From Fault-Finding to Good-Finding

Philippians 4:8-9 (The Message)
^8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

What believer, when asked if they wanted to be more like Jesus, would not answer resoundingly, “Of course!!!” A well-known minister of the gospel reminded his listeners of something that would be good for us to remember; that the Lord always finds “good” in His children. He never tries to “fix” what is wrong with us; He is only interested in bringing us to a higher level of intimacy with Him (which always “fixes” whatever we see as “wrong” with us.)

Both Old and New Testaments give accounts of God’s “good-finding” when there are plenty of reasons not to. The account of Gideon threshing wheat in a wine press (Judges chapter 6) is one such example. Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press because he was afraid the Midianites would steal the wheat from the Israelites. “The Angel of the Lord” appears and says to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.” Really????  He was anything but a mighty man of valor in the natural.

In the New Testament Jesus chose to find the good in others. Think of the woman brought before Him who was caught in the act of adultery (John 8:3-11). Once her accusers (the fault-finders) had left, Jesus asked her if they had condemned her. When she said no, Jesus replied, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more. “Once again, really??? In the natural she was the same woman who had been dragged from her sin into the presence of Jesus.

Both Gideon and the woman had “issues.” Yet in each case the Lord only found good in them. We are told to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1). So, what is stopping us from doing more “good-finding”? This minister pointed to a possible reason. He reminded his viewers that not finding fault in others does not mean there is no fault to find. We must remind ourselves of this – always! In fact, as long as we are in flesh and blood bodies there will never be time when we are without fault about something. We are forgiven of all our sins – but we do continue to sin.

Remembering Romans 4:8 will help us to get the mindset necessary to go from fault-finding to good-finding. It says, “Blessed is the man to whom God will not impute sin.” That means that Jesus paid the price for all the sin of the world, and when we do sin God does not see it in us. He only sees Jesus in us. God does not “find fault,” even though none of us are without fault.

We can begin to do the same thing with those around us. To acknowledge the good and forego criticizing the faults we see in others is to “imitate” God. It is choosing to become a “doer of the Word.” We can start with our spouses, our children, and our grandchildren. The beauty of imitating God is that we open the door to a two-fold change in our lives. We begin to see ourselves becoming more gracious and merciful as we give mercy and grace to others. Secondly, we see those around us begin to change because we have given them the gift of no condemnation and they are free to receive from God as He touches their lives through His gift of righteousness.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we have chosen to go from “fault-finding” to “God-finding.” That’s really what it is all about – choosing to see others through God’s eyes!

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