Declaring War On Ungratefulness and Grumbling
By Francis Frangipane
From my earliest Christian years I've heard questions about Jesus' comment concerning Judas Iscariot: "Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?" (John 6:70)
What did Jesus mean? Was Judas genetically a devil and not a man? (Jesus didn't say Judas had a devil, He said he was a devil). Can a devil actually live among people as a human?
While I am no scholar in ancient Greek, I think truth is better served reading the literal translation of this verse. The word translated as "devil," diabolos, is the same word translated elsewhere in the New Testament as "slanderer" or "malicious gossip" (see 1 Tim. 3:11; 2 Tim. 3:3).
When Jesus says that Judas is a devil, He is saying one of you is a "false accuser," a "slanderer," a "malicious gossip." Judas could not keep his negative perspective to himself.
Remember, just before Judas delivered Jesus to the Pharisees, he was offended that Jesus allowed a expensive ointment to be lavished on His hair. Judas indignantly complained: "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii, and given to poor people?" (John 12:5). His words spread strife among the other apostles as well (Matt. 26:8).
Judas said, in effect, Who permitted this thoughtless luxury?
Well, it was Jesus. The woman had anointed Him for His burial. Yet, to Judas this was an extravagance that Jesus shouldn't have taken. In the angry mind of Judas Iscariot, here was justification to go to the chief priests. He had grounds to break ranks with Christ (Matt. 26:14-15).
God Has a Problem With Grumblers
Betrayal is never a sudden thing; rather, it is an accumulative response to the unresolved anger and disappointment one feels toward another. The offenses we do not transfer to God in surrendered prayer inevitably decay and become a venom we transfer to others through gossip. In the process, we embrace slander, but we feel justified. We become malicious gossips, but in our minds we're only communicating a "truth," a character flaw, that we self-righteously "discerned."
To understand Judas' betrayal of Christ, we must unearth its source: Judas Iscariot was grumbler.
(a powerful thought here...imo...pb...) When we lose sight of the many things for which we should be thankful, we become murmurers and complainers, increasingly darkened by a thought-life engendered by hell.
Beware when your anger toward another Christian has led you to gossip about him or her, especially if you are embittered and are now sowing criticisms about him to others. Yes, beware: you are no longer being conformed to Christ, but are actually becoming more like Judas than Jesus.
Grumblers Everywhere
Of course, this grumbling attitude was not isolated to Judas' betrayal of Jesus. Many would-be disciples and Jewish leaders were also infected with murmuring. Consider: there were miracles everywhere, Christ had just fed the 5000, when a very large crowd of His disciples began to find fault. Yet, even though Jesus warned, "Do not grumble among yourselves" (John 6:43), still the crowd persisted. Remember, these were Christ's disciples, and they were not grumbling at a sinner, but the only sinless man who ever lived.
"But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this," asked, "Does this cause you to stumble?" (John 6:61). And then, the grumbling spirit continued until "many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore" (John 6:66).
Grumbling caused people to stop seeing and appreciating miracles. It caused disciples to be offended by Jesus' teaching and stop walking with Him.
As it was then, so it is today. Grumbling will ultimately cause you to stop walking with Jesus. It is a killer. You see, incredibly, not just the Pharisees and Judas Iscariot found fault with Jesus, even His disciples grumbled at times. Heaven was manifest in their midst and all they were focused on was what they perceived was wrong. That's what a grumbling attitude can do.
This poison of ingratitude is prevalent in the church today. Paul warned that, "in the last days . . . men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips" (2 Timothy 3:1-9).
You get the point: "men will be . . . malicious gossips" or devils. They will be given to destroying one another with their words.
The Thankful Heart
Personally, I've declared war on grumbling. An unthankful heart is an enemy to God's will. Can you join me with this? Can you crucify a murmuring spirit? We have received too much from God to allow ourselves opportunities for ingratitude and unbelief! We have received too many gifts and privileges to allow grumbling to disqualify us of our destiny.
The thankful heart sees the best part of every situation. It sees problems and weaknesses as opportunities, struggles as refining tools. My prayer is for each of us to possess the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. I want to drive that little, ugly grumbling demon away from our hearts, and replace it with a living awareness of the goodness of God!
Paul warned,"Nor let us . . . grumble, as [Israel] did, and were destroyed by the destroyer" (1 Cor. 10:9-10). The moment we open ourselves to grumbling, we simultaneously open up to destruction.
"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable . . . is right, whatever is pure . . . lovely . . . of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things" (Phil. 4:8).
Remember, Paul was writing to people in the ancient Roman world. It was full of evil, full of injustice, full of reasons to grumble and be upset; but instead, God calls His people to a higher realm, where we dwell on the things that are above.
You say, "Who then will point out all the things that are wrong with life?"
Oh, there are plenty of volunteers for that task. Better to ask, "How can I attain the blessed life Jesus came to give me?"
You say, "But the world is wicked. We need to decry and defeat evil." Yes, and I totally agree, I often decry evil myself. But I must live and offer a better life if I am going to defeat evil. God doesn't want His people to be grumbling about the difficult conditions of existence. He wants us to be mercy-motivated, redemption-orientated, prayer-empowered ambassadors of heaven.
If we are merely complaining about what's wrong with the people around us, we should beware: we may actually be more like followers of Judas rather than Jesus. | 
Every so often, something crosses my desk that is well worth passing on. I was convicted as I read this, and think it is time very well spent to SLOW DOWN and take this one in.
hi josh , yeah i know what you mean i think it goes like this : hell hath no fury like ... well you know the rest. misery as we are told loves company. so easy to point out other's fault's and not take time to see you're own ..i used to work w/ someone like the person you described. the only thing i can say is just pray for her (i know that is not easy!)it seems like there is more going on in her life to cause her to act like that, insecurity can make someone say and do alot of things. hang in there, i hope that i was able to help in some small way. peace & blessings my brother. jeff.
Posted by: jeff wise | November 16, 2007 at 01:02 AM
This has indirectly been on my mind lately. I work with a person who LOVES to go on about how wrong everyone is, alluding to her way being the best way. She loves to spill this stuff on you when no one else is around, completely encumbering you in verbal vomit. Her ways are discreet and I wactch as she undermines situations to bend in her favor almost everytime I'm in the office. She has a false timidness to her, making it impossible to actually communicate because she doesn't own her wrong doings. I don't know if that's clear. But I'm at the point in my life where I'm able to fess up to my shortcomings almost seconds after I commit them. Sounds weird to most but I'm sure someone knows where I'm coming from.
Posted by: Josh Encinias | November 15, 2007 at 11:15 PM