Criticism: Cuts Like A Knife

By Pastor Vinnie MacIsaac[i]

This blog is dedicated to all who have been hurt by criticism and felt it’s cut yet did not understand how it could actually be a good thing. Let’s rethink criticism together.

So Forth

Yada, Yada, Yada

You have heard the expression, ”and so forth and so forth,” It is a fill-in or shorthand for something we mean to say without wanting to spell it all out. It is like the Yiddish saying, “Yada yada yada,” that Jerry Seinfeld made so in big again in the 90’s.

“I can’t wait to get to the beach and go swimming, have a picnic and so and so forth…”

Recently, someone sent an indirect message to me suggesting that if I did not do, “so forth and so forth,” I’d, in essence, be lost. The “so forth and so forth” in this case was a long list of flaws and weakness the person saw in me that they felt had to be corrected asap. The list is not really important except to say that much of what was on it was is deed real flaws I have and real areas of work that need to be overcome. I say this because often when people are critical of us the things they say about us are groundless. In this case, it was not. It was real to some degree or another.

Flakey Flaws

Criticism damages self-worth.

Do real flaws keep anyone out of heaven? Is that really the Gospel? Are people won or lost to salvation based on human performance of any kind? And if it is based on human performance then how much do we need to achieve in order to be saved? I mean, after all, nothing short of perfection will be accepted by God. After all Jesus himself, spelled it out on the Sermon on the mount, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48 ESV)

If you are a Christian, people will criticize you, they will attack you, and they will seek to persecute you, they will cling to real imperfections in you and turn your molehills in public mountains.  And if that is never happening to you then something is wrong! No one likes to be criticized, put down, or called a phony. But I am here to tell you being put down for being a work in progress is no reason to “Flake out on faith.”

Cuts Like a Knife

Bryan Adam’s hit album cover. Cuts Like A Knife.

Growing up in Canada you become a Bryan Adams fan. Along with Corey Hart, RUSH, The Guess Who, Neil Young, and The Tragically Hip, they are all part of the national soundtrack. One of Bryan Adam’s biggest hits was a song called, Cuts Like A Knife, in which Adam’s claims,”

Now it cuts like a knife

But it feels so right

Yeah, it cuts like a knife

Oh, but it feels so right”[ii]

Well, as much as I love that song as a national treasure and pop anthem, I can’t say I agree with Adam’s on this issue. Being “cut” by people you love does not feel good, it hurts.

I was not angry, but I will admit, I was very sad, and let down, and even disturbed to have had this person judge me with such harsh criticism. For this sort of criticism only proved that the brother who lodged it simply did not understand the Gospel and to me, that is heartbreaking. To me it cut like a knife to my heart, not for my sake, but because it showed my brothers disconnect from God’s character.

So let’s be clear, how is it that we are made perfect, and how is it that we get into the Kingdom? How is that that God sees me as perfect, even as perfect as he is? I think Jesus made the standard pretty clear in Matt 5:48 right? — The standard is the perfection of the Father. Anything short of that will not stand, and will not gain us entrance into the Kingdom of God. So then, how do I reach such a standard? —hmmm, let say today, I Vince MacIsaac, gave my whole life and heart more deeply to God than ever before, and let’s assume the result is that I never ever sinned again.  Would I then be as perfect as my Father in Heaven? Nope! Not even close, I have a 48-year track record of past sin, yet he has no past record of sin. How then can I a sinner get his track record? By what means? Or am I hopelessly doomed?

Look here;

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

(2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)

It is called the Substitutionary Atonement. Jesus took our place that we might take his. What does that mean? It means exactly what it says, he became SIN (my place) that I may become THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD (His place).

My works did not cut like a knife, they cut like nails, pounded through His flesh that I might be found Righteous by His actions.

The Good News

The Good News is found in JESUS!

The Word Gospel in Greek simply means “Good News.” The good news of criticisms is it comes to us and reminds us we are not perfect. When it cuts like a knife to our hearts it reminds us our sin cut like nails through his flesh.

The truth about criticism is this, and criticism about you that actually sticks and hurts has a little bit of truth in it. The good news is that when criticism cuts you, he drives you back to Jesus to be healed and in that process, He has the chance to heal you from more than the cut. He gets to heal you of the pinch of truth that caused the infection in the first place.

Don’t resist attacks. Take them. Take them to Jesus. Those who attack you will be baffled as to why you don’t respond from the flesh. The reason is simple your imperfections are healed by the holes in His hands.

Related Articles

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The Reserve Of Courage

The Joy Of Despair

Footnotes.

[i] This blog first appeared as a guest entry titled “The Gospel of Criticism” on https://heinspiredme.com  This version of the article is slightly different and longer than the version that first appeared at https://heinspiredme.com/guest-post-the-gospel-of-criticism/ on November 28, 2018.

[ii] Songwriters: Bryan Adams / James Douglas Vallance. Cuts Like a Knife lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group