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Concerning the fine art of pettiness and nitpicking

I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Luke 7:28

After documenting how Jesus honored John the Baptist while also commending those who hungrily sought after the kingdom of God, Luke penned an observation about the religious ruling class:

the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves…Luke 7:30a

Quite honestly, that’s a frightening statement. They had rejected God’s purpose for themselves. In their ambition for religious superiority and precision, they had discarded the very reason for religious pursuits—embracing God and His purposes for their own personal lives.

Please don’t think that since you’re not a Pharisee from back in the day that you, yourself, are immune to drifting into complacency or indifference toward God, and as a result (and even far worse), rejection of God and His purpose for you.

The writer of Hebrews warned about that: “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it(Hebrews 2:1). Drifting away can snowball into “I don’t care” which can, in turn, roll right down the hill into utter rejection of God’s purpose for you. Every one of us must guard ourselves vigilantly against this drifting, snowball effect.

To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like?  Luke 7:31

I can picture Jesus, the foremost People Watcher of all time, observing these self-proclaimed holy ones with near amusement.

“Let’s take a look at these people…what do they remind you of?” I can just hear Him saying this with a smile tugging at the corner of His mouth. He’s about to give some telltale signs of drifting, apathy, and God-rejection in otherwise religious souls.

Telltale Sign #1 of drifting, apathy, and heading down the road toward God-rejection:

Publicly calling others out for not marching to your personal drumbeat.

They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.” Luke 7:32

Notice, the complaint here had nothing to do with the love walk, ethics, morality, or Scriptural deviation of those in question. The public complaint was petty and nitpicking: “You’re not playing the way we play. You’re not conforming to the way we like do things.”

The areas of pettiness that people can embrace are unending: How others dress, wear their hair, eat or don’t eat, exercise or don’t exercise, talk, spend money or don’t spend money, music choices, differing personal interests—these are just the tip of the iceberg as to the things we believers can end up judging others about.

The message here is clear. Once you start majoring on the minors, you are drifting from God. If you catch yourself doing this, turn around; run, don’t walk, back to the Lord. Sure, you have your own interests and style (or lack thereof!). But are you really commissioned by God to call others out for being different than you?

Telltale sign #2 of drifting, apathy, and heading down the road toward God-rejection:

Negatively labeling others who follow a more stringent spirituality than you do.

For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, “He has a demon!” Luke 7:33

Maybe you like your cheeseburgers and beer…but the guy (or gal) who abstains from meat or alcohol due to conscience really irks you. Instead of letting them pursue God in their own way, you find yourself wanting to label their abstinence as some kind of spiritual weirdness to justify yourself and make you feel like you’re the normal one.

Newsflash: You’re the petty one. “…To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:4b). If you catch yourself feeling the need to mock or label someone else’s stricter walk, you are majoring on the minors and are drifting off course. Again, turn around! Run, don’t walk, back to your Father and ask Him to forgive and cleanse your critical heart.

Telltale sign #3 of drifting, apathy, and heading down the road toward God-rejection:

Negatively labeling others who are less strict in their personal habits than you.

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” Luke 7:34

Jesus enjoyed eating. He drank wine. He reached out to the “untouchables” of religious society. And yet, as Scripture says, He was without sin (see Hebrews 4:15). Nonetheless, there were those who abhorred His freedom and sought to diminish His impact by labeling Him a glutton and a drunkard. Never mind that He was not addicted to either food or alcohol; the truth didn’t matter. If they could create a perception, they were hopeful that the gullible would buy it…and they could regain their control over the “little people”.

You may have it all together. You may walk a straight line without deviating from your P’s and Q’s. But when you bump into another believer who seems a bit loose—they seem to romp through life with an abandon that offends your carefully disciplined routine—you are convinced that they’re “off”.  And you find yourself labeling them “glutton”; “drunkard”; “shallow”; “loose”; “undisciplined”; or any other number of labels.

Yes, you, too, have become a nitpicker. You have judged your brother on his outward appearance, and as a result, you’ve set yourself up as superior and as Judge—a job-title belonging to God alone.

Don’t get me wrong: There is nothing wrong with personal discipline. “It is for discipline that you endure” (Hebrews 12:7a, NASB). But when you start to feel superior to others because of your disciplined ways, this is a telltale sign that you have started drifting away from the One who enabled you to be disciplined in the first place!

And—you guessed it—you are now majoring on the minors and have veered off course. Once again, turn around! Run, don’t walk, back to the Lord who pulled you out of the pit where He once found you, and ask Him to forgive you of your condescending attitude.

 Wisdom is vindicated by all her children. Luke 7:35

When you keep the main thing the main thing—justice and mercy and faithfulness (see Matthew 23:23), and cast the care of all those different than you on the Lord—you’ll find a greater peace and wellspring of joy rising up within you. It’s good not to be God! God is God—and He’s a lot better at it than you could ever be!

Those who don’t dance to your music; those who stay home when you party; those who feast when you fast—let them be. It could very well be that they have been following God with a full heart all along…and He will vindicate them in the end. Even if they are “off”, God will reveal that to them and deal with them as His children (see Philippians 3:15 and Hebrews 12:7).

And His wisdom in them will become visible to you one day when you observe all the good fruit pouring out of their lives.

In the meantime, be the person God created you to be, and live for His glory.

Dorothy

The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Romans 14:3

Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. Romans 14:4

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ…Philippians 1:9-10

 

© 2017, Dorothy Frick