Censorious Thoughts, 5

I have finished this wonderful chapter in Jon Edwards treatise on Charity and Its Fruits (don't you ever wonder if he lived today would be call him that?  Or speak about Bill Shakespeare?).  His last point I find most insightful into my heart . . .

It is very simply this -- that when I love someone I am loathe to see their sins and faults. 

The first place that is seen is my sight of myself.  Oh how gloriously uncensorious I am with myself -- how quick to excuse my fault and to explain my sin, to magnify my graces and minimize my transgressions.  Edwards points this out with his usual thoroughness. It is, of course, a biased perspective.  All the ways of a man or woman are right in their own eyes and the least likely person to have an accurate picture of myself is me. 

Point of illustration -- have you ever read the "personals" in a newspaper.  Yes, some are sad and weird -- but one gets the general impression that the folks who file these ads are exhilarating, bright, witty, intelligent, gifted, handsome, and great company.  I do not say this to be critical of these folks -- just to point out that I would write those flattering things about me because I love me.  And that, says Edwards, means I am not censorious with myself.

But it is also true that when I love another person I see them through uncritical eyes.  I am not looking for their faults or blemishes.  I am enamored with their beauty or grace or gifts.  I have watched with wonder as couples of years and years of marriage grow in their affection for each other -- and seem almost blind to the blemishes and aging and graying of the years.  My Dad, before he died, looked at my Mom who was 85 and said, 'You the most beautiful you have ever been."  To the objective person, that was nonsense.  But not to the eyes of love.

So, here is the point.  A censorious heart is a mark of the absence of love. Love is only borne in my heart by the Gospel -- for seeing others in Christ as Jesus sees them -- and he is not censorious.

That is true for how I see individuals.  When I think of others is my first thought one of discerning their "issues" and seeing their weaknesses.  Do I look for the faults first?  Or do I sit back amazed at grace in their lives?  The latter is a mark of love.  Love covers a multitude of sins.

This is also true of the how I see a local church. I like to read critics.  I have read them all my life and have always spoken of people who have a prophetic voice as important  to the church.  I am in the midst of a biography of Hugh Latimer, a reformer at the time of Henry 8th in England, and one whose critical tongue was known and  got him into trouble. He was a "prophet."  It may be he was just critical at times.

I have been reading some of the emergent guys lately and they, as well as many authors of history, find many faults with the church of the last two thousand years -- or more especially with the church of the modern era.    I have lots of books on my shelf by folks who seem to make a point of pointing out all that is wrong in the church.  I like reading them.  But increasingly I do not buy it.

Here is the appeal of the critics -- the assumption is that others are complacent, do not see the problems, and that we can do a better job of it.  It looks so much like love of the church with I am critical of the church.  It may be a lack of love mixed with my pride.  Years ago a mentor said, "When you speak like that (critically) you make it sound like you have the ability to make it happen better and no one else does."  He was pointing out my pride and my impatience with sinners (and how I thought myself a bit better than most).

I turn to my Bible and I find those remarkable words of Paul toward the Corinthians.  He thanked God for them.  He saw grace and gifting in their lives.  Yes, he did correct them -- but I do not think Paul liked seeing faults or that Paul thought he could do better than they and they just didn't "get it."  I see Paul as knowing himself to be a recipient of amazing grace and therefore he was one of them -- battling all the same things.  And he knew the love of his Savior for his pathetic, blemished and often foolish bride -- and therefore Paul was not censorious but helpful out of love.

If I understand by Bible and myself at all -- I should be amazed that we do anything right -- and grateful for the God of all grace who is at work in me and others.  I should delight in what he is doing and know that people need encouragement for faith far more often than they need a corrective word.  That would be a mark of love and a putting to death of this dreadful censorious spirit.