"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."
James 1:19-20
It speaks volumes regarding our consumer-minded Western culture that Christians are so quick to offer-up criticism to those who preach. There's no doubt that those who preach are undoubtedly flawed instruments and vessels.
Moses blew it. Elijah blew it. King David blew it. The Apostle Paul blew it. Peter blew it. Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, Billy Graham, Chuck Swindoll... every preacher ever - except for Jesus Christ - has preached imperfect sermons. That's reality. But there's an insurmountable gap between those who strive to preach a Gospel-centered, God-honoring, Holy Spirit-led, biblically sound message vs. those spewing prosperity gospel nonsense and false doctrines.
Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true. -Acts 17:11
In Acts 17:11, the Apostle Paul identified what made the Berean audience "noble-minded" rather than consumer-minded. It boils down to two things: 1) They received the message, and 2) They examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true.
#1 THEY RECEIVED: Think about a receiver in American football. They don't just stand at the line of scrimmage yelling at the quarterback, "Hey! I'm open!" That guy would never make it onto a J.V. squad... never mind starting in the NFL! Instead, the receiver's part is to study film, know the play, run the route, shed the defender, and do their part to catch whatever the quarterback throws to the best of their ability.
What makes a GREAT CATCH is when the QB and receiver are on the same page... sometimes it results in a one-hander - tip-toeing the out-of-bounds line - with a couple of defenders hanging all over them - diving into the endzone - TOUCHDOWN! The first part of what made the Bereans noble-minded wasn't their sitting back like armchair quarterbacks with a cup of coffee in one hand and a donut in the other. It was that they RECEIVED the message!
#2 THEY EXAMINED: Lots of folks today are quick to offer up criticism without ever making any effort to RECEIVE the message. Fewer still take the time to EXAMINE the Scriptures to make sure they know what they're talking about. It's because consumer-minded audiences are used to being entertained, catered to, affirmed, and enabled rather than challenged, convicted, and pastored.
If someone doesn't know the difference between King Saul and Saul of Tarsus, the significance of baptism and the Lord's Supper, what regeneration is, the significance of the Old Testament or its literary devices, and the essential nature of church membership... then before offering up criticism, they should address the plank in their own eye before telling a brother to get the speck out of his. They should spend time in God's WORD - not to rip and tear bits and pieces out of context to forge a Frankenstein monster of their own convenient worldly philosophy - but to prayerfully discern what the Divine Author, God Almighty, has to say.
Far too many Christians today feel like their spiritual gift is criticism. They frame it with, "Bless your heart..." or "With all due respect..." They're typically the ones floating around on the periphery without any role, without being members, without any accountability, without any responsibility... but eager and ready to criticize the pastor, elders, and deacons for ministries, music styles, song choices, service times, too much of this, too little of that... and it's all because they've never been told otherwise.
Many think the local church operates like Walmart or Target - where the customer is always right. The truth is, there is no spiritual gift of criticism. The church isn't made up of whiners, complainers, critics, or part-time volunteers. It's made up of DEVOTED members, each doing their part under the authority and leadership of called and devoted servants of Christ. If that's not you then hush. Criticism isn't a one-way street. If you're not ready to hear back about the sin, idolatry, and rebellion in your life, it's probably best not to go down that road.
There's a reason why the Apostle Paul told the Ephesians about the Armor of God (ch 6) right after telling them about the makeup of the Body of Christ (ch 4). Much of the armor is DEFENSIVE in nature: the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. It's one thing to expect attacks from the enemy... it's something else to catch "friendly fire." There's a reason why King Jesus told us that our testimony to a lost and broken world would be our love on display through our UNITY (John 17) - not criticism by consumer-minded parasites.
Before we go criticizing someone's efforts to be faithful to God's calling - whether it's preaching, teaching, song choices, or making coffee... we should check our motives and make sure we're NOT being used like a pawn by the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy. We should follow Scripture's command to be quick to listen and slow to speak.
We should be sure the words coming out of our mouths actually edify, i.e. build-up the church, and don't just make us feel better for airing our grievances. We should always conduct ourselves like citizens of the kingdom (Phil 1:27) - not like bitter or entitled children throwing temper tantrums because someone said something the Holy Spirit used to convict us.
We need to strive to be like those Bereans who were noble-minded because 1) they made every effort to RECEIVE the message that was being delivered - not an ear-tickling message they wanted to hear, and 2) they searched the Scriptures to see if what was said was TRUE - not if what was said made them feel warm and fuzzy.
Blessings and love,
Kevin M. Kelley
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