Grumbling

Now if the devil caused grumbling during the apostles’ time, what about today, when we have so many troubles and quarrels and offences among us?  We are still far from achieving the kind of perfection they had, for they had such order and such regulations among them that they are like angels.  And yet when we hear that there arose grumbling among the apostles, let us not be surprised if we encounter many stumbling blocks within God’s church today. 

There is a lot of wickedness and there are many who are inclined to rebellion and who want everything to be governed according to their insights.  The very ones who have less understanding, less judgment and experience, and who are the most presumptuous are the ones who want to rule and direct everybody as they see fit.  And yet they go around creating conflicts!  They will certainly say, ‘Why is such and such not done this way?  Why can we not do it thus and so?’  To make a long story short, God would have to make them a world of their own!  If you put a dozen such clever people together, they will claw one another’s eyes out and still presume to govern everybody. 

Now I would really like for such ‘governors’ to know what true Christianity is, namely that we interact with our neighbours in such a way that we show we honour other people, as Paul instructs us (Phil. 2:3).  That means we think more highly of others than of ourselves.  But some of them, indeed the majority, think they have the skill to manage something, such that, to hear them tell it, they seem to be angels whom God has sent to restore everything that is badly built.  And when it turns out for the worst, they stand there all confused.

John Calvin, “True Discipleship” - Quoted by Alistair Begg at Basics 2012