THE UNCRITICAL TEMPER
Judge not, that ye be not judged. – Matthew 7:1Jesus 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.