The Lord is Quick to Appreciate and Slow to Criticise
by Zac Poonen
In the letter to the messenger at Ephesus in Revelation 2:1, the Lord
describes Himself as “The One who holds the seven stars in His right
hand and walks among the seven churches.” The Lord is always walking
in the midst of the churches, examining everything that is said and
done by everyone therein, and especially by the messengers whom He
holds in His hand. And He measures everything, not by the low
standards that carnal Christians have, nor even by the standard of the
Ten Commandments, but by the plumb line of Divine righteousness.
He expresses His approval and appreciation first before He points out
the failures (Rev. 2:2). The Divine nature is like that. The Lord
always looks for that which is good first, and expresses appreciation
for that, before pointing out what needs to be set right. Man's nature
however is quite different. He does not look for that which is good in
others first, but for that which is bad. Man is naturally slow to
appreciate and extremely quick to criticise. This is but one mark of
the poison of the "Accuser of the Brethren" that is in our system (Rev. 12:10).
The more we partake of the Divine nature however, the more we will
be like our Lord - quick to appreciate and slow to criticise.
It is good to follow this principle all through life: "I will never
point out a fault to someone, in whom I have found nothing so far to
appreciate." Following that simple rule can lead us to greater heights
of godliness than we have ever imagined. It will make us a far greater
blessing in the church and far less of a nuisance to others than we
have been thus far. It is only when we appreciate others that we have
laid the foundation to constructively criticize them. Otherwise we
will only be hurling bricks at them. You cannot write with a chalk on
thin air. You need a blackboard if people are to see what you are
writing. Even so, expressed appreciation forms the blackboard on which
we can write and "speak the truth in love" to others. Then, what we
say is also more likely to be accepted by them. Appreciation and
rebuke are both signs of love. But we must begin with appreciation
first. Notice how Paul follows this principle even when writing to the
carnal Corinthian Christians (1 Cor. 1:4-10).
The Lord commends the messenger at Ephesus for his toil and
perseverance and for his efforts to keep the church pure from evil
men. No doubt he had fought a battle against worldliness to keep it
from entering the church. Not only that, he had also striven to keep
the church pure in doctrine. He had tested those who claimed to be
apostles and had proved their claims to be false. The messenger in
the church at Ephesus had also "endured" for the sake of the Lord's
Name without giving up (Rev. 2:3). What a wonderful man this messenger
was, according to the standards of most believers. And what a
wonderful church the Ephesian church appeared to be - one that toiled,
persevered, kept away evil men, kept out false doctrine and exposed
deceivers - thus emphasising both purity of life and purity of doctrine.
One would have thought that such a church had everything that the Lord
wanted to find in a church. But alas, it was not so. It lacked the
main thing that the Lord looked for. It had left its first love - love
for the Lord and love for one another (Rev. 2:4). What the Lord said
to them was essentially this: "In the midst of all your zeal and your
activity, you have lost sight of ME. You have lost that fervent
devotion that you once had for Me. You have kept yourself from evil
and you have steered clear of doctrinal error. But remember how you
loved Me fervently when you were first converted and how you did
everything out of love for Me then. Now everything has degenerated
into a dry routine. You're still going to the meetings, reading your
Bible and praying. But it has all become a ritual."
The church here had become like a wife who once served her husband
joyfully out of love for him, but who now considers the same tasks a
drudgery - because the fire of love has gone out of her marriage. In
the olden days, she used to wait eagerly for her husband to come back
from the office every evening. But not now. She is still faithful to
Him, but she has lost her first love. What does a true husband desire
from his wife first of all? Is it her love or her labours? Certainly,
it is her love. It is the same with the Lord. He desires the love of
our hearts first and foremost. When that is gone, everything that we
do becomes dead works. Good works become dead works when love for God
is not the motivating force behind them. The believers here had also
lost their fervent love for each other. They were no longer able to
bear with each other's weaknesses or to overlook each other's sins.
They had lost their first love for one another too. The messenger had
lost his first love - and gradually the church too had become like its
messenger. This was not a small error. It was a great fall - for the
Lord says, "Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen." (Rev. 2:5).