Thursday, August 21, 2008

August 21, 2008

“Humble yourselves before the Lord…Do not speak evil against one another” (James 4:10-11).

In a jointly written article by Tim Keller and David Powlison, the authors ask the question, “Should You Pass On Bad Reports?” One of the Scripture passages they expound on is James 4:10-11—“Humble yourselves before the Lord. Brothers, don’t slander or attack one another.”

They write further: “The verb ‘slander’ simply means to ‘speak against’ (Gk. Kata-lalein). It is not necessarily a false report, just an ‘against report’. The intent is to belittle another. To pour out contempt. To mock. To hurt. To harm. To destroy. To rejoice in purported evil. This can’t mean simple disagreement with ideas—that would mean that we could have a debate over a point…James warns against attacking a person’s motives and character, so that the listeners’ respect and love for the person is undermined.”

Something to ponder and pray over.

No comments:

Post a Comment