Humility, Criticism, and the Body of Christ

Humility can be tricky. Check out this video of Mark Driscoll talking about his own humility.

Rules for being humble:

1) Confess that you aren’t.
2) Give insights from the experiences that have caused you to become more humble.

At least that what I’ve ever seen those do who are praised by others for being humble.

Of course it’s always easier to be humble when you are popular or wildly successful. (Although it’s not unlike a rich man who says he really doesn’t need money.) And unless you have a platform for humility you are the primary target for teaching on humility. (That’s like taking a rich man to teach a poor man how to better manage what he doesn’t have.) That said, you can’t teach humility without a platform and you can’t come off as authoritative on humility without appearing a bit hypocritical.

One the other hand, here’s our Great Example: Jesus was humble. Jesus was also authoritative. He criticized the Pharisees strongly to their face. Would that earn him Mr. Congeniality by today’s standards? Not really. But here’s the King of Creation dining with sinners and dying for their sin:

As it is, I can’t say that I’m particularly humble. I desire to be. I’m often disturbed by many compliments. However, I’m generally particularly pleased by myself way too often. The more I think about it, the more of a paradox living in a sinful world makes it. I’d go batty if I focused on it all the time. I think some measure of recognition of our inability to be humble on our own is appropriate, but focusing too much is a sign of great pride. The balance is that instead of feeling constant shame over our lack of humility, we must recognize the joy of forgiveness given to us by God and focus our attention of him instead. If anything, that’s our source of true humility. Jesus isn’t simply our Great Example, he’s our source.
On criticism and humility:

I don’t recall ever coming out in criticism of Mark Driscoll. I heard he cussed from the pulpit once and I would consider that unwise. I have been particularly cautious with his teaching as a result. Consider that my first open criticism of him. Generally, I think his teaching has been good. I don’t particularly agree with him on his use of the multi-site method of church planting. He doesn’t think of preaching as particularly relational. In other words, he considers it to be a one-way avenue of information. I strongly disagree. The pastor should address the information to the congregation he has been called to shepherd. Even Christ tailored his messages according to the needs of those who were listening. But most of Mark’s teaching is okay anyway. It is at least designed to instruct a group of people he largely doesn’t know.

But Mark brings up a good point in this video with regard to critics. Critics are necessary to hone us. There are critics who criticize without regard to our growth and critics who criticize based on their friendship to us. In this, Mark is a blessed man.
To adapt John Piper: Don’t waste your critics.

I wish I had more critics. I especially wish I had more people who gave me constructive criticism out of their friendship with me. I love and need encouragement in a significant way. But a greater encouragement is that someone sees enough potential in someone to want to help that person improve. They must point out flaws in order to do so. That’s what I hunger for in criticism.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. (Proverbs 27:6)
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. (Proverbs 9:8)

If a person is not loved enough to be criticized constructively by a friend, then he is left to self-criticize. This result in a bit of false humility. There fore, humility is a function of the Body of Christ. We must learn to give and take good criticism. I approached a minister a couple of weeks ago for nothing more than to see if he had a battery and he exclaimed jokingly, “Uh oh, what am I in trouble for now.” I replied, “If you’re in the ministry, you stay in trouble.” In a sense, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. If you do anything meaningful at all you won’t be able to please everyone. Criticism means that you are doing something right. It could also mean that there is an area in which you can grow.

So do not fail to criticize your brother or sister in love where appropriate. Do not deny such critics their place in God’s plan for your ministry. But welcome their words as those that may cleanse your work and make you humble so that God will receive the glory in all things.

The Power of Humility

My brother in Christ, Lionel Woods, has one of the best articles I've read recently, and I've read many great articles. He shares with us his growth as a minister of theological debate on the Internet. Some excerpts:

I originally started blogging due to my frustration with the Health and Wealth movement. I was utterly abused by Legalism, Word of Faith teaching, and a slew of false doctrine. I used to spend all of my time as a lion looking to pounce on the first lonely sheep that disagreed with me. I would love to get into debates at barbershops, with family, and love to tell my wife how much I disagreed with Jakes, Olsteen, Meyers, Price, Dollar and their affiliates. I enjoyed destroying their doctrinal positions and anyone who would side with them. Okay I really, really enjoyed it. I would take my arguments to church and debate with anyone who would defend even an ounce of this doctrine.

As I looked back over all of the dead bodies, and the body count report came back, I realized that there were friendlies in the count. Not just a couple, but just as many friendlies as there were enemies. I started to look at the bridges I burned, the relationships that I sacrificed in the name of truth, and the hearts I broke standing for “God’s truth” and my heart became heavy... The babies (young in the faith) the elderly (those who were helpless), and even friendlies (those who agreed with me, but were not ready to split but would rather be patient seeking prayer over division).

I thought that I could go on there and infuse truth, but I would find myself falling back into sarcasm and condescending remarks. I enjoyed being a “Heresy Hunter” because it made me feel better about myself, by expressing my disdain for them (I guess). As long as I got one enemy I didn’t mind taking out 5 allies!

Father, if I have written anything with “selfish motives”, or vain conceit, I repent and I pray that you would fix my mess... So going forward I pray that this blog will proclaim the Glory of Christ above anything else. I pray that as you read this blog, your heart is warmed and you want to proclaim the excellencies of Christ even more. Finally I hope to engage in critical (but ultimately loving) dialogue with those who disagree.

Lets proclaim the truth of God in love.

Read the whole article here.