Suppose, for instance, that a Christian starts to complain to you about a certain appointed elder in the congregation. He criticizes the way the elder, or overseer, handles his parts on the platform, or the way he cares for certain congregation duties. If you listen to the complainer, you can begin to think as he does. Then, as you observe the elder, you could be saying to yourself: ‘Now that I think of it, what my friend says about this elder is true. I never thought of it that way before.’ That is just what the murmurer wants you to think. Until the seed of discontent was planted in your mind, the elder’s activities did not bother you. But now they do bother you. Why, eventually nothing that he does is right in your sight! So you, too, begin to develop a spirit of complaint. Obviously, this is not fitting in a congregation of Jehovah’s people.

But there is something more to consider. Continuous murmuring often leads to other undesirable traits, such as slander and reviling, which can seriously affect our relationship with Jehovah. (1 Cor. 6:10) When the Israelites murmured against Moses, how did God view this? Jehovah pointedly asked: “How long will this evil assembly have this murmuring that they are carrying on against me?” (Num. 14:27) To Jehovah this was a rebellious complaint against his divine leadership! That was serious!

The disciple Jude wrote about murmurers who had made their way into the early Christian congregation. They were individuals who were “disregarding lordship and speaking abusively of glorious ones,” or responsible men in the congregation. Certainly, these murmurers did not have divine approval and the faithful Christian of today wisely shuns their wicked course.​—Jude 8, 16.

It is important that we dispel any spirit of complaint, for such an attitude can lead only to disaster. Rather than allowing ourselves to become murmurers, how much better it is to display the quality of love! Murmurers and complainers cannot at the same time be following the commandment to love their neighbors. (Matt. 22:39) Murmuring does harm to the murmurer as well as to the one spoken against.

What, then, must we conclude? That a murmuring and complaining spirit results in dissatisfaction and discontent. This can even lead to rebellion against God.