critical spirits

In The Pillars of Christian Character, John MacArthur writes this on thankfulness.

Selfishness and unrealistic expectations lead to another attitude that hinders thankfulness – a critical spirit. We become critical when we think we ought to control everything. But when we can’t always manipulate the results we desire (cf. Jas 4.13-16), we begin to view everything negatively and find fault with everyone else. If unchecked, such an attitude will become a horribly corrosive habit that destroys our thankfulness and eats away at every other aspect of our spirituality.

Excellent – especially that last sentence. So many of the attitudes we can develop that are not consistent with the fruit of the Spirit become exactly that, a corrosive habit that eats at all that God calls us to be. A critical spirit certainly tops this list.

One does not have to read too much see this in play in the Church today. And what’s worse, Satan’s trap is intricate. A critical spirit not only ensnares the original victims but then another group forms to become critical of the first. And then another to become critical of the second. And so on. Before long, very little is said of Christ but much is said of how others fall short.

I like Henry (Rick) Frueh in a comment made on an earlier post:

A man sees his expensive car being driven by someone in an erratic and unsafe way. So he rents a crane, lifts a huge boulder, and waits on the side of the road where the car is coming.

At the exact moment he releases the boulder and smashes the car in pieces. "There", he says, "That takes care of the unsafe driving!".

An analogy about some of the watchman tactics in dealing with the unsafe and erratic doctrinal driving of some.

Then of course some are tempted to blow up the guy on the crane and so on it goes ... nobody is even thinking about driving the car anymore. A "corrosive habit that destroys our thankfulness and eats away at every other aspect of our spirituality" indeed.