Skip to main content

Don't #2


Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! (James 5:9)

           Here’s our second “don’t.” Don’t grumble against one another. To grumble is to “complain or protest about something in a bad-tempered but typically muted way.” This means that grumbling does not involve going to the person one grumbles about. It may not involve your saying anything to any specific person. Grumbling is quiet. No one else may hear it. It might be entirely in your head. Grumbling doesn’t even require a growling tone in our voices, though we tend to think of grumbling as quiet, deep rumbling.
              If grumbling is not those things, what is it? Let’s consider some parallels. Meditation is quietly going over things or over nothing, over and over. To worry is to meditate with fear. Dogs worry a bone. To hope is to meditate with anticipation and joy. Grumbling is meditating with anger. The problem with most of these forms of meditation is that they are like being on a gerbil wheel, you keep running but you don’t get anywhere. The problem isn’t solved.
           James said that the grumbler would be judged. Grumbling sounds like such a small thing to be judged for, but the greatest commandment includes loving our neighbor as ourselves, and grumbling isn’t loving. Jesus taught us how to handle conflict, and grumbling is not it.
            However, grumbling does seem like a good jumping-off point for a discussion of the spiritual battle in which we find ourselves. We’ll take that up tomorrow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, anger, fear, jealousy, and lust can crowd out everything else. This is like
Post a Comment
Read more

The Right Road

          Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:7-12)                  For years before GPSes existed, I told people I wanted something in my car that would tell me, “Turn left in half a mile…turn left in a quarter mile…turn left in 500 feet… turn left in 100 feet…turn left now …You missed the turn, Dummy!” The problem isn’t necessarily that I get lost so much as I’m afraid I’ll get lost. I don’t want to have to spend my whole trip stressing over the next turn. I have the same problem with my spiritual journey.   
Post a Comment
Read more

Not Sharing

            Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure . (I Timothy 5:22) Today’s is a hard one. The part about not being hasty in the laying on of hands isn’t so much the problem unless your love language is Touch. We aren’t pastors. We don’t tend to be involved in commissioning anyone. What we don’t tend to think of when we hear “laying on of hands” is that it involves relationship and approval. Our sending them away as our representatives may not seem real to us, but just think about what being seen with the wrong folks can do to a reputation. I’ve heard that Billy Graham would not be in a room alone with a woman. Others follow the same policy, or at least make sure the door is open so that anyone who wants to can see that nothing’s going on. But the hard part is not sharing in the sins of others. What does it mean? It’s comparatively easy to say that being pure means not having sex with someone who is not our spouse.
Post a Comment
Read more