No one likes to be criticized! However, it is a fact of life. The world is full of critical people, and if they aren’t critical to your face, they will say it to someone else. People criticize because some aren’t friendly enough or because others are too friendly. The list goes on and on. My mom used to say you can’t please everyone. But I think there will be times when the biblical stands we take won’t please anyone around us. Why should we care what others think if we know we stand on the word of God? It is because deep within us, we want to be liked. So how do we deal with sticky situations where we may face criticism for doing what is right?
We must first determine that we love God more than we love our comfort. This is sometimes a hard and lonely place to be. Yet, when we love Jesus so much that we are willing to do what is right even against opposition, there will be a peace inside us. A peace that can only come from God. A peace we can only have as we obey Him. Jesus teaches this in Mark 12:30 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
In Galatians 2:11-16, Paul recounts an incident with Peter. Peter was fearful of criticism from others. He was a Jew and knew all the ceremonies and rituals that were part of the Jewish beliefs. However, when he met Jesus, he received Christ and understood that salvation was by the grace of God through our faith in Him. Yet, it still took him a while to come to grips with leaving the Jewish laws behind and seeing all followers of Jesus as equal. In Act 10, Peter is confronted by God in a trance. He was hungry, and God showed him all sorts of animals to eat, and this was the response.
Act 10:13-15 “And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
Peter knew that sitting and eating with the Gentiles was not a sin. He knew that they were his brothers in Christ. However, when he was at Antioch and the Jews showed up, Peter withdrew himself from the Gentiles. He feared what they might say to him, so he became hypocritical and left the table he was sitting at with the Gentiles. Many Jews, even though they believed in Jesus, still insisted on keeping the Mosaic law and insisted on the Gentiles keeping it also. In verse 2, these Jewish believers are said to come from James. Yet, we find James had nothing to do with what is happening here.
Galatians 2:11-14 “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?”
Paul was right. It should not matter who is around us or who opposes us. We must not allow others’ criticism to cause us to make wrong choices. Think where we would be in our faith if Paul and others had been swayed by men’s criticism. There will always be opposition to the truth. Many have given their lives for the truth of the gospel. We are to stand firm on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
In other countries, people are killed and ostracized from their families because they believe in Christ. They have paid a great price on this earth to become a Christian. Most of us have no opposition but fail to speak up for Jesus. We have the greatest news anyone could hear. I have had people tell me, “We live in America, if they want Jesus all they have to do is turn on the tv or find a church.” Do you understand how wrong that statement is? God calls us to go and tell. In I Corinthians 15:57-58, we are told that we have victory through Jesus, that we have no reason to shy away from sharing who He is, and that others need Him too. We must be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” It is time we, as Christians, stop fearing how others may criticize us for standing on the truth. We need to stop being hypocritical by saying we love God but not obeying what He has told us to do. It is time we forget anything that will keep us from telling others about Jesus.
I Corinthians 15:57-58 “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
