“If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.”
James 1:26
How often, when we consider our speech and what we need to improve therein, do we actually consider the act of complaining? Sometimes complaints can seem to just fly from our mouth, like birds from a nest and we do not realize that we were actually complaining until later. Some people do not regard complaining as wrong (there was a time I could not see the wrong in it), so let us try and look at complaining from a Biblical perspective…
Before we go any further we need to define “complaining”. Mr. Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language gives the following definition: “… finding fault; murmuring; lamenting; accusing of an offense…” The type of complaining of which I am speaking is that of “murmuring” or grumbling. Murmuring is defined as follows: “To grumble; to complain; to utter complaints in a low, half articulated voice; to utter sullen discontent;…” You could also say that to complain is to whine or gripe.
The LORD makes it clear by examples in the Old Testament, that HE does not like complaining. In the book of Numbers chapter eleven, the children of Israel were complaining of the hardships they had to endure. The LORD’s response shows what HE thought of their complaining… “Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the LORD; and when the LORD heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.” (Numbers 11:1) Clearly, the LORD was not pleased with their complaining. The children of Israel begged Moses to pray for them and the LORD allowed the fire to die out.
Another example appears in the same chapter starting in the very next verse: “The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.” To make a long story short, the LORD gave them their desire – he sent an enormous quantity of quail for the people to eat but “While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very severe plague. So the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had been greedy.” (Numbers 11:33-34)
In the book of First Corinthians chapter 10, the apostle Paul, while speaking of the sins of the Israelites, commands us not to “grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.”
Complaining often, if not always, stems, as it did for the Israelites, from discontent. The LORD wants us to be content, as indicated in Hebrews 13:5, “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have…”, Philippians 4:11 “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” and the beginning of the LORD’s prayer: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” If we are content, what cause do we have to complain?
In Philippians 2:14-15 it says: “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”
Let us pray with the Psalmist: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14) If we truly say this from our heart, at all times, will we complain?
To the KING be all the glory!
Amen.