The Criticizer

The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook. Judgment and criticism says a lot more about who we are than it does about those we are judging or criticizing.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1-2)

Criticizers are deadly and cause great harm, not only to the individuals they judge and criticize, but to the church, which is a representative of Jesus here on earth.

Jesus, therefore, is dealing with the judgmental and critical spirit that exist within the church that He heads us. So serious is criticism and judgmentalism within the church that Jesus pulls no punches and says they will be judged in the same way they just others.

These criticizers are self-righteous, spiritual blind, self-deceived, and lack Christ-like love. As such they are hypocrites and abuse the gospel of grace they say they proclaim.

The type of judgment Jesus is speaking about in our passage is condemning, censorious, and faultfinding. It is a criticism of others with no comparable self-criticism or self-correction.

It’s called the law of equal weights. The same measure we use in judgment will be used to measure and judge us. But what’s even scarier is that the Lord measures it out against us. Therefore we better show a whole lot of love and compassion on those who have fallen on hard times, and help restore instead of reject.

James gives us this law of equal weights saying, “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13)

The church suffers from a judgmental and critical spirit. We, therefore, are to restore, not criticize. We are to be compassionate, not censorious. We need to pull people up, not push them down, and we need to speak words of kindness and love, not negative and destructive words.