James 4:11-12
Our God, we come before you today
as your people. We come. We come bent low. We come bent low to submit ourselves
to the yoke of your holy word. For we remember the words of
Jesus. Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. Take my
burden. Take my yoke upon me for it is
easy and it is light. And so, Father, we come to yoke
ourselves to you, the savior of the world, and the one who
speaks a good word and tells us how we ought to live and behave
in the household of faith. So help us now as we hear your
word to believe it and to practice it in our lives. This we pray
in Jesus name. Amen. I am not too young to remember
the time when motor oil came in cans. Some of you Younger
people, all you know is motor oil comes in plastic bottles.
But back in the day, it came in a can, maybe an 8 or 10 inch
tall can. I remember growing up watching
and helping my dad change the oil in the car. We would drain
the oil and refill it. One of the interesting things
about these cans of oils was that you had to have a spout,
a metal spout that attached to the can, much like a can opener.
When it attached to the can, it punctured the top. And through
the spout or with the spout, you could pour fresh oil back
into the engine compartment on your vehicle, thus having changed
your oil. Well, there’s a spiritual lesson
in this, so to speak. In the same way that the spout
was necessary to take the oil from the can, it is necessary
for us to have something to reveal to others the condition or the
contents of our heart. And Jesus says to us very well
in the scriptures, he says, out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. Good people bring good from the
treasury of good. Evil people bring evil from the
treasury of evil. Brothers and sisters of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we need to recognize that our mouth is the spout of
our heart. What comes from our lips, what
comes out of our mouths reveals to us the condition of the heart.
And if you’re like me on most days, what comes out of your
mouth and what it reflects to bring us to our knees, how we
say things, what we say, the things we don’t say that we should
have said. And so, as the book of James
tells us over and over again, our mouths are a difficult, part
of the Christian life. Our mouths will give us so much
trouble. Let me give you a quick overview
of what James says about the mouth. James says that what we
say shows our character. And he says in chapters three
and four of James that most of us, if not all of us, stumble
in what we say. We trip over our own words. We bless And we curse at the
same time. We boast of great things. We
quarrel when we do not get what we want. And we fail to use our
mouths for prayer. Those are what James tells us
are the troubles with our mouth. But he goes on to give us one
more, and that’s our passage for today. He tells us of our
mouths’ destructive abilities through slander, through bearing
false witness against our neighbor. And so what do we want to consider
today about our tongues? What do we want to hear from
James and from God’s holy word? Well, we want to hear this. Slander
is an inappropriate sin for the Christian. Slander is inappropriate
behavior for one who has been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Slander is an act. It is a sin. It is against God.
It is against God’s law and it is against God’s creation. And so I want us to consider
four areas from this passage that help us examine where we
might fall short in the use of our tongues towards slander.
The first thing for us to consider is this. Slander shows disrespect
for a person. It shows disrespect for another. Now, how would you define slander?
Well, it’s an act of speech. It is an act of using your lips,
your voice, your mouth, your words in a certain way. Notice
how James says it in the beginning of verse 11. He says, do not
speak evil against one another, brothers. Slander is speaking
evil against or about or concerning another person. Literally, in
the New Testament, it means we are speaking harshly of another
brother or sister in Christ. It is usually mindless, thoughtless,
careless, critical, derogatory, untrue. It is, as James, the
half-brother of Jesus, tells us, it is destructive. to the
church of the living God. You see, James is not writing
to the world. James is not writing a handbook
for corporate behavior in the marketplace. No, he is writing
to the Christians. Notice how he says in verse 11,
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. He’s speaking
to Christians. He’s been speaking to the saints
of God. And apparently in the little
church that James is speaking to in this letter, James being
one of the first letters, the earliest letter of the New Testament,
probably in the 40s, maybe 20 or 10 years or so after the death
of Christ, he’s speaking to them because this church is biting
and devouring one another. They’re eating each other up
with their words. They are constantly slandering
one another. And so James says that your speech
should not be slanderous. He says to them, maybe much like
you as a frustrated parent have been before to your children,
he simply says, stop it. No more. This is not the behavior
of the household of faith. This is not the behavior of Christians
like a living life together. Well, what does slander do? Well,
Slander condemns. Slander is often a statement
of condemnation. We evaluate something, usually
not with all the facts. It’s prejudiced. But then we
make a declaration about someone and then we go and tell everyone
that condemnation. We lessened the esteem of a person
in the eyes of another. We destroyed their dignity. We
ruined their character and their reputation. Do you know in the
Bible, in the Old Testament, a person’s name was their reputation. Whose son are you? Whose child
are you? What family do you come from?
Well, I am the son or the daughter of so-and-so. Remember in the
book of Job at the very beginning, Job was a righteous man. Job
had done no evil in the sight of others. Job was well known
in the land because his name was a good name. And what does
Satan, the slanderer, attempt to do? He attempts to ruin the
great name of Job. And so slander is very destructive. It can cause a person to lose
income. It can cause them to lose their reputation or their
ability to make a living. Now note the use of brothers
in verse 11. Let us not speak against one
another, brothers. It destroys the Christian community. It can kill the spirit and the
morale. We begin not to trust one another,
and we are afraid of one another. I remember when I was a senior
in high school, There was a situation where something terrible happened
and the rumors were flying around. And something terrible happened
between a young man and a young woman. Well, this young woman
continued to live in community and act as if she had been wronged
and spread rumors about this other young fellow. And over
time, over time, it got worse and worse. And it became so grievous
to this young man that he took his own life. Friends, that’s
what the destructive language of our tongues can do. We see
it now in our culture. We see children losing their
lives because of the destructive nature of words over social media. And it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous
for us to use our words in a destructive way. No, it’s deadly. And so,
brothers and sisters, we need to be careful with what we say
and how we say it and how we give example and teach others
how we use our tongue. So slander shows disregard for
the person. But it gets worse. Slander, secondly,
shows disregard for the law of God. Now, James is the half-brother
of the Lord Jesus, born from Joseph and Mary, raised in the
same household, but also influenced by the ministry and the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus. And James is, as we say in biblical
studies, is a black and white thinker. There is no gray area
with James. He’s going to say it very clearly
and you can take it or you can leave it. And that’s what James
does in this second point. Slander shows disregard for the
law of God. He sees brothers and sisters
in the church slandering and he says to them, stop it. It
is not the proper behavior for the Christian and it is not good
for the household of faith. Do not speak evil against one
another brothers. For the one who speaks evil against
his brother or judges, his brother speaks evil against the law and
he judges the law. So when we slander, not only
are we showing disregard for the person, we are showing disregard
for the law of God. We are saying in a sense, I’m
above the law. Those rules don’t apply to me. I can speak any
way I want to about others and there are no consequences. You
see what James is doing. He’s saying, you show disregard
for the law when you slander. You are essentially saying, I’m
above it. I have no need to follow the
law here. What does the law say about our
relationship with others? Well, it’s summed up in this
way. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength, and you shall love your neighbor
as yourself. One of the ways we should love our neighbors
is to be careful how We speak of them. So let me ask you this
question, do you speak about others? You cast judgment. We
all do it. We send with our mouths. We just
do. And so let me ask you this. Are you above the law of God?
Are you able to stand before a holy and righteous God and
say your law is great, but, you know, I get special privileges.
We’ve seen that in politics this week, haven’t we? And we’ve all
cried about it and said, it’s unfair. Yet when it comes to
the Christian life, we do that ourselves. And so brothers and
sisters, we ought to be careful with our lips, be careful with
our tongues, be careful with our choice of words, especially
about others. Now let’s get practical for just
a moment. What should we do when we hear slander? What should
we do when we are in a situation, and it may be under the guise
of a prayer request, or did you know, or FYI, or I think you
should know about this, and it’s a little hush-hush, it’s whispered,
it’s behind closed doors, nobody else is around, whatever the
situation, what should we do when we hear slander? We should
remain honorable with our own tongues, not joining in. We should
stop others from slander. We should say to them, do you
know that is slanderous? That is defaming someone else’s good
name and character. And that may be true, but that
is not something I need to know. Or do we say, didn’t you take
a vow to maintain the peace and the purity and the prosperity
of the church? We promise to uphold the law
of God. We promise to uphold the ninth
commandment and not bear false witness. Do we say things like
this? This is a brother or a sister in Christ you are speaking of.
And what you are saying, whether it’s true or not, could do great
damage to their reputation. It can lower their esteem in
the eyes of others? Do we refuse to listen to slander?
Do we refuse to let our ears hear it? Do we give the benefit
of the doubt and encourage others to do the same? Maybe more on
the personal side, this question may be relevant to you. What
do you do if you have been slandered? And nowadays we can be slandered
not just over the telephone, not just over the back fence
and the party line, but it’s on Facebook, it’s on Twitter,
it’s on all forms of social media. It can come up in our performance
reviews at work, based on our peers telling the truth or not
about us. What do we do if we have been
slandered? There’s a good rule of thumb and that is this, don’t
defend yourself. Let God defend you. Let God make
your name good again. You know what the best remedy
for slander is? It’s time and truth. Over time, people will begin
to see that what was said about you is not true, and that who
you are is the same old you that you have been all along, and
that there is nothing new to report about you, and that the
reports that were given or made about you and made rather public,
they were untrue, but they were being used to benefit others. Friends, God will avenge, God
will repay evil, and he can do it so far better than you. And
what does the Apostle Paul tell us to do when our name, our good
name, has been trashed? He says, if your enemy is hungry,
feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by
doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be
overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. Friends, Slander
is never justifiable, though what you say about the person
could be true. It is never justifiable. And
if you think if you think for a moment that you are justified
in slandering someone, remember this. It shows disregard for
the person. It shows disregard for the law
of God. But James ramps it up yet again. And third thing he says is it
shows disregard for the lawgiver, and that is God and God alone. You see, brothers and sisters,
in verse 12, it says there is only one lawgiver. There is only
one judge who is able to save and destroy. But who are you
to judge your neighbor? You see, James is leading us
to the logical end of our behavior. He’s leading us to the logical
result. What will be the outcome if we
continue to do what we do? Well, we’ll injure a person’s
reputation. We say we’re above the law. And now he’s saying
to us, you say you’re smarter than God. You know better than
God, the divine creator of all things, the Lord of the universe. You see God Almighty in James
eyes and in our eyes as Christians, God Almighty must have supremacy.
We’re considering the ninth commandment, do not bear false witness, but
do you remember the first commandment? You shall have no other gods
before me. God is the. Chapter six of Proverbs
tells us God especially hates slander. There’s six things the
Lord hates. No, seven. He hates a lying tongue. He hates one who spreads untruthful
things. And so, brothers and sisters,
you have already been an enemy of God. Before you came to faith
in Jesus and repented of your sins and trusted in him alone
for your salvation, you were an enemy of God. And there’s
a sense where James is here saying, don’t become an enemy of God
again by assuming yourself to be smarter than he is. You see
what he’s trying to say is you’re not God. You’re not the judge. You’re not the lawmaker, the
lawgiver. And so quit acting like it. Through the blood of
Christ, we have been brought near. Through the blood of Christ,
we have been reconciled to God. And we were not reconciled to
defame others’ names. We were not reconciled to use
our tongues for evil. And so we must remember that
God is God. God is the lawgiver. God is the supreme judge of the
earth, and that we are not. And we must tell ourselves, if
we are using our lips for evil, that we are playing God and doing
a pretty bad job of it. God’s work is for God to do.
God alone has the power to save and destroy. So what we’ve looked
at from these two verses in James is that slander shows disregard
for the person. It shows disregard for the law
of God. It also shows disregard for the lawgiver, and that is
God. But there’s a fourth thing. Slander shows disregard for God’s
call to humility. Now think about this for a moment.
Does the Bible ever give us the ability or the command to judge? Well, of course he does. We live
in a world that says, don’t judge, don’t be judgmental. But the
Bible tells us at various times, it’s appropriate to make judgments. It’s appropriate to look at,
evaluate and make a decision based on your own judgment. We’re
to choose elders from among us who are godly. We’re to choose
deacons from among us who are sympathetic. We are to choose
marriage partners that will allow us to be equally yoked. There
are situations in the Bible where we are told, make a judgment. The Bible says to tell true things
about people. It tells us to look at a person’s
life. And if they’re not living a Christian life, Galatians 6
says, those who are mature ought to rescue those who are caught
in sin. So there are times when we are
to make judgment. And the Bible comes to bear in
our lives at times. And sometimes it comes with a
heavy hand, with a big foot. And it says, what you are doing
is wrong. And so James here is saying we need to judge our lips. We need to judge our mouths.
We need to judge our speech. And often that means outside
help. So with humility, we ought to be careful how we speak toward
others. But with humility, we often ought
to approach others and say, you know, what you’re saying is really
is really not godly. We ought to promote and expect
and ask for good words from one another’s mouths. You see, slander
destroys people. Slander destroys reputation.
Slander destroys life. It destroys the church. And what
does God’s word tell us that we ought to be as Christians?
We ought to be those who rescue and redeem, not those who catch
and destroy. And so we ought to take great
care in how we are humbly using our lives and humbly living life
together. For slander shows disregard for
God’s call to humility. Now you may be saying in your
mind and in your heart, I am no slanderer. Of course I say
things, I do things, but oh, it doesn’t ever reach the level
of slander. Well, let’s give ourselves a
little test here. Those of you who are married
with children. Does one spouse or the other ever pit one parent
against the other with the kids? Maybe pulling the children aside,
do you see what mommy has done? Do you see what daddy has done? And you point out faults with
one another. Or maybe you’ve reminded a person
of their shortcomings in front of others. Or maybe you’ve drawn
a conclusion about someone based on pretty weak facts, but you’ve
drawn a conclusion about it and you’ve told others your conclusion
based on the fact that you think it’s 100% true. You know, see, often we think
I perceive, therefore it must be true. But what does the Bible
say about maintaining purity with one another, maintaining
truth, maintaining good names and reputations? It says without
the evidence of two or three witnesses, we should be very
careful, my brothers and sisters, in how we speak of others and
how we rush to judgment. Maybe you’ve made an accusation
and you’ve announced it to others before it’s been proven in the
right setting. Maybe you’ve shut the door and
whispered to someone and asked for confidence and said, there’s
something I’ve got to tell you. You need to know this only to
open the door and walk in the next room and take another person
aside and to tell them the same thing. Let me remind you of Jesus’
words. He says, whoever causes one of
my little ones to stumble, It would be better for him to have
a great millstone fastened around his neck and be drowned in the
depths of the sea. You see, Jesus, Jesus tells us,
be careful with what we do because our behavior may so affect others
that it may lead them to sin. That becomes pretty weighty,
doesn’t it? That we would lead another to
sin. Jesus says, you ought to have a millstone tied around
your neck and thrown into the sea because causing another to
sin is a destructive behavior. You know, the mistake we make
as human beings, even as Christians, the mistake we make is that we
tell everybody else about what’s wrong with the person except
that person themselves. I have a friend who has a practice
of saying, I appreciate what you’ve just told me and I will
give it a day and then I will go tell this person what you’re
saying about them. And that 24 hours is an opportunity for them
to go fix the relationship that they are going around breaking
over and over again. I’ll give it a day and I’m gonna
go tell that person what you’re spreading about them around town.
That is a cure-all for a tailbearer, for a slanderer. Now you might
be saying this, I always tell the truth. I always tell the
truth about others. But have you ever thought that
the truth about someone may be damaging to their reputation?
It may be completely true, but it may not be information others
need to know. That person is sinful. That person
is finite. That person is weak. That person
is in the process of redemption. And yes, there may be true things
about them that are sinful and worthy nuggets for the back fence
post, so to speak. But God is saying to us, protect
the reputation, protect the good name of others by not speaking
evil against others. We should be careful about pointing
out others faults, though true, that can be very damaging. Christian
love, brothers and sisters, Christian love covers a multitude of sins
and it covers what ought not to be brought up in public. James
chapter four, verse 10 says this, humble yourselves before the
Lord and he will exalt you. We so easily slander others. It’s evil. It’s wrong. It’s wicked. And we don’t realize we don’t
realize what we’re doing. But friends, we need to be humble
before God for slander shows disregard to God’s call for humility.
And we ought to put ourselves in the mindset of being humble
before almighty God. And Jesus has set that example
for us in Philippians. The apostle Paul tells us this.
He says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in
Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God, a thing to be grasped. but made himself
nothing, taking on the form of a servant and being born in the
likeness of men. And when he was found born in
the likeness of men, he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death, even death on the cross. So brothers and
sisters, let me encourage you in this way. If you are using
your tongues, your mouths, your lips, your words recklessly,
As James says, stop, stop speaking evil against one another, but
run to the cross and say, Jesus, you have redeemed me from sin
and death and you have redeemed my lips. And so help me begin
to speak in a redeeming way. May I use my tongue for godliness? There’s an old story. I’m sure
you’ve heard it, but it illustrates this whole point James is making
very well. And the story goes like this.
There was a man whose name had been slandered and it had been
slandered well, you might say. The town was painted. The world,
whole world knew these untruths about him. And so in a godly
way, he approached the fellow who had been spreading these
untruths. And he said to him, you have damaged my reputation.
You have done harm to my name. And the man apologized. He was
confronted by a sin. He was humble about it and he
apologized by God’s grace. And he said, how can I help repair
your reputation? How can I undo what I have done?
And the man took him to the top of a tall building and he opened
up a feather pillow and he let the wind scatter every one of
those feathers off into the distance. And he said, if you want to fix
my name and my reputation, you go gather every one of those
feathers. And the man who had done all
the slandering said, it’s impossible. And he said, yeah, that’s right.
The damage you have done to my name, it is impossible to repair. But friend, that’s what you’ve
done. And it showed the man the depths of his sin and the danger
of our lips. James tells us in another place
that our tongues are set on fire by the fires of hell. He’s very
strong about our lips. Be a good Sunday afternoon read,
just to read a couple of little chapters of James. But our tongues,
brothers and sisters, can do great good. And that is why Jesus
has saved us, not to destroy, but to build up. And may that
be true of us. Let’s pray together. Our Lord,
we pray for your help and mercy. Our tongues are fires set by
the fires of hell. We use our tongues to destroy
when we ought to use them to redeem and to bless. And your
word tells us there is no perfect man who can restrain his tongue. So help us, Lord, by your grace
and by your word and spirit to help us keep our tongues from
evil for the sake of truth and for the sake of the gospel of
our Lord and Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Let’s
stand together and sing about how we would desire to use our
lips as we sing number 76. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing.