From 'Pure Gold'- by G.D.Watson
A critical spirit may be described by the following features. It deems itself gifted from God with particular genius to detect and correct evil in others. With every step in the advances of grace, there is given to the mind a new degree of light to discriminate finer shades of right and wrong. But unless there is a continual increase of love which keeps fully abreast or even runs ahead of this added light, the foolishness and weakness of human nature will turn this power of discrimination into a death-dealing instrument.
There is an ingrained frailty in fallen human nature that leads man to think he has a right to climb on God's throne to be the judge of others. Because of his God-given power to discriminate, he begins to misapply the gift by looking for defects in other people. And it is not long before he is also exercising a police authority in hunting down everyone with an opposing view. Like the Pharisee, he can be very precise in conforming to certain laws, but he ends up being void of merciful love. Consequently, no one ever sees the "light" that is able to draw people into the heavenly life found in the true kingdom of God.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin (in keeping all the outward laws), and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. (Matt. 23:23)
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven (the heavenly Kingdom-life of perfect love) against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering (those who have been called out from the world) to go in. (Matt. 23:13)
The spirit of criticism is invariably a legal spirit. It focuses on the technicalities in the law without ever understanding the principle behind the law. There is a reason behind God's laws. And God will not fill the Temple with His Glory until the heart is fully submitted to the principles. Many of those who think they are right because of how they obey certain laws have not been filled with the glory of "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."When people live by law without understanding the underlying spiritual principle, they will inevitably violate these principles at points not covered by their list of rules. And so the Lord is unable to manifest His heavenly life of merciful love within the temple of their body.
The person with a critical spirit spends more time fixing boundary lines than improving the country. He clings more to a definition of religion than to the life it is intended to produce. You will find him exerting much more fervor in staking out the exact limits of the first and second blessings than he expends in drawing others into the life of the meek and lowly Jesus.
A person who has remained critical will invariably make himself the meter or gauge that is used to judge everything else. It reveals a self-exalted state that has never entered into the kind of humility that would enable the Spirit of God to lift them spiritually into Christ's heavenly life of merciful love.
It is an infallible law of God that our severity in judging others marks the lowness of our own spiritual state. It reveals how far we are separated from Christ's heavenly life.
Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. (Luke 23:34)
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted (and fall into a judging and critical spirit). Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. (Gal. 6:1-3)
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (find the life of heaven). (John 3:17)
There is a mysterious quality of heart-gentleness and soul-sweetness in those who have truly been crucified with Christ. It is far more than outward correctness of life, or even an orthodox profession of sanctification and it is infinitely mightier than "holiness preaching" or "correct doctrine."
It is the breath of Jesus in the heart and the perfume of the rose of Sharon permeating the life. These Christians who have truly died to their own righteousness begin to walk in the light of life from heaven.
God has designed and created every believer to be a channel for the outflow of His life. A critical spirit actually chokes up the channel in the soul. It ends up preventing Christ's Living Water from flowing out to touch the souls of others. And we cannot expect to further His Kingdom-life in this world without first displaying His life. A harsh and critical spirit will never draw others to the true Christ. Our capacity to further the true kingdom of God will be in proportion to how the fruit of His Spirit flows out of our life.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23)
There are persons who rank themselves as perfectly orthodox and very correct in their outward life and teachings while missing the very nature of Jesus. There is an interior choking that prevents the divine life from coming out. If their heart nature were to be thoroughly explored, it would reveal a lack of kindness, a smallness of charity, a severity of judgment and a subtle dictatorialness that has corrupted their spirit. It has prevented the sweet nature of God's love to consistently flow through them.
Wherever we walk we carry an unpronounced but recognizable spirit with us. A critical spirit can be felt by others even when we try to conceal it. Our only safety against this malady is to count everything as loss, including our self-produced righteousness, so we may come to "know Christ." We must receive the imparted righteousness that comes from God by faith. (Phil. 3:2-11)
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