Post by Cindy on Oct 7, 2016 7:54:07 GMT -5
In Psalm 34 David says, “Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.” (Psalm 34:11) This got my attention because I know how important it is to "fear the Lord," so I always come to attention when I see that phrase. Fearing God is the beginning of understanding, and wisdom. I thought it interesting too that of all the many things that David would be qualified to teach people, he chose to teach them the fear of the Lord. He's a good teacher, for instead of giving us a theology lesson, he shows us what it looks like to fear God. The first thing he says is from the Leviticus and is also quoted by Peter, so it must be important: “Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry;” (Psalm 34:12–15)
Tale-bearing emits a 3 fold poison; for it injures the teller, the hearer, and the person concerning whom the tale is told. Whether the report be true or false, we're forbidden to spread it. The reputations of the Lord’s people should be very precious in our sight, and we should count it shame to help the devil dishonour the Church and the name of the Lord. Many glory in pulling down their brethren, as if thereby they raised themselves. Noah’s wise sons cast a mantle over their father, and he who exposed him earned a fearful curse. We may ourselves one of these dark days need forbearance and silence from our brethren, let us render it cheerfully to those who require it now.
Be this our family rule, and personal bond—SPEAK EVIL OF NO MAN. The Holy Spirit however, permits us to censure sin, and prescribes the way in which we're to do it. It must be done by rebuking our brother to his face, not by railing behind his back. This is Christlike, and under God’s blessing will be useful. Does the flesh shrink from it? Then we must lay the greater stress upon our conscience, and keep ourselves to the work, lest by suffering sin upon our friend we become ourselves partakers of it. Hundreds have been saved from gross sins by the timely, wise, affectionate warnings of faithful brethren. Our Lord has set us a gracious example of how to deal with erring friends in his warning given to Peter, the prayer with which he preceded it, and the gentle way in which he bore with Peter’s boastful denial that he needed such a caution. Morning and evening
It is not pleasing to the Lord when we speak evil of anyone, or for that matter, when we speak evil period. To speak of yourself in a belittling or destructive way is, in His sight, evil. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile (against yourself as well as against anyone else!). Depart from evil (saying evil words and believing evil thoughts about yourself as well as about anyone else!), and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. Pursuing peace means to choose it. You will never have peace if you are putting yourself down. The peaceful person is the one who is at peace with himself. A man who is at war with himself will be at war with others. When you like yourself, you will be free to like and appreciate others. When you are hard on yourself, you will be hard on others.
Write in your notebook the things you tell yourself about yourself every day. Listen to your thoughts and your words. Remember, any thoughts that reflect hopelessness, desperation, hate, fear, bitterness, jealousy or envy are the words and thoughts generated by demonic falsehood. These are the words and thoughts you will be changing and eliminating from your life. (by taking your thoughts captive and replacing them with God's Truth) Freedom from the lies you tell yourself
“For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”” (1 Peter 3:10–12)
““ ‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people. “ ‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the LORD. “ ‘Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt. “ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:16–18)
“Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:11–12)
James was not forbidding us to use discrimination or even to evaluate people. Christians need to have discernment (Phil. 1:9–10), but they must not act like God in passing judgment. We must first examine our own lives, and then try to help others (Matt. 7:1–5). We never know all the facts in a case, and we certainly never know the motives that are at work in men’s hearts. To speak evil of a brother and to judge a brother on the basis of partial evidence and (probably) unkind motives is to sin against him and against God. We are not called to be judges; God is the only Judge. He is patient and understanding; His judgments are just and holy; we can leave the matter with Him. The Bible exposition commentary
Do not speak evil covers more than slander, extending to any form of speaking against someone, including truth, if it is delivered in a harsh and unkind way. Speech is evil when it is motivated by the desire to harm others or to exalt oneself. Such speech questions legitimate authority (Num. 21:5; 2 Cor. 10:7–13), slanders others (Ps. 101:5), or brings incorrect accusations (1 Pet. 2:12; 1 Pet. 3:16). The form of James’ rebuke suggests that his readers were speaking against each other in one or more of these ways. They were breaking the commandment to love their neighbors as themselves. When love is present, abusive speech is not (Eph. 4:15). Woman's study Bible
To “speak evil” of a person is to find fault with him, to speak disparagingly of him, to gossip maliciously about him.’ How sad this is! They were brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. They were members of the same body. And they were turning on one another. It was like the body attacking itself! Suppose my hands started attacking my feet, bringing blood and inflicting severe pain. What a strange sight that would be! But it is no more strange than that which is going on in many churches! Christians attacking one another! We have a tendency to dismiss it as a trivial thing. James refuses to do so. He wants his readers to stare this ugly thing in the face. He begins by telling them that such evil-speaking means setting themselves above the law.
There is a law against evil-speaking. It is God’s law. When we carve up a brother or sister in Christ, we are breaking that law. But we are doing more. We are suggesting that we know better than God who gave the law. We are saying that this law should not even be a law. The man who deliberately breaks a law thereby disparages that law. In effect he sets himself above it and declares that it is a bad law, not worthy to be obeyed. When we break one of God’s laws, then, we are setting ourselves above God. Now that is pride! And that is begging for trouble! When we set ourselves up against God, we forget that he is the one who has the power both to save and to destroy.
James is saying that evil-speaking always has a price tag attached, and it is a heavy price! Before we buy the product, we should look at the tag. Before we engage in evil-speaking, we should remember that the God who can destroy has promised to judge such speaking. That judgement takes place to a certain extent in this life. How many of God’s blessings have we forfeited because we spoke evil? How many friendships have been ruined? How many people have been driven from the church? How many church leaders have been driven into discouragement? Is this a price we are willing to pay in order to cut up a brother or sister in Christ?
If God’s judgement doesn’t find us here, it will find us in eternity. But it will find us! Make no mistake about that!
Perhaps the thing that we most need to carry away from James’s message is this question: ‘Who are you to judge another?’ (v. 12). We might put it in these words: ‘Who do you think you are?’ This is what God asks each of us when we engage in verbally shredding our brothers and sisters in Christ. Opening up James
We must learn to bridle our tongues, and be careful what we say, that we never speak amiss, to God’s dishonour or our neighbors. It is not enough not to do hurt in the world, but we must study to be useful, and live to some purpose. We must not only depart from evil, but we must do good, good for ourselves, especially for our own souls, employing them well, furnishing them with a good treasure, & fitting them for another world; and, as we have ability and opportunity, we must do good to others also. Since nothing is more contrary to that love which never fails (which is the summary both of law and gospel) than strife and contention, which bring confusion and every evil work, we must seek peace and pursue it; we must be willing to deny ourselves a great deal, both in honour & interest, for peace’ sake. Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Honesty also requires telling the truth. The Third Commandment forbids the swearing of false oaths, and the Ninth Commandment prohibits the bearing of false testimony (Ex. 20:7, 16; Deut. 5:11, 20; cf. Lev. 19:12; Jer. 7:9). In the Old Testament, false witnesses were to suffer the same punishment that they had hoped to inflict upon the others (Deut. 19:16–21). Telling the truth also involved more than false testimony in a court. Believers are not to spread false reports (Prov. 12:17; 14:5, 25) or report the truth maliciously or engage in slander (Lev. 19:16; Prov. 26:20). Speaking evil is prohibited (Ps. 34:13; Prov. 24:28; Eph. 4:31; James 4:11; 1 Pet. 3:10), and it disqualifies a person from God’s favor (Ps. 15:3) and from a leadership position in the church (1 Tim. 3:8; Titus 2:3). We need truth telling today like never before. Perhaps the greatest battle in society today is a battle over truth. Christian ethics in plain language
“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” (Ephesians 4:25–27)
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:29–32)
“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.” (James 2:8)
“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,” (James 2:12)
This really convicted me, which is why I wanted to share it. When our feelings have been hurt badly by a loved one, especially over a long period of time when all attempts of reconciliation have failed, we tend to nurse that hurt in our hearts and think of all the ways that person has or is sinning against us and God - especially if they've failed to repent when we spoke to them about it. Even if we don't say these things out loud to anyone else, it's still a sin. It doesn't matter at all if we're correct about what we're thinking, it's still a sin. We are not to speak evil of anyone, nor are we to think it or dwell on it. We are to build each other up, not tear each other down, and that includes in our own private thoughts as well as our words. It also includes tearing ourselves down, thinking how badly we've handled something or badly we've failed at something, what a rotten job we've done of things, etc. It's one thing to confess our sins to God and repent of them, but we're to do that immediately and once done, we're not to hang on to them and dwell on them any more. God cleanses us of our sins, guilt and shame when we repent, and it is therefore a sin to dwell on them and continue to beat ourselves up about it afterward. When it concerns someone else we're to turn it over to God who judges righteously and put it out of our minds. Remember what God says through Paul: "I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do; forgetting what is behind, and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:13-14) Then in Phil 4:8 Paul tells us that we are to dwell on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy. David reminds us of this too when he prays that God will find all his words and thoughts pleasing to Him in Psalm 19:14. It's a lot to reflect on, isn't it? Also, remember Romans 12:18: "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Some other scriptures to reflect on are: Romans 12:10, Ephesians 4:2, 1 Peter 4:7-8, Philippians 2:3-5, Colossians 3:12-14, Galatians 5:22-23, and 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
See also: The Fear of the Lord, The Fear of the Lord, Fear of the Lord, and
I will teach you the fear of the LORD
Tale-bearing emits a 3 fold poison; for it injures the teller, the hearer, and the person concerning whom the tale is told. Whether the report be true or false, we're forbidden to spread it. The reputations of the Lord’s people should be very precious in our sight, and we should count it shame to help the devil dishonour the Church and the name of the Lord. Many glory in pulling down their brethren, as if thereby they raised themselves. Noah’s wise sons cast a mantle over their father, and he who exposed him earned a fearful curse. We may ourselves one of these dark days need forbearance and silence from our brethren, let us render it cheerfully to those who require it now.
Be this our family rule, and personal bond—SPEAK EVIL OF NO MAN. The Holy Spirit however, permits us to censure sin, and prescribes the way in which we're to do it. It must be done by rebuking our brother to his face, not by railing behind his back. This is Christlike, and under God’s blessing will be useful. Does the flesh shrink from it? Then we must lay the greater stress upon our conscience, and keep ourselves to the work, lest by suffering sin upon our friend we become ourselves partakers of it. Hundreds have been saved from gross sins by the timely, wise, affectionate warnings of faithful brethren. Our Lord has set us a gracious example of how to deal with erring friends in his warning given to Peter, the prayer with which he preceded it, and the gentle way in which he bore with Peter’s boastful denial that he needed such a caution. Morning and evening
It is not pleasing to the Lord when we speak evil of anyone, or for that matter, when we speak evil period. To speak of yourself in a belittling or destructive way is, in His sight, evil. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile (against yourself as well as against anyone else!). Depart from evil (saying evil words and believing evil thoughts about yourself as well as about anyone else!), and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. Pursuing peace means to choose it. You will never have peace if you are putting yourself down. The peaceful person is the one who is at peace with himself. A man who is at war with himself will be at war with others. When you like yourself, you will be free to like and appreciate others. When you are hard on yourself, you will be hard on others.
Write in your notebook the things you tell yourself about yourself every day. Listen to your thoughts and your words. Remember, any thoughts that reflect hopelessness, desperation, hate, fear, bitterness, jealousy or envy are the words and thoughts generated by demonic falsehood. These are the words and thoughts you will be changing and eliminating from your life. (by taking your thoughts captive and replacing them with God's Truth) Freedom from the lies you tell yourself
“For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”” (1 Peter 3:10–12)
““ ‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people. “ ‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the LORD. “ ‘Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt. “ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:16–18)
“Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:11–12)
James was not forbidding us to use discrimination or even to evaluate people. Christians need to have discernment (Phil. 1:9–10), but they must not act like God in passing judgment. We must first examine our own lives, and then try to help others (Matt. 7:1–5). We never know all the facts in a case, and we certainly never know the motives that are at work in men’s hearts. To speak evil of a brother and to judge a brother on the basis of partial evidence and (probably) unkind motives is to sin against him and against God. We are not called to be judges; God is the only Judge. He is patient and understanding; His judgments are just and holy; we can leave the matter with Him. The Bible exposition commentary
Do not speak evil covers more than slander, extending to any form of speaking against someone, including truth, if it is delivered in a harsh and unkind way. Speech is evil when it is motivated by the desire to harm others or to exalt oneself. Such speech questions legitimate authority (Num. 21:5; 2 Cor. 10:7–13), slanders others (Ps. 101:5), or brings incorrect accusations (1 Pet. 2:12; 1 Pet. 3:16). The form of James’ rebuke suggests that his readers were speaking against each other in one or more of these ways. They were breaking the commandment to love their neighbors as themselves. When love is present, abusive speech is not (Eph. 4:15). Woman's study Bible
To “speak evil” of a person is to find fault with him, to speak disparagingly of him, to gossip maliciously about him.’ How sad this is! They were brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. They were members of the same body. And they were turning on one another. It was like the body attacking itself! Suppose my hands started attacking my feet, bringing blood and inflicting severe pain. What a strange sight that would be! But it is no more strange than that which is going on in many churches! Christians attacking one another! We have a tendency to dismiss it as a trivial thing. James refuses to do so. He wants his readers to stare this ugly thing in the face. He begins by telling them that such evil-speaking means setting themselves above the law.
There is a law against evil-speaking. It is God’s law. When we carve up a brother or sister in Christ, we are breaking that law. But we are doing more. We are suggesting that we know better than God who gave the law. We are saying that this law should not even be a law. The man who deliberately breaks a law thereby disparages that law. In effect he sets himself above it and declares that it is a bad law, not worthy to be obeyed. When we break one of God’s laws, then, we are setting ourselves above God. Now that is pride! And that is begging for trouble! When we set ourselves up against God, we forget that he is the one who has the power both to save and to destroy.
James is saying that evil-speaking always has a price tag attached, and it is a heavy price! Before we buy the product, we should look at the tag. Before we engage in evil-speaking, we should remember that the God who can destroy has promised to judge such speaking. That judgement takes place to a certain extent in this life. How many of God’s blessings have we forfeited because we spoke evil? How many friendships have been ruined? How many people have been driven from the church? How many church leaders have been driven into discouragement? Is this a price we are willing to pay in order to cut up a brother or sister in Christ?
If God’s judgement doesn’t find us here, it will find us in eternity. But it will find us! Make no mistake about that!
Perhaps the thing that we most need to carry away from James’s message is this question: ‘Who are you to judge another?’ (v. 12). We might put it in these words: ‘Who do you think you are?’ This is what God asks each of us when we engage in verbally shredding our brothers and sisters in Christ. Opening up James
We must learn to bridle our tongues, and be careful what we say, that we never speak amiss, to God’s dishonour or our neighbors. It is not enough not to do hurt in the world, but we must study to be useful, and live to some purpose. We must not only depart from evil, but we must do good, good for ourselves, especially for our own souls, employing them well, furnishing them with a good treasure, & fitting them for another world; and, as we have ability and opportunity, we must do good to others also. Since nothing is more contrary to that love which never fails (which is the summary both of law and gospel) than strife and contention, which bring confusion and every evil work, we must seek peace and pursue it; we must be willing to deny ourselves a great deal, both in honour & interest, for peace’ sake. Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Honesty also requires telling the truth. The Third Commandment forbids the swearing of false oaths, and the Ninth Commandment prohibits the bearing of false testimony (Ex. 20:7, 16; Deut. 5:11, 20; cf. Lev. 19:12; Jer. 7:9). In the Old Testament, false witnesses were to suffer the same punishment that they had hoped to inflict upon the others (Deut. 19:16–21). Telling the truth also involved more than false testimony in a court. Believers are not to spread false reports (Prov. 12:17; 14:5, 25) or report the truth maliciously or engage in slander (Lev. 19:16; Prov. 26:20). Speaking evil is prohibited (Ps. 34:13; Prov. 24:28; Eph. 4:31; James 4:11; 1 Pet. 3:10), and it disqualifies a person from God’s favor (Ps. 15:3) and from a leadership position in the church (1 Tim. 3:8; Titus 2:3). We need truth telling today like never before. Perhaps the greatest battle in society today is a battle over truth. Christian ethics in plain language
“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” (Ephesians 4:25–27)
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:29–32)
“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.” (James 2:8)
“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,” (James 2:12)
This really convicted me, which is why I wanted to share it. When our feelings have been hurt badly by a loved one, especially over a long period of time when all attempts of reconciliation have failed, we tend to nurse that hurt in our hearts and think of all the ways that person has or is sinning against us and God - especially if they've failed to repent when we spoke to them about it. Even if we don't say these things out loud to anyone else, it's still a sin. It doesn't matter at all if we're correct about what we're thinking, it's still a sin. We are not to speak evil of anyone, nor are we to think it or dwell on it. We are to build each other up, not tear each other down, and that includes in our own private thoughts as well as our words. It also includes tearing ourselves down, thinking how badly we've handled something or badly we've failed at something, what a rotten job we've done of things, etc. It's one thing to confess our sins to God and repent of them, but we're to do that immediately and once done, we're not to hang on to them and dwell on them any more. God cleanses us of our sins, guilt and shame when we repent, and it is therefore a sin to dwell on them and continue to beat ourselves up about it afterward. When it concerns someone else we're to turn it over to God who judges righteously and put it out of our minds. Remember what God says through Paul: "I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do; forgetting what is behind, and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:13-14) Then in Phil 4:8 Paul tells us that we are to dwell on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy. David reminds us of this too when he prays that God will find all his words and thoughts pleasing to Him in Psalm 19:14. It's a lot to reflect on, isn't it? Also, remember Romans 12:18: "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Some other scriptures to reflect on are: Romans 12:10, Ephesians 4:2, 1 Peter 4:7-8, Philippians 2:3-5, Colossians 3:12-14, Galatians 5:22-23, and 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
See also: The Fear of the Lord, The Fear of the Lord, Fear of the Lord, and
I will teach you the fear of the LORD
!!
