letting our frustration at such moments express itself in sharper criticism is not likely to have positive results, even if it is still well-intentioned. Instead, we can take comfort in the fact that at least we’ve born witness to God’s truth. Their reaction to His truth and our loving criticism is in His hands. We can simply stop talking and start praying!

So, “Are You Critical?” God willing, you are, as described here. Sum it up this way:

Be Christian: be critical, but in a Christian way.