Take care of your own problems before criticizing others: Matthew 7:3-5 (CEB)
3 Why do you see the splinter that's in your brother's or sister's eye, but don't notice the log in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother or sister, 'Let me take the splinter out of your eye,' when there's a log in your eye? 5 You deceive yourself! First take the log out of your eye, and then you'll see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's or sister's eye.
Criticism should help people deepen their relationship with God: Luke 17:3-4 (CEB)
3 Watch yourselves! If your brother or sister sins, warn them to stop. If they change their hearts and lives, forgive them. 4 Even if someone sins against you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times and says, 'I am changing my ways,' you must forgive that person."
Criticism should be given with a loving attitude: Corinthians 13:4-5 (CEB)
4 Love is patient, love is kind, it isn't jealous, it doesn't brag, it isn't arrogant, 5 it isn't rude, it doesn't seek its own advantage, it isn't irritable, it doesn't keep a record of complaints.
Harsh criticism can destroy rather than help. Galatians 5:15 (CEB) But if you bite and devour each other, be careful that you don't get eaten up by each other!
And so it criticized each flower,
This supercilious seed;
Until it woke one summer hour,
And found itself a weed.
Mildred Howells (1872-1966)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "CRITICISM".
Edythe Draper, Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1992), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 115.
