DEALING BIBLICAL WITH CRITICISM

Part Two

• We also read earnest, pointed, forceful exhortations like these:
• Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,but a wise man listens to advice.
• Proverbs 15:32 Whoever ignores instruction despises himself,but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence.
• Proverbs 17:10 A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understandingthan a hundred blows into a fool.
• Proverbs 19:20 Listen to advice and accept instruction,that you may gain wisdom in the future.
• Proverbs 29:1 He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck,will suddenly be broken beyond healing.
• Ecclesiastes 7:5 It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wisethan to hear the song of fools.

The stance of the wise should be to be very open and receptive to criticism; indeed, to welcome it. ( which I must say it’s not always true of us) After all, what is our goal? Is it to maintain every position intact, never grow, never realize that a thing can be handled better than we'd done in the past? Or can we grow by learning? Or is it to keep growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ, which necessarily involves what Luther's first Thesis calls an "entire life... of repentance." I knew Martin Luther was a little biblical.

• If you've spilled catsup all over your shirt/ or /blouse, would you rather that no one remark anything, so that you can maintain the illusion that you are fit and perfectly spic-and-span - until you get home and realize you've looked like a piglet all evening?

• Or would you rather someone tell you in affection, so that you can try to do something about it?So if we have hideous and destructive attitudes or behaviors, is it our priority to maintain the illusion that we've triumphed until we arrive home and realize what a perfect predicament we’re in?

So, yikes: this second volume of texts strongly urges listening to criticism, hearing and heeding it, taking it to heart. It urgently warns us against deaf ears, hard and arrogant hearts, and stiff necks. Oh, except for Glenn Franke’s comments about my grammar. (Jesting)

So what do we do? We hazard to assume that majority opinion is right; we risk to assume that any criticism is wrong. The polls are not always right. But there is some thought to be given.I

Indeed, I think that is exactly what leaders must do. If you hear criticism, and never think it has even a grain of wisdom and truth in it, you're either Jesus, or you have your heart in the wrong place.

But equally, if you're like President Logan in Season Four of 24, with no root nor rudder, you're not wearing the mantle of leadership well.

When it comes to criticism, I think the best target is: Be neither indifferent, nor a hostage. You should listen, and listen firmly. You should consider it carefully and unsparingly before God, but you must weigh it honestly and humbly. Our own personal stance should be like that of the wise man in Proverbs 9:8b-9:
...reprove a wise man, and he will love you.9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

Now here's the depressing part. Almost invariably you will infuriate, and perhaps unintentionally make an enemy of, every examiner whose advice you don't fully follow.

Show me a leader with no enemies, and I'll show you a zero leader. The wiser of your critics will realize that you will ultimately not stand before the judgment seat of them, but the judgment seat of God (Those who believe they will) - and at some point this must rule your perspective. They'll not make everything ride on your accepting the infallibility of their judgment.And given that God both counsels us to take disapproval very seriously, and not to be it’s captive, the Lord’s perspective will be our wisest perspective.

My friend Bruce Traeger from Cedarville College: put it this way:

• "For some, disagreement is the enemy of their soul and therefore, those who think differently from them are to be opposed at all costs. For theirs is a life of certain knowledge which can only be instructedfurther by those who already think like them.

Some people see disagreement with them as criticism.

• "For others, disagreement is a tool that can sharpen the mind, shape the will, and open our hearts to the realization that this side of eternity, there is only One who has absolute knowledge in all things and in all things He knows absolutely. May the Lord help us to continually learn from Him and one another. "

Any disagreement or criticism that is designed for Growing by Learning, please email by writer. at CWhisna@aol.com.

Adopted by Charles E. Whisnant 01 29 07 Checked by Charity Whisnant 01 30 07

DEALING BIBLICALLY WITH CRITICISM

PT ONE

Footnote:
I went to dictionary. com and found there were 228 results for criticism

• "Criticism in general terms means democratic judgment over the suitability of a subject for the intended purposes, as opposed to the authoritarian command, which is meant as an absolute realization of the authority's will, thus not open for debate."
• "Constructive criticism is the process of offering valid and well-reasoned opinions about the work of others with the intention of helping the reader or the artist, rather than creating an oppositional attitude"

• You could use these words as well: interpretation, judgment, notice, observation, opinion.

People in the public eye will face criticism. Andpeople will deal with criticism differently.

My friend Bruce Traeger from Cedarville College: on how people deal with "disagreements."

• "For some, disagreement is the enemy of their soul and therefore, those who think differently from them are to be opposed at all costs. For theirs is a life of certain knowledge which can only be instructedfurther by those who already think like them. "

I've encountered it quite frequently as a pastor, and a few times as a blogger. I'm sure that those who have analyzed one of my sermons, or made a suggestion regarding one of my threads , think that I have callously or arrogantly brushed it aside without a thought if I don't fully and instantly embrace their view. I understand that thinking; however, this is seldom (if ever) the case. (Except when DeWayne Prosser makes his judgments, and then I listen 99% of the time.)

.Evaluating and responding to criticism is a very thin narrow wire, I think; and I think you'll agree, if you think it through with me

Hugh "Squish" Hewitt likes to quote a proverb, "When everyone tells you you're drunk, sit down." There's clearly wisdom in those words: if you keep hearing the same thing from person after person after person, the odds are good to excellent that they're seeing something. And you're a fool if you shrug it off without a thought. The proverb has wisdom, I say, but not all wisdom. The answer to the rhetorical question, "Can [however many] Frenchmen be wrong?" is "Of course they can." Think of it Biblically. Consider this:

• "When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." (Exodus 14:10-12)

It’s clear here in this story. These are the people of God! They'd just prayed (v. 10), so what they said had religious framework! They said in one accord that Moses had brought them all out to die in the wilderness! They said they knew it all along!And they were all wrong!Then think of the spies' report in Numbers 13. Twelve spies sent, twelve came back, ten of the twelve - a landslide! - said that there was no way they could take the land. And they were dead wrong.But they did influence most of the people, and most of the people took their counsel and performed on it. And they were dead wrong.

Think of Israel at Jesus' time. "Crucify! Crucify!" Religious people, all united and fervent in their opinion; all dead wrong. For that matter, think of Israel today, the vast majority of whom still are stubbornly and hard-heartedly in a state of Deuteronomy 18:19.So the Christian must know that it is possible for the vast majority of any body of devout to be absolutely certain, enthusiastic, heartily and specifically condemning, and utterly, completely, dead wrong.

But it isn't merely a political phenomenon, for scores of pastors and writers are little different. They preach topically, so as to avoid unpopular truths. In interviews or private conversations, they may insist that they hold these truths. "Hold them" they may; "hold them high" they do not.So we should disregard all criticism, right?Well, of course not. And here we must turn about, lean over and examine the other side of this narrow ridge on which a Christian leader must stand, with its equally disastrous drop off.

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant and Proof Read by Charity Whisnant