A Generation of Gripers

There are great and sad consequences of this sin in the church
I will quote the following from “Great Truth from God’s Word” by Dr. Harold Willmington about the seriousness of this issue. “In the parable of the Generation of Gripers (Mat 11:16-19), Jesus tells us that murmuring and complaining is a most grievous sin in the church, and the most serious in the Bible. In Jesus case, the ultimate tragedy was that this generation that began criticizing the Savior would end up by crucifying Him. The gripers became vipers. He then offered an example of this: John the Baptist who abstained from wine and fasted was accused of being demon-possessed, while Jesus who did neither was looked upon as a glutton and a drunkard!! Perhaps the Holy Spirit had Jesus’ generation in mind when He inspired the writing of the following words:
There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes,
and yet is not washed of their filthiness.
There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes!
and their eyelids are lifted up.
There is a generation whose teeth are as swords
and their jaw teeth as knives that devour the poor from off the earth
and the needy from among men.” Prov. 30: 11-14
1. This sin is what kept Moses’ generation out of the Promised Land (Num.13 & 14).
2. It is often the sin that keeps New Testament believers from entering God’s spiritual Promised Land, that is His perfect will.
3. It is the sin of godless apostates: “These are men are grumblers, and faultfinder; who follow their own evil desires, they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.” Jude 16.
4. It is the sin to be avoided at ALL COSTS: “Do all things without murmuring and disputing (Phil, 2:14).”

When we complain about someone to a third person we are in fact starting a mob to "crucifying" the second person.
Are you part of a church mob who are “crucifying” an innocent person in your because you are listening to someone’s murmuring?
Church discipline is some times and unknowingly used as a platform to crucify people because no one knows how to handle the griper/complainer. There is a big difference between an unrepentant sinner and a victim of murmuring.
The first one knows he is a sinner and is not coming to grips with it. The second one may or may not be aware he is sinning, does not know his/her accuser but is treated the same as the unrepentant sinner. They are not one and the same.
When do we become a “generation of gripers?” Let us look at the following examples to help you see the point.
Rather than confronting the sinner and forgiving him, the griper holds a grudge, he nurtures it, but it does not leave it there. He goes and murmurs it to someone else instead. Similar to the man who goes to mama to tell on his wife rather than telling his wife first what she is doing wrong so they can work out the problem among themselves. Now there is a third person involved.
We become gripers when we complain to a third person about what the second person did to us rather than going to that person directly as we are commanded to do in " Matthew 18:15: "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.” And also what we are commanded to do in Mark 11:25 “If you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.
Perhaps we do this because we are the type of people who dislike confrontations, so we become gripers instead – hoping to find strength in numbers to do what we should be able to do as empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Two wrongs do not make a right, and as Pastor Culbertson used to say, “Let us do the right things, the right way.”
The danger of “crucifying” someone in the church through murmuring is that he/she will leave; never to come back, and you can be certain of that. The only crucified person to come back to life in the body was the Lord Jesus Christ.
In all sincerity, and humbleness, I confess to being a former griper myself. By conviction of the Holy Spirit I have come to understand how wrong I’ve been. My hope, in sharing these words, is to spare you of committing the same mistakes I’ve made.
If you know someone who is being crucified by gripers, go and ease his pain. Forgive him, and let God be God. Ask the Holy Spirit to empower you to confront if it is necessary- just the two of you first. God says that this is far better than murmuring because it will destroy your witness, and the church from within.
“Let us not become weary on doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Gal. 6:9-10)

Article Source: http://christian-topics.info

Dr. Harold Willmington, "Great Truths from God’s Word."

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