Careful Speech

James 4:11 (NASB) 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.

What do we say about a fellow Christian when they are not present? An old joke tells of a family that has a roasted preacher each Sunday as they eat lunch. Do we find ourselves roasting those whom we call our brothers and sisters in Christ?

The Bible states often that we are to watch what we say about others. To undermine them causes us to violate the law of God. As Christians we are to love one another. Jesus shared that the world would know that we are His followers and that His Word is truth by the way we live out that love (John 13:34-35).

Rewind your day. Have your comments concerning other Christians today made others aware of the awesome love and kindness of our Lord? Or has it had the opposite effect. Sabotaging someone’s character is called slander in the Bible. We may attack their character by weaving doubt into the truth of a story, creating a sound bite from their own words that is taken out of context, our fabricating a false statement about the person.

Although the medieval monks who compiled the list of the seven deadly sins did not include slander, it is consistently talked about in the Word of God. Jesus says that the source of speaking against a fellow believer is an evil heart that defiles a person (Matthew 15:19-20). We need to recognize the severity of this often overlooked sin.

We need to go beyond ending defaming speech. With social pages on the web, blogs, mass numbers of texts, cell phone calls, etc., we say numerous words. We need to watch all them carefully. Proverbs 17:27 (NLT) states, “A truly wise person uses few words; . . .” Proverbs 13:3 (HCSB) shares, “The one who guards his mouth protects his life; the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.” Jesus warns us against careless words in Matthew 12:36-37 (NASB) “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

What a sobering thought! We are accountable to God for every word we say, no matter the medium we use.

Prayer: Lord, lead us to use our words to build others up and not tear them down. Help us to live our lives according to Your Royal Law, understanding that we are to love others with a heart that honors You.