God hates Complaining
Lyn Mize
(Phil 2:12-16 NIV) Therefore, my
dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not
only in my presence, but now much more in my
absence--continue to work out your salvation
with fear and trembling, {13} for it is God
who works in you to will and to act according
to his good purpose. {14} Do everything
without complaining or arguing, {15} so that
you may become blameless and pure, children of
God without fault in a crooked and depraved
generation, in which you shine like stars in
the universe {16} as you hold out the word of
life--in order that I may boast on the day of
Christ that I did not run or labor for
nothing.
The above passage of Scripture is addressing soul salvation in verse 12, which is a works salvation dependent upon our lives as spiritually regenerated people. Verse 14 is the key to soul salvation and states very clearly that we are to “Do everything without complaining or arguing” so that we “may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation…”
We in America live in the greatest, most prosperous and blessed country in the history of mankind. We have such freedom of speech that we can criticize the leaders, burn the flag, and even use the vilest language on public television and radio. We have the highest standard of living in the history of the world, and our health care system is one of the best in the world. God has blessed America more than any country in history. Yet, we have become a depraved, sinful, unthankful, and degenerate people. We murder our babies before they are born so they will not interfere with our pleasure. We use more drugs than any other society since the beginning of time. Homosexuals parade through our streets flaunting their sin and demanding respect for their depravity. Entire churches teach and encourage rebellion against our Government, and income tax evasion is the practice of some churches.
We attempt to blame the Government for all the evils in America, but the sad truth is that the problem lies within ourselves. America is a country whose Government is of and by the people, so our Government is simply a reflection of our hearts. The people in Government are depraved, despicable, and unworthy of trust because we are a people who are depraved, despicable and unworthy of trust. The same people that attend our churches on weekends run the Government during the week.
A majority of the people in America are born-again Christians. Consequently, our Government is corrupt because our churches are corrupt. Our leaders are corrupt because our people are corrupt. We are corrupt because we do not study and apply the Word of God to our lives as Christians are supposed to do. We complain and grumble about everything in our lives. This is not as it should be, as complaining is simply gross unthankfulness and ungratefulness for the station in life that God has placed us.
We as Americans are the most ungrateful people in the world for all the blessings that God has bestowed upon us. We constantly complain and murmur about everything in our lives. This means that we constantly express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment with our circumstances, and we do it in an indistinct, whispered or confidential manner. We grumble and grouch about our jobs, our homes, our cars, our children, our Government, our supervisors, our weather, our income, our taxes, our leaders, and anything and everything that can be named. To grumble means that we complain in a surly or sullenly ill humored or gruff manner. It means that we mutter discontentedly. To mutter means that we speak in low, indistinct tones. God calls it murmuring, and God hates murmuring because the murmuring is against Him.
We as Christians are to be content with our circumstances, and we are not to grumble and complain.
(1 Tim 6:6-12 NIV) But godliness with contentment is great gain. {7} For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. {8} But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
I know two people with whom I work. One has income in excess of a $100,000 a year. He is uneducated and has difficulty spelling the simplest of words. This man constantly complains and murmurs about every imaginable thing. He complains about the way things are done, the way things are not done, the management of the company, the engineers in the company, the laborers in the company, the secretaries in the company and office workers in the company. This man is borderline illiterate, and he acts as if he were the only perfect employee in the company. This man has the most arrogant attitude of any person with whom I have ever worked. He has been financially blessed by God, but he is the most unthankful, ungrateful person that I know. At one time this person was a Sunday school teacher—and he may still teach Sunday school. The point is that this person is a born-again Christian. He is a child of God and he should not be this way.
The other person is a secretary and her pay is relatively low in comparison to others in the company. She has some college education, and she is literate and technologically proficient. This person has the worst attitude of any employee that I have witnessed in this company. She is the most sullen person that I know. This means that she demonstrates a brooding, ill humor or silent resentment of the circumstances in her life. She is rude to the other employees, and she is in a virtually constant state of melancholy and gloom. She frequently mutters complaints about management, fellow employees, the service men for our office equipment, the engineering department, the accounting department, the manufacturing department, and individual employees in our department. This person is a born-again Christian. She is a child of God and she should not be this way.
I mention the above two examples for my message today on how God hates complaining for the simple reason that both are Christians. In addition, the two represent the top and bottom of the income scale, male and female, educated and uneducated, attractive and unattractive, socially adept and socially inept, and yet, both are prime examples of what the Christian should not manifest in his or her life. The primary point is that it is not the skills, income, appearance, position, education, or other circumstances that determine a person’s attitude toward life and God. The person determines his own attitude, regardless of the circumstances in his life.
In another message I brought out that a Christian should be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. He should also do all things without complaining or arguing.
When the Israelites wondered in the wilderness, God hated their murmuring and complaining, and Paul reminds the carnal Corinthian church about their murmuring and the fact that God destroyed them in the wilderness because of it.
(1 Cor 10:1-10 NIV) For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. {2} They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. {3} They all ate the same spiritual food {4} and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. {5} Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. {6} Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. {7} Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry." {8} We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did--and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. {9} We should not test the Lord, as some of them did--and were killed by snakes. {10} And do not grumble, as some of them did--and were killed by the destroying angel.
The word translated “grumble” in verse 10 is translated “murmur” in the King James Version. This passage establishes the importance for Christians not to complain and grumble about the circumstances of life. Just as it is stated in the opening passage of Scripture, we are to:
(Phil 2:14-15 NIV) Do everything without complaining or arguing, {15} so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.
In Numbers 12 Miriam and Aaron complained about God speaking through Moses instead of them, and God gave Miriam leprosy because of her complaining. At the request of Moses, Miriam was healed of the leprosy, but God waited seven days to heal her. God hates complaining, and the quicker we as Christians learn this truth, the better off we will be at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
In the Church today, we have many women who resent the fact that God calls men to be the preachers and teachers of doctrine. Many of these women have set themselves up as preachers and teachers of doctrine, and they have defiled themselves in the process. Leprosy is a type or symbol of defilement throughout the Bible.
The above passage of Scripture is addressing soul salvation in verse 12, which is a works salvation dependent upon our lives as spiritually regenerated people. Verse 14 is the key to soul salvation and states very clearly that we are to “Do everything without complaining or arguing” so that we “may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation…”
We in America live in the greatest, most prosperous and blessed country in the history of mankind. We have such freedom of speech that we can criticize the leaders, burn the flag, and even use the vilest language on public television and radio. We have the highest standard of living in the history of the world, and our health care system is one of the best in the world. God has blessed America more than any country in history. Yet, we have become a depraved, sinful, unthankful, and degenerate people. We murder our babies before they are born so they will not interfere with our pleasure. We use more drugs than any other society since the beginning of time. Homosexuals parade through our streets flaunting their sin and demanding respect for their depravity. Entire churches teach and encourage rebellion against our Government, and income tax evasion is the practice of some churches.
We attempt to blame the Government for all the evils in America, but the sad truth is that the problem lies within ourselves. America is a country whose Government is of and by the people, so our Government is simply a reflection of our hearts. The people in Government are depraved, despicable, and unworthy of trust because we are a people who are depraved, despicable and unworthy of trust. The same people that attend our churches on weekends run the Government during the week.
A majority of the people in America are born-again Christians. Consequently, our Government is corrupt because our churches are corrupt. Our leaders are corrupt because our people are corrupt. We are corrupt because we do not study and apply the Word of God to our lives as Christians are supposed to do. We complain and grumble about everything in our lives. This is not as it should be, as complaining is simply gross unthankfulness and ungratefulness for the station in life that God has placed us.
We as Americans are the most ungrateful people in the world for all the blessings that God has bestowed upon us. We constantly complain and murmur about everything in our lives. This means that we constantly express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment with our circumstances, and we do it in an indistinct, whispered or confidential manner. We grumble and grouch about our jobs, our homes, our cars, our children, our Government, our supervisors, our weather, our income, our taxes, our leaders, and anything and everything that can be named. To grumble means that we complain in a surly or sullenly ill humored or gruff manner. It means that we mutter discontentedly. To mutter means that we speak in low, indistinct tones. God calls it murmuring, and God hates murmuring because the murmuring is against Him.
We as Christians are to be content with our circumstances, and we are not to grumble and complain.
(1 Tim 6:6-12 NIV) But godliness with contentment is great gain. {7} For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. {8} But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
I know two people with whom I work. One has income in excess of a $100,000 a year. He is uneducated and has difficulty spelling the simplest of words. This man constantly complains and murmurs about every imaginable thing. He complains about the way things are done, the way things are not done, the management of the company, the engineers in the company, the laborers in the company, the secretaries in the company and office workers in the company. This man is borderline illiterate, and he acts as if he were the only perfect employee in the company. This man has the most arrogant attitude of any person with whom I have ever worked. He has been financially blessed by God, but he is the most unthankful, ungrateful person that I know. At one time this person was a Sunday school teacher—and he may still teach Sunday school. The point is that this person is a born-again Christian. He is a child of God and he should not be this way.
The other person is a secretary and her pay is relatively low in comparison to others in the company. She has some college education, and she is literate and technologically proficient. This person has the worst attitude of any employee that I have witnessed in this company. She is the most sullen person that I know. This means that she demonstrates a brooding, ill humor or silent resentment of the circumstances in her life. She is rude to the other employees, and she is in a virtually constant state of melancholy and gloom. She frequently mutters complaints about management, fellow employees, the service men for our office equipment, the engineering department, the accounting department, the manufacturing department, and individual employees in our department. This person is a born-again Christian. She is a child of God and she should not be this way.
I mention the above two examples for my message today on how God hates complaining for the simple reason that both are Christians. In addition, the two represent the top and bottom of the income scale, male and female, educated and uneducated, attractive and unattractive, socially adept and socially inept, and yet, both are prime examples of what the Christian should not manifest in his or her life. The primary point is that it is not the skills, income, appearance, position, education, or other circumstances that determine a person’s attitude toward life and God. The person determines his own attitude, regardless of the circumstances in his life.
In another message I brought out that a Christian should be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. He should also do all things without complaining or arguing.
When the Israelites wondered in the wilderness, God hated their murmuring and complaining, and Paul reminds the carnal Corinthian church about their murmuring and the fact that God destroyed them in the wilderness because of it.
(1 Cor 10:1-10 NIV) For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. {2} They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. {3} They all ate the same spiritual food {4} and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. {5} Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. {6} Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. {7} Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry." {8} We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did--and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. {9} We should not test the Lord, as some of them did--and were killed by snakes. {10} And do not grumble, as some of them did--and were killed by the destroying angel.
The word translated “grumble” in verse 10 is translated “murmur” in the King James Version. This passage establishes the importance for Christians not to complain and grumble about the circumstances of life. Just as it is stated in the opening passage of Scripture, we are to:
(Phil 2:14-15 NIV) Do everything without complaining or arguing, {15} so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.
In Numbers 12 Miriam and Aaron complained about God speaking through Moses instead of them, and God gave Miriam leprosy because of her complaining. At the request of Moses, Miriam was healed of the leprosy, but God waited seven days to heal her. God hates complaining, and the quicker we as Christians learn this truth, the better off we will be at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
In the Church today, we have many women who resent the fact that God calls men to be the preachers and teachers of doctrine. Many of these women have set themselves up as preachers and teachers of doctrine, and they have defiled themselves in the process. Leprosy is a type or symbol of defilement throughout the Bible.