It’s something most people hate to hear but love to do. Call it complaining, murmuring, bellyaching or the like, but everyone is prone to do it sometime. The problem is that some make a pastime of it, constantly finding fault, always being negative about someone or something. It’s this spirit that James addressed in James 5:9; “Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.” However, how many people actually see themselves this way?
Consider the following complaints, and the appropriate response. “I don’t have to take that from anybody!” “When He was abused, He did not return abuse; when He suffered, He did not threaten; but He entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly” (2 Peter 2:23). “I don’t care about anybody else, this is what I want!” “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). “Why don’t you see things my way?” “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:7-8).
There are too many occurrences of “I,” “me” and “my” in the above, and that’s usually from where most complaining comes. While it’s not wrong to be concerned about ourselves, our world must be bigger than self. For every complaint we offer, we could also list countless blessings we have in Christ. Which one we emphasize is a matter of our perspective – our attitude. Considering others opens us to a world of greater fellowship, love, joy, peace and help. We decide which it will be.
“Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5). May we genuinely care for one another, and show by a kind disposition the attitude of Christ in us. What a difference it can make in us – and everyone else!
