“Accept people.”
That was the last of 4 specific “marching orders” that God seemed to be giving me for the month of January. As I mentioned before, a couple dozen ladies from my church family rallied together to do a group fast, each of us abstaining from or focusing on certain things. I didn’t fast food, but instead felt called to focus my attention on issues of the heart the Father was addressing.
To be honest, I was a bit flummoxed by this “accept people” directive. The others were obvious things—get up early and pray, that sort of thing. What do you mean Accept people? Don’t I already accept people? Who don’t I accept? What does that even mean? Well, I figured even if I didn’t understand it I better say Yes, Sir! and start marching and He’d show me more in time.
And He did. Shortly after the fast began, I was reading through the Sermon on the Mount and was struck afresh by,
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Matthew 7:1-2
It goes on to talk about specks, logs, we are mostly familiar with that part. But then right after, in the same breath, Jesus says,
Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
v. 6
And then:
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits…
v.15-16
Ok, wow. That sounds a whole lot like judging. I mean, How do I discern who is a dog unless I make a judgment? How do I figure out who false prophets are unless I do some evaluation of fruit? All that discerning evaluating sure sounds a lot like judging.
Right? But here’s the thing:
Discerning Heart vs. Critical Spirit
As I prayed through this what surfaced was that the bottom line is attitude. A critical spirit is an attitude that is eager to find fault. It is not so interested helping other people flourish but in being right. It kind of feels good to find fault. There’s a little tinge of pleasure when someone “shows their true colors” and messes up.
This can be so subtle. When someone makes a poor choice, for instance, and I know deep down it’s a poor choice, then when that choice bears bad fruit there can be a subtle (inward, secret, silent!) “See, I told you so!” in my heart, which is that critical spirit. No one has to see it in order for it to be sin.
“Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.”
1 Corinthians 13:6
We should never feel a tinge of self-satisfying smug “rejoicing” when someone does wrong, or when something surfaces. Even if we “saw it coming,” if there is any part of us that “rejoices at wrongdoing” then we are have not love, we have a critical spirit (and, most likely, a huge log hanging out of our eye!).
So I sat with God and my journal and asked God to show me some ways that this crops up in my life. He showed me some. I repented. It was so good.
Right after that I walked into the kitchen and Heidi had left her coat on the floor. Even though I wasn’t angry or upset, I said, “Heidi I don’t know why you always leave your jacket on the floor.” And immediately the Holy Spirit said, “THAT.” Those words were spoken from a critical spirit. Yes, Heidi needs to learn not to throw her jacket on the ground, but my words were cutting and critical, instead of life-giving and instructive. It just took that one word from God to show me the difference.
While God showed me plenty of ways I do this in my own life, of course it’s way easier for me to see it in others (ha!). As I watched certain people in the audience at the State Of The Union address, it was obvious, They don’t want our the current administration to succeed. Everything about their body language oozed arrogance and disgust. If our president fell into terrible misfortune, I have a feeling they’d be rejoicing.
That is so incredibly sad. And it’s sad that that sort of filth is in MY OWN heart too. Who in this world drives me crazy? Would I be secretly happy if Rachel Hollis fell flat on her face? No use lying, Jesus sees the heart! Friends, this isn’t for “those people” out there: WE need this truth.
And here’s the thing:
As long as we harbor a critical spirit we can’t house a discerning heart.
There’s only room for one. And during these dark days we desperately need a discerning heart. We need be able to spot RAVENOUS WOLVES. We need to eye those pigs so we don’t waste our pearls.
In ever-increasing measure, we must be discerning people. But discerning people don’t rejoicing over wrong-doing. If I have a vineyard and I go out to inspect the fruit, I don’t inwardly gloat and rejoice and get smug when I find a bad vine. I don’t go, “Aha! I KNEW IT!” When I see some rotten grapes.
There’s a name for this: Schadenfreude. It’s a German word meaning, Malicious rejoicing. It’s being secretly happen when misfortune happens to another. And ultimately, that’s what a critical spirit is. It’s taking just the tiniest amount of joy in finding fault in another.
Who knew that all this was wrapped up in the little words, “Accept people.” But there you have it. Let’s be people who are discerning, wise, careful, skillful in eyeing ravenous wolves and dogs and enemies of the truth. But let us never stoop so low as to rejoice in evil. Let us grieve over other’s sin, not get self-righteous.
Amen? Amen.
Thanks for reading.