Praising God and Praising People



I love to praise God. I tell everyone I meet how good He is.


Unfortunately, I also have the bad habit of cursing people. People can be stupid and evil, right? Can we agree that this world would be a better place if that person did not exist? And so I tell people that I don't like that particular man. I don't like that particular celebrity. I don't like that particular "Bible" teacher who seems to know less about the Bible than a preschooler in VBS and should not be on television.


Yet this is what the Scriptures say:


"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be."

James 3:9-10 NIV


Here is the problem: when we say we love God but hate people, we are contradicting ourselves. As sinful as people are, they are still made in the image of God, after God's likeness, and so still retain at least some form of potential for godliness.


Someone once said, "I only love God as much as I love the person I like the least", or something like that. This is something that God has been impressing upon my heart lately. Why am I so quick to receive His grace and so sloth to pass it on to others? Why do I post Bible verses on Facebook and then post a status on how much I dislike a certain person?


Honestly, there must be at least one or two things about a person I don't like that I can praise. Even Jesus praised the Pharisees for tithing before He pronounced doom and gloom upon them for neglecting to care for the poor.


Therefore, I am going to try to see the good in whomever I see, whether in person or through media. If I can't see anything good, then I'm going to ask the God I praise to help me see more clearly. No one is too far from grace. The very definition of grace is that those people who are the most wicked are those who need the most grace. And since God was kind enough to see the good in me, to see me valuable enough to send His Son to die for me, I can extend that same courtesy by extending grace to others.


What about you? Are you going to do what Jesus does and show grace to people? Are you going to speak well of people, even those whom you disagree with? It's tough, but the God we praise can give us strength to do so.





Recommended Reading on this subject:

What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey

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