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Plainly Speaking
with Karl J. Forehand
The
Really Deadly Sin
(James 4:11-12)
by
Karl J. Forehand
Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who
speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law, and judges
the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge
of it. There is only one Lawgiver and
Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge
your neighbor? (James 4:11-12)
At one time, a group of medieval monks
came up with a list of 7 deadly sins.
They are: pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and
laziness. One of them is not even a
sin – anger. God’s Word teaches us
not to sin in our anger; but anger is not necessarily a sin. I think this list should be called, “The
Seven most common things people do.”
Scripture has many lists of things that
God considers abominations.
Homosexuality is mentioned very early in Scripture (Lev. 20:13). Even just acting “unjustly” is considered
abomination in Duet 25:16. There is a
good list in Proverbs 6 and at least a dozen other things mentioned in that
book. The bottom line is that God
hates all sin. We often “weight”
different sin based on the impact those sins have on our lives.
There is one sin that often ignore because
we don’t recognize it’s destructive impact.
I’ve called it “really deadly” to make a point of this very fact. The monks missed it and we often miss and
dismiss it in our lives. In the New
Testament, worship became much more personal. People came closer together in the house churches. Worship was much less of a national thing
and more of a personal thing. When
this happened, the Bible begins to speak in practically every book about the
wrongs of gossip and slander.
By definition, I must say that gossip is the vehicle that carries
slander about. In smaller towns, we
often excuse it as a way of life.
Listen to what Cyril of Alexander says:
Every wicked
act dulls the sense of our thoughts and gives birth to arrogance. For although it is necessary for each one
to examine himself and behave according to God’s will, many people do not do
this but prefer to mind the business of others. If they happen to see others suffering, it seems they forget
their own weaknesses and set about criticizing them and slandering them. They condemn them not knowing that they
suffer from the same things as the people they have criticized, and in so
doing they condemn themselves. The
wise Paul writes exactly the same thing “If you judge another in something,
you condemn yourself, for the one who judges does the same things.”
Our sin creates an arrogance within us –
when we should be examining ourselves, we choose rather to stick our nose in
other people’s business. We begin to criticize
and slander then. As we repeat things
about others, we assume a destructive power in our lives and the lives of
others.
Claude Pepper was in a political race with
George Smathers, during the McCarthy era.
George made these statements about Claude:
“He is a know extrovert”
“His sister is a known thesbian”
“His brother is a practicing homo
sapien”
“In college, he often
matriculated”
“He even practiced celibacy before
marriage”
All of those statements were true, and
even though there was nothing wrong with the content, they were destructive
simply because of the tone they were uttered in – Pepper lost the election.
How does it begin?
Slander begins with contempt. We are supposed to be upset with sin, but we
are not allowed to hate the sinner.
Contempt is when we begin to despise other people because of their
actions. Contempt leads to pride
when we compare ourselves. We say,
“I’m not near as bad as them and here is why…” This pride leads us to give ourselves permission to slander
others. I think you could define it
like this:
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Judgment is the thought
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Slander is the action
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Gossip is the vehichle
When we say things that are not true,
things that may not be true or things we don’t have any business repeating;
we are slandering (speaking against a brother). Webster defined slander as “a false tale OR report maliciously
uttered, and tending to injure the reputation of another by lessening him in
the esteem of his fellow citizens.”
The admonition not to gossip and slander
doesn’t excuse confrontation of sin; but God’s Word has very specific
guidelines for confrontation. It
teaches us to go to the person first.
When we say “You know what I heard …,” we violate every Biblical
injunction toward dealing with sin.
When we gossip, we create, in the mind of the hearer, a picture of
another person that may or may not be true.
If we have to say “Don’t quote me on this”
or “don’t tell anyone else” or “I don’t know if this is true,” then we
probably should be saying it. Before
repeating any story about another person, we should ask the person it is
about first.
How do we stop gossip?
Some phrases that
might be helpful when someone tells you a tale, are:
“Do I need to know this?”
“Do you know for sure that this is
true?”
“May I quote you?”
We often say, “But, I just like to be
informed.” If we really want to be
informed, we should be more involved.
If we want to know what is going on in the lives of others, we should
be more involved in the lives of others.
Slander and gossip is at least 95% destructive, defaming or deceptive.
A Yiddish proverb tells of a man that
comes to the Rabbi and asks him how he correct his sin of gossip. The Rabbi tells him to go out in the
marketplace and tear up two feather pillows.
When he returns, the Rabbi instructs him to now go and try to retrieve
the feathers from the busy square.
What is wrong with slander and gossip?
1. It is the wrong attitude toward others.
Galatians 5:15 tells us
“If you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one
another.” Gossip makes the assumption
that there is a THEM and US. I often
tell my kids, when they are fighting, “That is not acceptable within a
family.” This passage is actually
talking about the Body of Christ.
God’s injunctions for the Christian family are that we edify,
encourage and empower each other.
Gossip and slander is not acceptable within the family of God.
Why do we do it? One reason is that we think too much of ourselves. We assume that we have arrives. We think God is pretty pleased with us and
everyone else is a much worse sinner.
Of course the truth is that we all are sinners.
Another reason we slander and gossip is
that we think too little of others.
Christ died for all. He was
moved with compassion for the people we tend to gossip about. We must learn to care for them instead of
talking about them.
2. It is the wrong attitude toward God’s law
When we say it is okay to sin and write in
our own exceptions, we disregard the perfect law of God. Would you ever consider slander to be
love. Read the description of love in
I Corinthians 13:5-7. If slander is
not love, and love is God’s supreme commandment; then we set aside the very
heart of God, the heart of God’s law, and call it things like
“discernment.”
Our supreme objective should be the same
as the Lord’s – to love others.
Slander is contempt for God’s law.
We can’t “judge” the law, like the Pharisees did, and pick and choose
what is easy for us. We can’t rename
and excuse our sins. We must stop
doing them. To love others, we can’t
slander them.
3. It is the wrong attitude towards God.
We often have a desire to play God. We want to convict people and call it
motivating them. We want to punish
people and call it discipline. We
want to judge others and call it discernment. We have one “lawgiver and judge.” In other words, slander is not just a bad habit – it is brazen,
reckless treason against Almighty God.
It is pushing God out of the way and taking over his job. Try that with your governor or the
president of your country. You would
most likely end up in jail.
Romans 14:4 says, “Who are you to judge
the servant of another? To his own
master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make
him stand.” Why is this sin really
deadly? It is deadly because it ruins
reputations. It destroys witnessing
opportunities. It puts roadblocks
into God’s ministry.
The story is told of a North Dakota pastor
who, because of his popularity began to travel often. A woman in the church began to spread the
rumor that this man was having an affair.
The story caught on and the wife of the pastor eventually committed
suicide. You know how those stories
evolve:
“I wonder if he is having an
affair.”
“I’ll be he IS having an affair.”
“I heard that he is having an
affair.”
“It must be true.”
To me, gossips are social terrorists. They hide in the shadows. They decide whom to “bring down.” They plant little bombs of innuendo and
rumor. Before long, the chaos of
their actions in widespread and causes much havoc.
It’s time for the body of Christ to come
out of the shadows. When we hear a
rumor, we should stop repeating it.
We should learn to have the courage to go to the source. Since delivering this message, I have
notice a half dozen instance where people have went to the source. Finding the truth stopped all of the
rumors. We have ultimate truth in
Christ – why should we live to repeat lies?
Karl
J. Forehand, 2002
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