Don’t Find Fault (Unless It’s in Yourself), Find Purpose in the Kingdom

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. -1 Peter 3:8

Complaining is not a Spiritual calling. Finding fault is not a Spiritual gift. Griping is not prayer language. These things come from a place of selfishness as opposed to selflessness. Our nature is to complain; when nothing big is wrong, we find a thousand small things to look down on. If your nature is complaint, be careful! The word Satan literally means accuser! I’m currently experiencing this, personally and in my ministry. This is part of growth! But when we look for things to be wrong, the first place we ought to look is in ourselves. Our place is not to find fault; again, look to yourself first, especially because Jesus said stop looking at the speck of dust in your brother’s eye when you have a log in your own.  

Loved ones, we all have a plank in our own eye: this shouldn’t be used to stop us from the work put before us, but that plank SHOULD be removed so that we can see clearly. And clarity isn’t found in the physical, but in the Spiritual. Jesus didn’t ask us to find fault, but in fact, He called us to look inward, and work outward. The majority of the faults we find are found because we’re not doing the Kingdom Work that God has set before us. When we can’t find some big problem to tackle, we ought to stop, pray, read the Word, and see what good God has for us to do to bring Him glory, and build up our brothers and sisters while leading the lost toward Jesus. This is what we’re made for. Let God fix things, and be ready to take part when He calls you to come alongside Him in the work.

Proverbs 6:16-19

There are six things that the Lord hates,

seven that are an abomination to him:

haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

and hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked plans,

feet that make haste to run to evil,

a false witness who breathes out lies,

and one who sows discord among brothers.

Matthew 7:1

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

1 Corinthians 1:10-31

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”