THE UNCRITICAL TEMPER
"Judge not, that ye be not
judged." Matthew 7:1
Jesus says regarding judging - Don't. The average
Christian is the most penetratingly critical individual.
Criticism is a part of the ordinary faculty of man; but in the
spiritual domain nothing is accomplished by criticism. The
effect of criticism is a dividing up of the powers of the one
criticized; the Holy Ghost is the only One in the true position
to criticize, He alone is able to show what is wrong without
hurting and wounding. It is impossible to enter into communion
with God when you are in a critical temper; it makes you hard
and vindictive and cruel, and leaves you with the flattering
unction that you are a superior person. Jesus says, as a
disciple cultivate the uncritical temper. It is not done once
and for all. Beware of anything that puts you in the superior
person's place.
There is no getting away from the penetration of Jesus. If I see
the mote in your eye, it means I have a beam in my own. Every
wrong thing that I see in you, God locates in me. Every time I
judge, I condemn myself (see Romans 2:17-20). Stop having a
measuring rod for other people. There is always one fact more in
every man's case about which we know nothing. The first thing
God does is to give us a spiritual spring-cleaning; there is no
possibility of pride left in a man after that. I have never met
the man I could despair of after discerning what lies in me
apart from the grace of God.
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest,
June 17th
