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Preface

Among the conscious activities of humankind, talking takes up more time than anything else. This is because it does not require very much effort. Talking comes so easily, that it almost seems to be a biological activity, something that a man cannot hinder by his volition. But the fact is that it is a conscious activity and people are therefore responsible for the words they utter. Jesus said, “I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Mathew 12:36, 37). Just think about what that means. All the words you and I have ever spoken are on record. Some of them were good, but most of them were ill-advisedly spoken and if we are not careful we will find ourselves adding to the stock of the latter.

In this book we will examine our conversation. We will not find out whether we stammer or whether we talk fast, and whether or not these peculiarities are indicative of psychological disturbances. Rather we will take a searching look at the content of our conversation. What we are talking about and not how we talk will be our consideration. We will not see whether we are able to amuse people by our talk or whether we are good conversationalists. We will see whether our talk will be acceptable in heaven or in hell. We will examine the content of our conversation and see whether it is pleasing to God.

I do not think that I need to say very much on the kind of talk that is obviously wicked. For instance, I do not need to tell you that telling lies is wicked. Nor do you need someone else to inform you that swapping lustful and pornographic stories is a sin in God’s eyes. These are obviously sinful and you know it.

When two acquaintances get together, their conversation almost inevitably veers to discussing someone who is not there. In fact, we talk a lot about third persons, a lot more than we talk about anything else. Since this is so, we could say that talking about other people constitutes our conversations. We say nice things about those whom we like and nasty things about others, more frequently the latter.

At this point let me make a confession. I began writing this in a fit of self-righteous indignation. As I wrote, time and again I have been aware of describing myself and my own slanderous wicked tongue. Also, even after completion of my writing, there were many occasions when I still slandered and gossiped. I confess this to God and pray that He will help me overcome my tongue and put a rein on it, and dedicate it solely to the use of God for His glory.

Most Christians would agree to the proposition that slander is sinful. But were I to suggest that slander and gossip are just as bad as the sins attributed to those slandered—if not worse—I would have very few in agreement with me, and even these few would only give assent to the theory, but subconsciously would believe otherwise, for they are those who have heard this theory before, but have continued to slander people, just like me. Some preacher has told them that in the Bible slander is classified with murder, theft, and adultery. But that is about all that is preached against slander from the pulpit. Slander has not been properly exposed for what it is. As a result, some otherwise good Christians are given to gossip and slander. There are quarrels among church members because of slander, and in some churches it has even caused divisions.

We will therefore take a close look at the slander in our conversations. We will see what the nature of slander is from God’s point of view. Other types of wickedness in conversation will also be touched upon, but in the main we will be dealing with slander to discover its wickedness. When we know something to be definitely wicked and know what its consequences are, then we must seek to refrain from it.

However it is only the Christian, the believer, that is required to avoid gossip and slander. The personal relationship that a Christian has with God is what makes it imperative that he should not indulge in such talk. If you do not have such a personal relationship with God, read the appendix first and then get back to the book.

What Are You Talking About?

“As a person thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Our attitudes govern us. They affect our lives. What we are inwardly, sooner or later, begins to show in our conduct. Nowhere else is this as true as it is with regard to our speech.

Very often a person stops from doing certain things only because of the sanctions placed by the law, society or religion. Some people would do certain things if only the law would remove the punishment attached to the commission of these acts. Others for fear of public disapproval would not do some things that the law says nothing about. Yet others, conforming to the religious group they belong to, would refrain from some things that neither the law condemns, nor society disapproves, because their own group would frown on them.

So since a man cannot do these things, he talks about them by recounting how another man did what he would not do. (We are assuming right now that what he says about the person is true).

He thinks he is only condemning the other person, but actually he is giving vent to his own feelings. His subconscious desire compels him to at least talk about it. Does he keep talking about how the other man misappropriates money? Does he talk about how another man flirts with a member of the opposite sex? He talks about such things because he too would very much like to do them, but is afraid of being found out. He is playing it safe by getting his enjoyment through talking about these things, for there is no doubt that he does enjoy talking about them. There is a certain pleasure for him in such talk. Though he may not say it in so many words, his attitude implies that he has “a nice juicy story about so and so” to tell. His mouth tells us what his heart is like.

The Word of God tells us, “An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire” (Proverbs 16 :27). When something is dug up it is exposed. An ungodly man is given over to exposing evil, and if you and I are spending our time exposing evil (exposing merely because many are interested in the exposed evil) it just means that we are ungodly, that we are sinful.

Some people try to justify slanderous talk by saying that they would like to see things put right and so they are telling others all the slanderous stuff , in order to bring public opinion to bear upon the person concerned. That is all humbug. Even while they are telling the story, one can tell that their attitude is that of one imparting interesting information rather than the attitude of one wanting to put things right. If their desire was to see right done, then there would be less talk about the wrong things and they would have a chat with the man himself about what is right.

Jesus said, “What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what make a man unclean and defiles (him). For out of the heart come evil thoughts (reasonings and disputings and designs) such as murder, adultery, sexual vice, theft, false witnessing, slander and irreverent speech. These are what make a man unclean and defile (him) (Matthew 15: 18-20, Amp. NT). Our words originate in the heart. In the heart thoughts of wickedness lie hidden. They may not always result in wicked deeds because of the sanctions mentioned earlier, but since they must find expression, our words which originate in the heart will express them. The expression may not be in an obvious way, but our words will smack of the wickedness lying hidden in the heart. What is in the heart will come out at the mouth. What the mouth talks about, that the heart is.

That is why on two occasions Jesus said that nothing is hidden which will not become known. On the first occasion, He said, “Nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid that shall not be ·known and come abroad” (Luke 8: 17). He says this after He talked about the good soil in which the seed bears plentiful fruit and about the candle that is lighted to be set on a candlestick (Luke 8: 15-16). In other words He is saying that if the Word of God has taken root in our hearts, and our lives are lit, then this will become evident by the fruit and the light. The effects will not go unnoticed.

On the second occasion He said, “There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid that shall not be known” (Luke 12 : 2). Immediately before He said this, He had said, “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12 : 1). A hypocrite is one thing outwardly and another inwardly. Very often he tries to cover up his actual nature by talking of another’s faults accompanied by loud protestations of his own goodness. If he does not call attention to another’s faults, his own goodness would go unnoticed. “To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves” (Will Durant). Jesus said, “Beware of hypocrisy”, and immediately afterward said, “There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed”. Hypocrisy tries to cover up, but sooner or later, what is covered up will be revealed. In fact, if we pay careful attention to the hypocrite’s talk we will discover his heart for it is “out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth) speaketh” (Matthew 12 : 34b). If the outflow is dirty and evil, the source has got to be dirty and evil. lf we spend time talking evil or talking about evil, then that is what the heart is obviously occupied with and that is what the heart is.

What are you talking about? Are you talking about smutty events? Why do you whisper animatedly about them? It seems you derive pleasure from just talking about them. Gossip is always indecent (and very often invented). My friend, you like indecent things; that is why you devote your tongue to such talk. Your talk shows what your heart is like and where it is: it is sinful and it is really absent from the body and present in places of sin. “The kind of talk we relish indicates the kind of people we are” (Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Worker). “Some men’s sins are obvious, and are obviously bringing to them judgment. The sins of other men are not apparent, but are dogging them, nevertheless, under the surface” (1 Timothy 5: 24, Phillips). Will you confess to God that you like talking about indecent things and that you are indecent at heart?

Are you a Christian, a believer? Do you belong to Jesus? If you belong to Him, you must not talk of sinful things. Do you know that Jesus never gossiped or swapped scandals? He never had time for these. We have got to be like Jesus, if we claim Him as Lord. Since He never gossiped, it will not do for us to gossip. He was sinless and He would not spend time talking merely of the sins of other individuals as a pastime, though He did expose the sins of whole classes of people (Matthew 23:1-36). On the other hand, we who have so much to be ashamed of are yet so quick to tell stories about others. It seems to me that if there was somebody who had the right to tell stories about others, it was Jesus, but He did not do so. When the woman taken in adultery was brought to Him, He said, “He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7), but He Himself, though He was sinless, did not throw a stone at her. Jesus still says to us, “He that is without sin among you, let him be the first talk of the other’s sins”, while He Himself, though sinless, would never talk of anybody’s sins. If we are as honest as the scribes and Pharisees who had brought the woman taken in adultery, we would stop gossiping.

As Christians our business is to publicize the Good News, not bad news, or news about the bad. Let us talk about Jesus and not about sins.

Rationing of words

The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. . .a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (3:1, 7). There are indeed times when we must be quiet. But most of us spend most of our time talking mostly about nothing important. Sometimes we talk so much that we forget what it was we started talking about. Some of us do believe that there is a time for silence, but we just have not stopped talking since we began.

Someone has remarked that we have two eyes and one tongue, so that one would expect men to see twice as much as they talk, but the amount of talking men do would suggest that we have two tongues and one eye. This is especially apparent when giving an account of something we add to what we actually saw. I would snicker if only that were not true of me.

The Psalmist David prayed “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips” (Psalm 141: 3). When there is a watch, a guard, there can be no free movement. The guard sees to it that there is no unnecessary traffic at the door he is guarding. In other words, the Psalmist said, “God, keep my mouth shut when it is not necessary that it should be open, and when it is open choose my words for me.” I wonder as to how many of us would really say “Amen” to that prayer, because when we ask the Lord to do something, He does it most thoroughly.

James in his letter said, “A man may think he is religious, but if he has no control over his tongue, he is deceiving himself: that man’s religion is futile” (James 1: 26, NEB) . That letter was written to Christians, for James wrote it as “a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:1), and has things to say about how we should keep the faith of Jesus Christ (2:1). To us James says that if we are always giving tongue, if we are unrestrained and prodigal with our words, our religion has been vain and has accomplished nothing in our lives. A little later in his letter James says, “We all make mistakes in all kinds of ways, but the man who can claim that he never says the wrong thing can consider himself prefect, for if he can control his tongue he can control every other part of his personality! Men control the movements of a large animal like the horse with a tiny bit placed in its mouth. Ships too for all their size and the momentum they have with a strong wind behind them, are controlled by a very small rudder according to the course chosen by the helmsman. The human tongue is small, but what tremendous effects it can boast of! A whole forest can be set ablaze by a tiny spark of fire, and the tongue is as dangerous as any fire, with vast potentialities for evil. It can poison the whole body, it can make the whole of life a blazing hell” (James 3:2-6, Phillips). In the eighth verse of the same chapter James says, “The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison”. This is why he said in the beginning that if we can say our speech is perfect, then we are perfect in every respect, for if we can control that which is hard to control then anything can be controlled by us. He also says that the tongue affects the whole body. It affects the whole of life! How careful ought we then to be! The more we have control over our speech, the closer we are to perfection.

This does not mean that the dumb are perfect, for their silence is not by choice and they do have ways of communicating their feelings and desires. What they communicate will determine how far they are from perfection.

“He that hath knowledge spareth his words. . .Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding” (Proverbs 17 : 27, 28). If you are not conversant with what is being discussed, the wisest thing you can do is to keep your mouth shut. Those who are in the heat of discussion will not take notice of your silence. They will not know of your ignorance so long as you keep quiet. And even if they do notice your silence, it is wiser to maintain your silence than to make a fool of yourself. The trouble however is that we like to hear ourselves speak, and we seldom stay quiet even when we know we are out of our depth. Even the fool can pass for a wise man if only he keeps his mouth shut and his foolishness under wraps. The fool, however, will not do so, and becomes known for his foolishness. The exhibition of ignorance is foolishness. The mark of a wise man is that he is a man of few words, even when he is not out of his depth.

Old Quakers had a saying among them: “Never speak unless thou darst not keep silence”. If we never heed any other advice, let us heed this, and then maybe we will not need to be given further advice. Now let us see the wisdom of such saving of our breath.

“A good man thinks before he speaks” (Proverbs 15 : 28, Living Bible). James advises us “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1: 19). If we gave a little thought before speaking, then we would never have regrets, about what we have said. Do we not very often, “open our mouths and put our feet into them” and are then very sorry because we realize that a spoken word cannot be recalled? Someone has said, “Why be sorry, when you can be sensible?”

Why open our mouths in the first place? E. C. Mackenzie says, “It is seldom you hear one criticized for keeping his mouth shut”. “Keep your mouth closed and you will stay out of trouble” (Proverbs 21:23, LB).

One way to make sure that our words do not land us in trouble is to make sure that we think before we speak. “Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of him” (Proverbs 29:20). In other words, a man of hasty words is a greater fool than most other types of fools. In fact such a man is the greatest fool but one—that one who throws away his life for what the world can give (Luke 9:25).

Why is a man of hasty words a great fool? He is a fool because “those who love to talk will suffer the consequences. Men have died for saying the wrong thing” (Proverbs 18:21, LB). That is how important words are. How careful we ought then to be in our choice of words lest we offend someone and the offence should lead to misunderstanding, and maybe worse. “He guards his life who guards his lips: he who talks freely—it is ruin to him” (Proverbs 13: 3, Moffatt).

If we are hasty in our words, we shall also talk too much. The writer of Ecclesiastes thinks that an identifying mark of a fool is many words: “Many words mean that a fool is talking” (5: 3, Moffatt). Not only is a man a fool when he talks too soon, but he is also a fool if he talks too much, and then in his many words he only airs his foolishness and that is still greater foolishness.

The Bible not only tells us that talking too much is foolishness, but also that it is sinful. “Where words abound, sin is not wanting” (Proverbs 10:19, Moffatt). The more we talk, the more we are likely to sin in our talk, and the less we talk, the less likely it is that we will sin. So then, if we would keep from sinning in our talk we must keep from talking much. We now see that talking too much is not only foolish, but also sinful, and even if we do not care very much about not being fools, as Christians we must take care to keep from sin.

We have considered rationing or limiting our speech to just the absolutely essential. Before we close the chapter it would be appropriate to give thought to “abstinence” from certain words. Some words should be removed from our vocabulary, for they are not worthy of being used by Christians.

There was a time when gentlemen did not swear, especially in the presence of ladies. Today, however, even “ladies” swear and shamelessly take part in shameful, vulgar conversation. It seems to me that the term “lady” has undergone a change in connotation. It used to denote “a woman of refined manners”, but not any longer. Today it denotes a woman of social standing—and that does not demand “refined manners”. The writer was never more shocked than when he found himself in the company of three “gentlemen” and a “lady”, and the “gentlemen” used language that the writer thought should not be used, at least, in front of the “lady”, until he got a greater shock when “the lady” only giggled and was highly amused by it all. Since then the writer’s ignorance has been dispelled, for he has met other “modern ladies”. One hears a lot of talk about “the days of chivalry” being over. That is to be expected, for there are not many ladies left for gentlemen to be chivalrous about. The ladies of today can only attract vulgar gentlemen. They demand chivalry from men but cannot command chivalry.

The Son of God tells us that we ought not to swear at all. “I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven: for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth: for it is His footstool; neither by Jerusalem: for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black, but let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil” (Matthew 5:34-37). Where a plain affirmative or a plain negative would do, to add emphasis to your words with oaths is evil. There is also a suggestion here that if instead of giving a plain answer, a man beats about the bush, he would somehow give expression to evil.

The third of the Ten Commandments says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). That is a definite commandment and is therefore, not optional. Yet, so many use the name of God carelessly to give weight to their trivial words. Most Christians think they do not do this, but are careless in their usage of words. They do not say “God”, but they say “Gosh”, which is even worse for it is a vulgar version of the word “God”. The one who says, “Golly!”, is really saying, “By God!” Many use expressions like “Thank Goodness!” which smack of the teachings of those philosophers who regard the Godhead as something abstract, for instance, “Nature”, “The Supreme Good”, and the like. Some say, “Blimey!” which is a Cockney vulgarism meaning, “God blind me!” Such people are not without guilt in the sight of God.

There are some people who do not take the name of God in vain, but use expression like, “By Jove!” or “By Isis!” These are heathen gods. To swear by them is really to swear by the diabolic powers behind them (Deuteronomy 32:17; 1 Corinthians 10:20). The Lord has told us specifically, not even to mention their names (Exodus 23:13). To say, “The Devil!” is to swear by him. There is no guilt attached to taking his name in vain, but why use your tongue unnecessarily to take the name of God’s Enemy? Some Christians do not say, “The Devil!” but they say, “The Deuce!” or “The Dickens!” but it is all the same. Others use expressions like “What the hell?” or “What the heck?” (both mean the same thing) and use the name of the place destined for the Devil’s confinement to give vent to their surprise. If you say “Blazes!” you are really swearing by the fires of hell.

The Christian is here to save men from hell, and yet so many use “Damn!” and “Darn!” which mean the same. “Tarnations” is a softened form of “damnations” and “blasted” means “damned”. To say, “Blessed such and such”—is really saying euphemistically, “Confounded, or accursed, such and such”.

Gentlemen do not say things like, “You bloody fool !” but some say, “You blinking fool !” or “You blooming fool!” and have really said the same thing which they thought they were avoiding.

How careless some of us Christians have been! We have no guard over our mouths and so any old word will find its way out, provided it is being used by the respectable people of the world. The Christian must check on the words he uses, for it is not at all safe to use words, the meaning of which he does not know. A good principle would be to avoid using slang. This is an expedient abstinence.

When these words and their meanings were brought to the notice of a group of young people, most of the young people said that they used the words without knowing their meanings. The plea that the words were used in ignorance will not excuse us. Two verses in the fifth chapter of Leviticus—the third and fourth—tell us (something about) what God thinks about sins committed unknowingly. “…when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty”.

Some of the young people in the same group were of the opinion that if these words that we have been considering, were used meaninglessly, that is, without reference to their meanings, then there would be nothing wrong in continuing to use them. The way you or I use a. word does not make it lose or change its meaning. The words have meanings. That is a fact, and there is no getting round it. To others who know what these words mean they will convey just that meaning. They do not become meaningless, because we wish them to become so.

I repeat: these words that we have been considering are not worthy of Christians. Those who are not Christians may use them, but a Christian never. There were swear words and the like in the Lord’s days, but He never used them, and to those who are His disciples His command was that they should not swear at all, and a command is not optional. If you are His disciple, then that command is for you. You must either obey or disobey the command. Which will it be—obedience or disobedience?

Evil from evil

“It is impossible for a good tree to produce bad fruit—as impossible as it is for a bad tree to produce good fruit. Do not men know what a tree is by its fruit? You cannot pick figs from briars, or gather a bunch of grapes from a blackberry bush. A good man produces good things from the good stored up in his heart, and a bad man produces evil things from his own stores of evil. For a man’s words will always express what has been treasured in his heart” (Luke 6: 43-45, Phillips).

Jesus teaches us two things here. First, a good tree will produce good fruit, and only good fruit. Therefore if a tree produces fruit other than good fruit, it is not a good tree. Second what is stored up will come out. The first proposition convicts us of sin, the second gives us hope of deliverance from an evil tongue when our heart is set right, and stored with good.

A good tree will always produce good fruit and only good fruit. There is and can be no doubt about this. What is coming out of our mouths? Are they evil words or words about evil things? If the words are evil or have anything to do with evil, then the heart is thoroughly evil and needs to be cleansed, for the mouth only echoes the thoughts, the imaginations and the feelings of the heart.

In this book we are mainly concerned with, recognising slander for what it is, but it would not do to neglect to condemn other forms of wickedness in conversation; however, we will deal with only those that are typical of our day.

Evil men are thoroughly evil. Therefore we find that evil is characteristic of their mouth. “His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, oppression (fraud); under his tongue are trouble and sin (mischief and iniquity)” (Psalm 10:7, Amp. OT). God says to the wicked, “Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit” (Psalm 50:19). Their mouths spout out evil and take in evil. “The mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things. . .The mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity” (Proverbs 1:28; 19:28). They deal in evil. Either they are pouring out evil, or they are taking in evil with a coaxing or prompting word when someone else is recounting something evil. “Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked” (1 Samuel 24:13).

Wickedness does not proceed from the righteous, but from the wicked. If then we detect any wickedness at all in our conversation we ought to know that we are wicked at heart. Since the wickedness is of the heart we are incapable of good, or even reformation. What we need is regeneration. When we are born again of God, then we will cease our wickedness as we let Jesus Christ live the Christian life in us.

Dishonest conversation

There is a lot of dishonest conversation going on these days. I do not think that I need to dwell on the sinfulness of falsehoods. Even mere moralists condemn the telling of lies. However it must be said that today we are masters in deception. We tell no apparent lies, but tell half-truths, or keep silence, knowing that people will misunderstand the half-truths or the silence, and then we pride ourselves in not having told any lies.

In a book on how to succeed in anything, the author tells the reader that he may have studied at an unknown school or college, but there is no need to advertise this. What he should do is, read up about a well-known college, visit it, get to know people connected with the college and then in conversation drop chance remarks that may lead people to think that he has studied at the college. He writes: “On no account must you tell a lie. Nothing can be more wicked or indeed more foolish. You should aim rather to build up atmosphere. When you say, ‘I did no rowing at Cambridge—I dare say I worked too hard’, you will be telling the truth.”

This sort of thing is for all appearances not an untruth, but when we consider it, we know that it is deception, for it aims at deception. Suffice it to say that God judges by the intentions and not only by appearances. “Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16 : 7). “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17 :9, 10). Our methods and the fruits we gather are the things that God will judge us by. I confess that I am one of these masters of deception. I pray God to help me tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, at all times, for this is hard to do because of the possible ill consequences that could result.

Then, some people are always exaggerating or underrating. Let us face it. When we exaggerate or underrate our reports, they are not factual, not true to facts. They are untrue. Believers, in reporting on attendance at Christian meetings, have a tendency to overestimate the crowd, and that not slightly. We are guilty of lying.

In closing our consideration of dishonest conversations, it would be appropriate to quote A.W. Tozer’s book, Man, the Dwelling Place of God: “Montaigne said that a liar is one who is brave toward God and a coward toward man; for a liar faces God and shrinks from men. Is this not a proof of unbelief? Is this not to say that the liar believes in men but is not convinced of the existence of God, and is willing to risk the displeasure of a God who may not exist rather than that of man who obviously does?” Do we lie in our conversations with men? It only shows our disregard for God who knows the truth, and our disregard implies unbelief.

Silly banter

This is the commonest feature in most conversations now. A. W. Tozer writes, “One would naturally suppose that verbal intercourse with congenial friends should be one of the most profitable of all mental activities; and it may, have been so once, but no more. It is now quite possible to talk for hours with civilised men and women, and gain absolutely nothing from it. Conversation today is almost wholly sterile. Should the talk start on a fairly high level, it is sure within a few minutes to degenerate into cheap gossip, shop talk, banter, weak humour, stale jokes, puns and second hand quips. So we shall omit conversation from our list of useful intellectual activities, at least until there has been radical reformation in the art of social discourse” (Man, the Dwelling Place of God). It is the fool that talks foolishly. He pours out foolishness and feeds on foolishness.

How we waste our time with foolish and senseless talk! We are given to foolish talk that stems from our foolish imaginations. We spend so much time talking about nothing, because that is what everybody is excited about or will get excited about when we talk. Silly banter keeps this generation occupied. There is shallowness, but rarely depth to our conversations. We keep claiming to be thinkers and yet our conversations do not reflect any serious thinking. When tomorrow comes, what we have talked about will be forgotten, and the time spent would in no way have left us better for having talked so. Tomorrow we will talk about some other forms of nothingness. Our conversations are so empty. We who claim to belong to Jesus should have the abundance of the life He gives, and how then can we send out such an abundance of emptiness in our words? “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Can it be that we really have not known the abundance of life in Christ? Paul writing to Timothy said, “Avoid all empty (vain, useless, idle) talk, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness” (2 Timothy 2:16, Amp. NT). Let us not spend any more time talking about nothing in particular. Avoid useless talk if you wish to be godly.

The apostle wrote to the Ephesian Christians, “… let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking; nor jesting, which are not convenient…” (5:3-4). The Living Bible puts it this way: “Dirty stories, foul talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you”. Today a lot of this goes on, and what is worse, even women (not ladies, obviously) join in such conversations. I do not need to say much about this, for this sort of conversation is shameful, and what is shameful is not for Christians to participate in. Chandler said, “He (Paul) doth not condemn the innocent pleasantries and mirth of a cheerful conversation, but that kind of obscene discourse which we mean by the French expression double entendre; when men for the sake of merriment and sport, convey lewd sentiments and thoughts to others under chaste and cleanly expressions” (Bible Knowledge, Scripture Press, Jan-Mar,1957).

The book of Proverbs gives us good advice on how to keep back evil from spewing from the mouth. “If thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth” (30:32). That is a quaint way of saying, “Shut up!” If our thoughts have been evil, we cannot trust ourselves to speak for our words are now evil and capable of more evil. Let us detest wickedness of the lips. “Wickedness is an abomination to my lips” (Proverbs 8:7; read the book of Proverbs: you will find in it a lot of good advice on what our words ought to be and what our words ought not to be)

“He that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace and ensue in” (1 Peter 3:10-11).

The good tree does not produce bad fruit. If bad fruit are produced, the tree is not good. Therefore the tree must be made good. “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit” (Matthew 12:33). Let us then seek the Lord for cleansing. We will be cleansed, if and when we confess our need to Him. “If we freely admit that we have sinned, we find God utterly reliable and straightforward—He forgives our sins and makes us thoroughly clean from all that is evil” (1 John 1:9, Phillips). When He cleanses us, our hearts will be made clean and because our hearts are clean our talk will be acceptable to God Himself. This should be our prayer then: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord my strength and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

But remember this, that there is no forgiveness for perversity. “The perverse tongue shall be cut down…the mouth of the wicked knows (and therefore speaks only) what is obstinately wilful and contrary (Proverbs 10: 31-32, Amp. OT). The one who persists in employing his tongue in evil cannot be forgiven while he will not repent and turn from his evil, sinful speech. God is willing to forgive and cleanse him, but he does not want to be cleansed.

“Out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:45). We will see later what our talk will be like when God fills our hearts.

Gossip is as Bad as…

It is most probable that at some time or other in the past you have heard some preacher or other tell his audience that gossip is as bad as the worst crimes which law and society condemn. Even if you agreed in theory to this it becomes apparent that subconsciously you do not believe so and that is why you do continue to slander people. Why, it is almost doubtful that the preacher himself believes what he has said!

A well known preacher once told his listeners, “Another suggestion I have tonight, for both husband and wife, is—don’t gossip. You know, some children have roast preacher every Sunday for dinner? If you parents want to talk about your neighbours, do it in private. Don’t do it at all, but if you must, wait until the children are in bed. Gossip is a sin in the sight of God.” He says gossip is a sin, but he advises the parents that if they must gossip, they should do it when the children are not around. Can you imagine the preacher giving the same advice when it comes to other sins? Can you think of any preachers advising parents to murder their neighbours when their children are not there? Have you heard any evangelists telling parents to commit adultery, provided they do not do it in front of their children? I am not finding fault with the preacher, but what I am trying to drive home to you is this, that though most of us will verbally agree that slander is just as sinful as any of the other sins, subconsciously we do not believe so. This is why even some preachers do slander other people, or if they are not themselves slandering others, they will listen to tales about others, without any objections. In verses 29 to 31 of the first chapter of Romans is given a list of sins that people commit when they do not know God. In this list you will find fornication and murder. You will also find whispering and backbiting listed therein. God regards all these as indicative of a person not knowing Him, of not being acquainted with Him. Now turn to the third chapter of Romans. Verses 10 to 12 tell us that all are unrighteous, none understand, no one seeks God, all have strayed from God’s way and no one does good. Then the apostle mentions a few specific sins. He begins with the sins of the mouth. “Their throat is an open sepulchre” (v.13). What happens when a sepulchre is open? There emanates a sickening stench, and the stench is indicative of rottenness. When we talk, are our words foul or smelling of foulness? “They have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips.” This is a picture of the slanderer. He poisons people’s mind against others with his stories, usually lies. He bites to hurt. Only after this does the apostle say that “their feet are swift to shed blood” (verse 15). Paul lists sins of the mouth before murder; murder of character is mentioned before murder of life. Does that mean that slander is worse than murder?

Personally, I think slander is worse than the sin of the slandered. When we slander people it is really an expression of the same sinful desire, but the expression is “in reverse”. Instead of saying, “I wish to do the same”, you condemningly say, “I would not do it”; (though not in so many words, the slanderer’s attitude definitely conveys the idea that the slandered has done something, which he, the slanderer would never do). If one does not do certain things, all who know him, know that also, so that when a person begins to slander people, then one must look beyond the words, for there is something suspicious about the unspoken protestation that he is not like the slandered. He must be like the slandered, and therefore these protestations. What is more, the fact that he has given time to gather the slanderous information, and the time he gives to the recounting is indicative of how close it is to his heart. Psychologists call this “projection”. What is true of us, we see quickly in others.

What does this mean? It means that he has the same sinful desire, and over and above that he is hypocritical also. Slander in itself is sinful. Hypocrisy is another sin added. When you slander you are therefore guilty of hypocrisy also. “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). If your sinful desire is subconscious, your plight is worse, in that you cannot even recognise your sinful plight for what it is.

Here is something that should make us fear to slander. Paul writes, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1Corinthians 6:9). He is asking this question of the church at Corinth. That is, the question is posed to Christians. If we are doing what is unrighteous, we too must consider this question. (Paul mentions a few kinds of wickednesses, but the list is by no means complete for you will not find murder in it. So, let us not think that because slander is not mentioned, we can disregard the question). Paul does go on to say, “Such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Notice that the unrighteous natures “were” of the past. “Such were some of you.” He does not say that they are at present unrighteous, and at the same time washed and justified and sanctified. The Holy Spirit asks you a believer, “Do you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” Consider this question well and beware of slander, if you would keep your soul. Slander can spoil your whole life. Maybe you think that slander is a little sin. I will not argue with you about it. But according to the Bible, it is “the little foxes that spoil the vines” (Song of Solomon 2:15). And a little leaven leavens the whole. “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). Not only can your own life be spoilt, but if you continue in the local church, the life of your church will also get spoilt.

Slander: its Nature

There is always something secretive about slander. One does not slander people from the public platform except in the case of public figures, and then those who slander them make sure that it is the truth. But generally slander is spoken in hushed tones. The reason for this could be one of two reasons: either the slanderous information is false, or there is something shameful about it and the slanderer would not like it to be known that he discusses such things. If the slanderous information is not definitely the truth; then you are guilty of lying as well as slander, and slander is hypocritical as we have seen in the previous chapter, so that you are guilty of lying, slander and hypocrisy at the same time. If on the other hand you are ashamed of what you are saying when slandering, you will by no means lessen its shamefulness nor sinfulness by doing it secretly. God warns us in His Word, “Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off” (Psalm 101:5).

Slander is like wild fire. It spreads by leaps and bounds and is quite uncontrollable. There were two friends who were inseparable. One day one of them heard a story about the other and without checking on the validity of the story, told it to a third person. As the story flew from mouth to mouth it grew. At last it came to the ears of the friend. When he learnt of his friend’s part, he broke off the friendship. The man who was slandered fell sick and was on his deathbed. The one who had been his friend then came seeking his forgiveness. The dying man asked the other to take his feather pillow and scatter the contents in the garden. When the man did so and returned to the sickbed, the dying man asked him to go and regather the scattered feathers. “Impossible!” cried the other. The dying friend then said, “It is just the same with the story you’ve spread. While I forgive you, the evil done cannot be undone.” Slanderous stories cannot be recalled once they are abroad.

“Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell” (James 3:5-6). The tongue is an anointed member of the body. It is by nature anointed by fire, but by the fire of hell. How much care we should take to see that the fire is not fed by our words, for the more you feed it, the greater the havoc! It would be good to remind ourselves that the Bible says, “In a multitude of words there wanteth not sin” (Proverbs 10:19).

Slander always has a tendency to hurt the slandered one. Very often, a person enjoying good reputation is slandered. It is obvious that the real reason for the slander, the intent of the slanderer, is to bring such the slandered one to disrepute. The slanderer only desires to destroy the slandered (see Psalm 52:4). “The smear is the hardest thing to take in public life…in public life, if someone disagrees with you, it is assumed that he cannot have as good and worthy motives as you have. Shakespeare wrote, ‘Who steals my purse steals trash…but he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.’ The reputation must be kept sacred, not only for the sake of the man who is slandered, but for the sake of the man who slanders. In the end the latter is corroded and eaten up within and destroyed, more than the man who is his victim” (Walter H. Judd, “Laws to Live By”, Decision, August, 1968).

Slander is truly unnecessarily hurtful. The talebearer, the slanderer, hurts people very deeply by his traffic. (You will say, “What if it is true that he is such and such?” Maybe it is true, but that does not permit you to gossip about him. You are inexcusable. You can and must do something to correct him, if you are a Christian. Gossip never achieves this. Very often it will make the man want to continue in his sin, because he has been brought to disrepute and people will hold it against him always even if he should reform).

Some slanderers commute between two parties carrying tales from one to the other and back. Of course this person cannot resist touching up the story. He likes to leave his mark on it. He has always hated seeing people being more friendly with each other than with him and in order to separate them, he will colour the story very helpfully. He is very adept at it. He can separate the best of friends with his tales. “A forward mouth soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends” (Proverbs 16:28). Why be such a detestable person? Some day the truth will be known and then the friends whom you separated will be restored to each other. Their friendship will be stronger and you will be an object of their contempt. If you stop now from such activities, there is yet hope for you. Seek to bind friends together more firmly and you will find yourself being accepted by them more and more.

Let us recognise slander for what it is. It is deadly poison (Psalm 140:3). The bottle containing any poison cannot be used until thoroughly cleansed of all the poison. God cannot, God will not use us until we are cleansed of this poison. Watchman Nee writes, “We have spoken of various defects of character that mar the life and ministry of many Christians; but if our trouble is an unbridled tongue it is more serious than all the others we have mentioned, for the careless words the tongue utters release a deadly stream that flows on and on spreading death wherever it goes. Brothers and Sisters, in the face of such solemn facts we need to repent. Many words we have uttered in the past were ‘idle words’, but they are no longer ‘idle’; they are very busy now and are working great havoc” (The Normal Christian Worker, p. 50). If you want to be used of God, cleanse out the poison.

Slander is not always the truth. We shall deal with this more fully in a later chapter. Right now it will suffice to say that the Bible says, “Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better” (Ecclesiastes 10:11).

Paul wrote to Timothy saying that when the young have nothing to do they will engage themselves in gossiping. “They learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking thin gs which they ought not” (1 Timothy 5:13). They have no work, so they gossip. Here is the remedy then: if we always keep ourselves occupied we would not have time for gossip. One of the corollaries of the ninth commandment says, “Thou shalt not raise a false report” (Exodus 23:1) This is a specific commandment. Any sin is not merely wicked, but an act of disobedience to God. “Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Will you still persist in the wickedness of slander and disobey God and break His commandments? Paul writes, “Put them in mind…to speak evil of no man” (Titus 3 :1-2). He does not leave any room for evil speaking, true or untrue. It is a categorical statement. It is not even slightly conditional. Peter also says, “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies and envies, and all manner of evil speaking as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:1-2). Just as you would not take any harmful foods, so avoid slander which is evil, envious of the other’s good repute, hypocritical, dishonest and malicious. Instead feed on God’s Word. Do not say, you have nothing to do, for you can never say, “I have nothing more to learn from the Bible”.

Slander, lastly, is not charitable. Plain common sense would tell you that nobody slanders people they love. People slander only those whom they do not love. No one can slander and love the same person. Therefore, slander is the product of an unloving nature. It is a fruit that flourishes where there is no love. It is the fruit of hatred. “My brethren, do not speak evil about or accuse one another. He that maligns a brother or judges his brother is maligning and criticising the law and judging the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a practiser of the law but a censor and judge of it” (Jas. 4: 11, Amp. NT). James says that if we slander people we are setting ourselves above the law of God and passing judgment on the law, saying that there is no need to keep the law, but only to judge whether it is worthy of being kept or of not being kept. When a law is violated we affirm by our violation that the law is not binding and thus have passed judgment on it. What is this Law that James is talking about?

James uses the word law a number of times. Most of the times, it is with reference to our relationship to the law itself, as when he talks about the blessed man who is “a doer of the word” having looked into “the perfect law of liberty” (1:25) and as when he says that the one who offends in one point is guilty of breaking the whole law (2:10). But in verses eight and nine of chapter two the word law is used in connection with our relationship to our fellowmen (in the same manner as in our present text, 4:11): “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect of persons ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” When James therefore says that we are by our criticisms of our brethren setting ourselves above a certain law, it is the royal law regarding our relationship with our neighbour that he is talking about. We do not love the brethren we slander and by our slander we judge the law to not be worthy of our obedience. We think that God does not know what He is talking about and therefore we set aside His commandment. Slander is indicative of hatred of the one slandered and also a contempt for God’s law. “There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judges another ? ” (James 4:12).

Shall we listen?

Surely there is no harm in listening? If we only listen and do not repeat the scandal, surely we are not sinning? There is no wisdom in such questions. A conversation is between two or more persons, and nobody can converse without the other party’s permission (permission given in silence by the absence of protests) and co-operation. A successful conversationalist has the ears of his audience. If therefore the scandalmonger has your ears, he is a success, but he has a hearing because you give him one. You are responsible for what he says, for he only says what you permit by your hearing.

Someone has called gossip “ear-pollution”. Gossip is always about what is indecent. We have already seen that there is something shameful about slander, which is what gossip consists of. As ·we would avoid other forms of pollution, so let us, avoid evil descriptions of evil. As we would not eat from a garbage can, so let us not listen to solid polluted talk.

The things we listen to are an indication of the sort of people we are. We do not listen to what does not interest us. “A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue” (Proverbs 17:4). We live in a busy world. Very often we find that we do not have the time for all the things we would like to do. We are hard-pressed for time. We give time for what we consider worthy of the time we spare. Therefore, when we find and make time for gossip and slander, it shows how much value we set on these things. The more time we spend at these activities, the greater must be our regard for them, and some (maybe many) of us spend quite a lot of time gossiping. We must relish what we consume. “The words of a whisperer or talebearer are as dainty morsels; they go down into the innermost parts of the body” (Proverbs 18:8, Amp. OT). Watchman Nee says, “…let us note the kind of talk we enjoy listening to. In this way we can get to know ourselves, for the kind of talk we relish indicates the kind of people we are. Some people never confide in you because they know you are not the sort of person who would respond to what they have to say; whereas other people come straight to you and pour into your ears the latest information they have, because they have sized you up as being the type of person who wants to know that type of thing. You can judge yourself by stopping to note the things people come and talk to you about” (The Normal Christian Worker, p. 42). Why do you consider slander attractive, why does it attract you? Does it not reveal something personal? Thomas à Kempis, wrote in The Imitation of Christ, “Good men do not easily give credit to every tale; for they know that human infirmity is prone to evil (Genesis 8:21) and very subject to offend in words (James 3:2)”. But if you are evil, you (will) want to give credit to the evil tale.

What we listen to will affect our relationships with other people. Saul hated David, because he had listened to what others (wanting to harm him) said about David (1 Samuel 24:9). David bore a grudge toward Mephibosheth because he listened to the servant’s slander of Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 19:26-27). When we listen to slander, people will begin to use it to separate us from our friends.

The very fact that the question was raised as to whether we may listen or not, shows that we have our doubts about even listening to gossip. It is evident thereby that there is something questionable about the whole thing. We ask hoping that someone will say it is alright to listen, and then we will have an excuse for doing so, or rather, for continuing to listen to do so. But have you never read what Paul says about doubtful things? He said, “Let every man be fully convinced (satisfied) in his own mind…But the man who has doubts-misgivings, an uneasy conscience…stands condemned because he is not true to his convictions and he does not act from faith. For whatsoever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin-that is, whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful” (Romans 14:5, 23, Amp. NT). Even if some carnal Christian should reassure you that it is alright to listen to gossip, either by precept or practice, you have an inkling deep down in your heart that there is something wrong about gossip which makes it wrong for you, not only to talk slanderously, but also to listen.

Writing to the Christians at Corinth, Paul wrote, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not” (1 Corinthians 10:23). He was writing this in the context of those things that pertain to life in Christ. In Christ we have freedom. Note, that it is “in Christ” that there is freedom. There are certain things outside of Christ and these are not being considered. Slander and gossip are not “in Christ”, for Jesus never gossiped and he never slandered people. Therefore these are not even lawful, leave alone being expedient and edifying. Gossip and slander have never helped anyone to get closer to God, rather they have kept people from getting closer to God. In fact they have drawn people away from God because in taking part in gossip, one is occupied not with God and the things that belong to Him, but with the things that belong to the Devil. You have to be away from God and where the Devil is to listen to gossip.

What we listen to registers in our minds. What we listen to is assimilated into our very being. It becomes part of us and will manifest itself like all that is part of us. Someday what has been registered will stir our memory to words. What flows in will flow out some time. This will happen when we are not looking for it, and, we are not looking for it, as the question given at the beginning of the chapter indicates.

Oswald J. Smith writes in Challenge of Life, “Avoid the slanderer. He is a garbage collector and what he collects he must dump”. We could go on in the same line of thought. If you are a receiver for the garbage collector, you can and will have only what he has dumped to give away, namely, garbage. Watchman Nee said, “We need to be restrained in our speech; but if we are to exercise restraint in what we say, then we must exercise restraint in what we hear” (The Normal Christian Worker, p. 45).

Let us rather listen to what is worthy of a Christian. We need to have Christian ears, and then we will have Christian tongues. If we listen with unchristian ears, then our tongues will necessarily echo the unchristian words heard by our ears. Let us listen to what will help us on our journey to God’s kingdom. Let us listen to what encourages us toward God, instead of what keeps us with the world, sin and the Devil.

“Apply thine heart unto instruction and thine ears to the words of knowledge” (Proverbs 23 : 12). “The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge” (Proverbs 18: 15). Notice, that the prudent and the wise are identified by what they obtain and seek. So also, the Christian is identified by the things he seeks to hear and gather.

But you may ask, “How do we stop others from recounting scandals to us?” How do you stop anybody from telling you anything? You show your lack of interest and their fountain of words dries up. If you do not want to listen to scandals, you should show lack of interest. As long as you show the slightest interest in a scandal, you cannot expect the scandalmonger to give up what he has gained-an audience. If he tells you a scandal you are responsible in that you afford him an interested hearing. The Bible says, “The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue” (Proverbs 25:23).

A saint of God had a very effective way of silencing those who carried tales to her. Whenever someone told her something slanderous about another, she always said, “Come, we will go and ask if this true.” This would discomfit the talebearer. He or she would be taken aback and would begin to make excuses. But the saintly lady was not to be put off, for she would take the backbiter off to see the subject of the tale, and to enquire whether the tale was true. One could be sure that no one ever again made the same mistake of carrying tales to Hannah More.

Are you willing to listen to slander about others? Would you listen to the stories about you that go around? Would you give credit to them also? “Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken: lest thou hear thy servant curse thee” (Ecclesiastes 7: 21). As you would not listen to stories about yourself, so do not countenance stories about other people.

Gossip is not always the truth

“Allow me to select from among the words and actions of the best of men just what I choose, and to use what I have selected in any way I please, and I could make the man’s character like that of Judas Iscariot; I could poison the minds of his friends against him, and I could convict him before a jury of honest men. Just a sentence without the whole letter, just a saying without the circumstances, just an action without the reason, just the text without the context, just some judicious selection, and some judicious omission, and out of a man’s innocence you can create the plausible evidence of his wickedness” (John Watson, Respectable Sins).

Some have said that if there is slander, there must be an element of truth in all the slander. They say that it cannot be wholly untrue. Now, it must be admitted that while gossip is always indecent, sometimes it is also true. But it is a fact that the gossip never gives out the facts as they were. The gossip will leave his or her mark on any story he tells. The facts will be exaggerated. While admitting this people still insist that a scandal cannot be wholly untrue. They insist that there must be a fire where there is smoke. Not always; for after the fire is dead the smoke may hover in the air. You may say, “But the smoke shows there is, or has been a fire.” True, but it may have been only a tongue of flame and now even that is gone, so that to report that the smoke is billowing out would suggest that it was more than just a tongue of flame–and that is a definite departure from the truth. Moreover, a tongue of flame can have a very constructive purpose, unlike a raging fire that is not controllable. What I am trying to get across to you is that one can get so far from the truth that it would be right to say that the scandal is wholly untrue. Dan Bennett has said, “A gossip is a person who creates the smoke in which other people assume there’s fire” (“Quotable Quotes”, Reader’s Digest, May 1970)

Farmer Brown walked down the country lane on a bright morning. He was having his morning walk. It was customary for him to always smoke a cigar at this time. He lighted his cigar and having blown out the flame he threw the match stick on the grass bordering the lane. The grass was wet with the morning dew and as the glowing red end of the match stick hit the grass, it sizzled out and if one had observed closely–very closely–one would have seen a thin curl of smoke rising from that spot soon to disappear into thin air. It so happened that Tom who was as usual lazing about, noticed all this. He saw the thin curl of smoke and off he went to his fellows with the story that Farmer Brown had carelessly thrown a lighted match on to a haystack (the hay stack had been on the other side of the fence that separated Brown’s farm from the country lane) and that he had seen a cloud of smoke rising from it. His fellows, who were equally unoccupied, spread the story. As the story sped from mouth to mouth it assumed mammoth proportions. The haystack had burned down. The fire had spread to the standing corn and the barns. The stables had burned down with the horses in them. By evening the farmhouse with Farmer Brown and his family in it had burned down. All the while the subject of the story had gone about his daily rounds, and at evening he was enjoying the warmth of the fire in the hearth with his family.

Yes, the story was based on the fact that Farmer Brown had thrown away a glowing match stick. There is truth for you. But look at the story that got around. It started off with a very, very slight departure from the truth. That is all. It is so with gossip in many instances. However, the slanderous stories that get around are not as harmless as the story about Farmer Brown and the fire he was supposed to have started.

If a lie is repeated often enough, the liar, and all who hear him and repeat what they hear, will begin to believe that the lie is the truth and nobody can convince them otherwise. So even when a great many people assert that something is true, it is not necessarily true. Rather they themselves have come to believe in their lie. This is a very deplorable condition, for where one is not able to recognise one’s sin, one will not seek cleansing from it.

Earlier we quoted a verse from the book of Ecclesiastes, which said, “Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better” (10:11). No doubt the original only says that if a serpent bites before charming, it is useless to call a snake-charmer afterward, and says nothing about the babbler. But even in the original our attention is drawn to the fact that a snake will bite without a charmer. The snake does not bite because it has been charmed into doing it: that is, the snake will bite without encouragement. The Authorised Version may have an interpolation at this point, but still is very true, for experience tells us that for slander to get around it does not need any encouragement.

The Psalmist said, “False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not” (Psalm 35:11). That is contained in Scripture. You may not believe me when I say that slander is very often a lot of humbug, but you have to believe the Scriptures.

The Scriptures tell us that even Jesus did not escape being slandered. When He forgave sins, they said that He blasphemed (Matthew 9:3). When He released people from being possessed by devils, they said, “He casteth out devils through the prince of devils” (Matthew 9:34). Because He lived a normal life they said that He was gluttonous and a wine bibber (Matthew 11:19). Some were of the opinion that he was a deceiver (John 7:12). Others said that He was possessed of a devil (John 9: 48, 52). For giving a blind man his sight on the Sabbath, they said of Him, “This man is a sinner” (John 11:24). Did Jesus give people occasion for slander? He could challenge His listeners, “Which one of you convinceth me of sin ? ” (John 8:46) and there were none to answer. All the same they said He was a sinner when He healed on the Sabbath. If you want it that way, Jesus gave occasion for slander, by doing just what He did. Those who say slander must have an element of truth, would probably say that if Jesus did not forgive sins, if He did not heal on the Sabbath, and if He had not cast out devils, nobody could have said the things they did. For myself, ·I am glad that Jesus gave such occasions for slander, for I can have the assurance that my sins are forgiven and I can believe that Jesus can free me from any sinful bondage.

Take another case from Scripture. Joseph was thrown into an Egyptian prison on the charge that he had tried to seduce his master’s wife, whereas it was the other way (Genesis 39:7-20). According to the premise that there must be some element of truth which gave rise to the slander, Joseph must have been responsible in someway for the accusation that was brought against him. But Scripture holds him as one who was falsely accused.

Paul wrote in his first letter to Timothy that he suffered reproach (4: 10), and in his second letter to the church at Corinth, that he took pleasure in reproach for the Lord’s sake (12:10). Having seen Trophimus, an Ephesian, in the company of Paul, the Jews accused Paul of profaning the Temple by bringing “Greeks” (note that in the accusation it is not even “Greek”, but “Greeks”) into the Temple (Acts 21:28-29). Do you say that there must be some truth in all the slander? Yes, the stories are based on some facts, but the stories themselves are far, very far, from factual.

This is still the portion of Christians. The heritage that Christ has left us is that we are blessed when men accuse us falsely for His sake. “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake” (Matthew 5:11). He told His disciples that as His followers this would be their portion. “Remember the word that I said unto you: The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my sayings they will keep yours also” (John 15:20). We must not expect the world to treat us any better than it treated the Master. If the world treats us better than it treated the Master, then we had better check whether we are truly His servants.

Peter inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote, “For the time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you” ( 1Peter 4:3-4). The slander, the evil speaking arises because the Christian is different. He does not behave as he used to, and so the slander. Have you noticed how a wicked story about a good Christian goes the rounds quite quickly? It is because he is a good Christian, and his goodness condemns the rest, that they speak ill of him. Here I am not talking of those who use Christian language and speak as if they were Christians. Here I am not even talking about preachers, for it must be admitted that there have been preachers who swindle and are immoral. I am talking of those who are Christian in their behaviour, and yet because of their goodness have suddenly been brought to disrepute. The world watches such an one expecting him to give it up. It would like to see how long he can keep it up. When he does keep it up and looks like he will continue to keep it up, then the slander begins.

Then again there is slander that begins on false premises and must therefore be a false conclusion. A common example of this would be in what people say about friendship between the sexes, especially when the persons are young. Many people when they see a boy talking to the same girl twice-running decide that the boy and girl are going steady. It would not matter very much if they kept their suppositions to themselves. But they must let everybody know. They want to be the first with the news. And as the story goes from mouth to mouth, it burgeons and becomes quite abominable. The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us about the fool that “the beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness and the end of his talk is mischievous madness” (10 : 13).

The worst kind of liar is the one who tells enough truth to make people think that everything he says must be truth, who then goes on to tell a pack of lies and has people believing him. Such a person is able to do a lot of harm. The only way to prevent him from spreading his brand of poison is to refuse to listen to any slanderous stories true or untrue. This is the safest thing to do.

Slander that is invented is proof of the hatred that lies hidden in the heart. “A lying tongue hates those whom it has wounded and crushed, and a flattering mouth works ruin” (Proverbs 26:28, Amp. OT). Furthermore the lies reveal the nature of his own heart. “He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness: but a false witness deceit” (Proverbs 21:17). The nature of the lie shows the nature of the filthiness of his heart.

“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are His delight” (Proverbs 13:22). Are you an abomination to the Lord with your lies? Are you a person He detests? Seek to be His delight. I cannot understand how God can find delight in you and me who are His creatures, but all the same the Word of God tells us that He will be delighted with us if we are those who deal in truth.

But what of the one who listens to slander that is invented? He believes it in spite of facts. Usually he knows the person and his character and believes the slander in spite of his knowledge, because he wants to believe it. Can it be that he has, hidden in his heart, the sin being reported as the other’s characteristic, and would like to believe that the other is worse? Even when he does not know the person, can it be that he believes the slander because he wants to believe it is so? He believes that the other is guilty of the sin that has stirrings in the secrecy of his own heart. This is projection. Thomas à Kempis writes in The Imitation of Christ, “Good men do not easily give credit to every tale; for they know that human infirmity is prone to evil (Genesis 8:21) and very subject to offend in words (James 3:2)”. What you believe shows what kind of person you are. If you have a tendency to believe evil, then you must be evil. In fact, you have a tendency toward evil.

If we are true friends, then instead of believing all the evil we hear about our friends, we would show forth our love by total disregard of slanderous stories. “Charity…thinketh no evil…believeth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:5, 7). Most of the time evil is imagined or imputed. We condition ourselves to believe evil of a person by listening to gossip about him. All other words and actions of that person subsequently appear to be evil, when we are in this prejudiced state. Therefore, where there is love, we give the other a fair chance. We love and continue to love him. We believe the best of him. We can think no evil of him. We will dwell more elaborately on this in a later chapter. Lies have to be regarded as truth if they are to be successfully told. Lies cannot be successfully told where there is love.

To Abide in God’s Tabernacle

Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?

who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

² He that walketh uprightly,

and worketh righteousness,

and speaketh the truth in his heart.

³ He that backbiteth not with his tongue,

nor doeth evil to his neighbour,

nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

⁴ In whose eyes a vile person is contemned;

but he honoureth them that fear the Lord.

He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

⁵ He that putteth not out his money to usury,

nor taketh reward against the innocent.

He that doeth these things shall never be moved. (Psalm 15:1-5)

The Psalmist tells us that people who do not do any of the things mentioned in the above psalm will abide with God. However only verse three comes within our scope.

The words “abide” and “dwell” are words that have to do with the act of staying on at any place. So the question that the Psalmist asks may be worded thus: “Who can (will be allowed to) stay on with God?” If we have gained an entrance, but there is something to be done if we wish to stay on at that place. (Read the appendix to find out how the entrance is gained).

The man who was allowed to stay on with God is one “that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour”. According to this psalm then, the person who speaks ill of his neighbour behind his back, or who gives ear and tongue to a scandal about his neighbour will not be allowed to stay on with God.

But maybe you are banking on the fact that you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, and think that now no matter what you do you cannot be banished from God’s presence. You are saved. Maybe; but what is salvation? Is it merely salvation from hell? It is more than that. Salvation is also from all that belongs to hell. Sin belongs to hell. Therefore sin must have no part in you. If it has part in you, then you are not saved. (This does not mean that the moment you are saved you become perfect. It means that sin is fighting a losing battle in you. As you grow in Christ, sin has less and less space in you. If however you neglect to root out the sin in your life by the power of Jesus Christ, then you will be enslaved by it and will go to your end: hell).

Has your being saved made a difference in your life? If it has not made any difference in your life, how are you saved? Salvation must be a salvation from something. If you are saved from hell, you must also be saved from what was heading you toward hell.

And since the nature of man abhors a spiritual vacuum, when sin has lost its place in a life, it must be replaced by righteousness or else the sinless life can degenerate into a more sinful life than it was before. Man is always growing. If there is no growth toward the better, he must grow toward the worse. Jesus taught a parable about this. He said, “When a demon is cast out of a man, it goes to the deserts, searching there for rest; but finding none, it returns to the person it left. And finds that its former home is all swept and clean. Then it goes and gets seven other demons more evil than itself, and they all enter the man: And so the poor fellow is seven times worse off than he was before” (Luke 11:24-26, LB). This man out of whom the demon had been cast out, was a cleansed man, but there was no occupant to take the place of the demon. So when the demon returned, there was nobody to bar its entry. If we are not occupied with righteousness, our idleness in the spiritual realm will leave us free to return to being occupied with sin.

We are saved from sin, and we are saved for God. Therefore righteousness must have a place in our lives. “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Peter 2 : 9).

The letter to the Hebrews in the twelfth chapter tells us that because a “cloud of witnesses” that have gone before are watching, we are to lay aside our “besetting sin” and “run with patience the race that is set before us” by “looking unto Jesus” who endured the cross and the shame of being identified with sinners. By reminding ourselves of what He endured we will not grow weary and faint. Reading on, we then come to verses 14 and 15, which tell us, “Follow…holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God” (Hebrews 12:1-3, 14-15). Holiness is required. Do not think that the Lord will excuse a lack of holiness on the Day of Judgment. Peter wrote in his letter, “If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judgeth according to everyman’s work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear/reverence” (1 Peter 1:17). He is just. He will pass judgment according to your life. Have you proved to be a Christian, will be the consideration.

Some Christians think that once they have put their trust in Jesus, they have nothing to be concerned about. They can live as they please, and yet be sure of getting to heaven. Listen to Peter, who inspired by the Holy Spirit says, “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1: 5-11). The apostle tells us that to our faith in Christ must be added virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, and charity. If these things are lacking, then we have forgotten that we were purged, that we were thoroughly cleansed from our old sins. So make sure of your ca11ing and election; that is, make sure of your salvation. If you do so then you will not fall away, and in the end you will be allowed into Jesus Christ’s kingdom. A plain understanding of English will tell us that here is more than a mere suggestion that if you do not take care you will fall away and fail to enter the kingdom of Jesus Christ. This is why when we read on to the twentieth verse of the second chapter of the same letter we find Peter saying, “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse than beginning”. In the Bible we are continually exhorted to abide in Christ and to be overcomers over the Devil, sin and the world, and all the promises of God are made to those who abide in Christ and to those who overcome. Let me draw your attention to one of the promises Jesus makes to the one who overcomes. “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels” (Revelation 3:5). To the overcomer is given the promise that his name will not be blotted out of the book of life. If there is no such possibility of losing the promise of eternal life for one who having put his trust in Jesus, returns to sinning, why should Jesus say that? It would be foolish wasting of His breath. Take heed then. To put it in plain language: beware.

John wrote in his first letter: “little children, abide in him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” (2 : 28). Abide! Continue! Only then will you stand unashamed in Christ’s presence at His coming.

Paul wrote to the Colossians, “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in (the splendour of His) glory. So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members-those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is engaged in sin, sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God) (Colossians 3 : 4-5 Amp. NT).

If you are to stand with Christ on that glorious day, then you are to put to death certain things in your life. Among these things is impurity. Slander is indicative of the impurity of the heart, It is only when the slander ceases that we can be sure that the impurity is removed.

Do slander and gossip continue to have a place in your life? They should not be there in a Christian’s life. If they continue, then you are in great spiritual danger. For the one who wishes to make God’s dwelling his dwelling, for the one who wishes to stay on with God, these things must go. It is only the man who is free from these that is permitted to stay on with God. Remember that the holy God cannot stand wickedness. Therefore you must either part with your wickedness to stay with God or the wickedness can stay but you must leave God. It is in the way of righteousness that there is life (Proverbs 12:28).

“Thou givest thy mouth to evil and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God” (Psalm 50:19-23).Let us not think that because God is patient with us, He approves of our action, or does not mean to judge us. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). God is patient with us and delays the time of judgment that we may have the opportunity to repent. “Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? ” (Romans 2:4). God has given you time to give up gossip and slander. Do not waste that time.

Be a Friend

“A man that hath friends must show himself friendly.” This is a faulty translation of Proverbs 18:24. (See modern translations). All the same there is a lot of sense in it. If we want to continue to have friends we must be friendly and make sure they stay our friends. But “you can’t keep your friends if you give them away”.

Listen to the anguished cry of the Psalmist: “It was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company” (Psalm 55:12-14). A friend who had prayed with him, such a friend had reproached him. If it were an enemy the reproach could have been borne. But to think that a friend had done this was painful. Some of us need to realise that we need to treat our friends better than we do. Before we can learn to love our enemies we must love our friends. Loving enemies is harder and if we have not learned to love our friends, how will we ever love our enemies? If we reproach our friends, we should not be surprised when they do not want us for friends. To regain their confidence is going to be well-nigh impossible. “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city” (Proverbs 18:19).

Let us therefore be friendly and loving. Among other things, charity (or love) “believeth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7). Love believes the best about a person. Love believes and regards all things lovingly. It sees everything in love-light. It “bears all things” and yet believes and hopes for the best. It has faith in the triumph of good. Love does not believe anything and everything, for it “thinketh no evil” ( 1Corinthians 13:5). It does not think up evil. So long as it has no valid reason for believing the worst, and no valid reason for not believing the best, it will believe only the best. This is because love has no pleasure in evil. It does not revel in evil, but in good. “Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). Believe the best of a person and never listen to slander and gossip. Your opinion of a person is not to change because of hearsay. Refuse to believe hearsay. We who claim to have love, have we this capacity to believe the best of all men? If we do not have this capacity, what we have is not love, but something else.

“…The people who influence you are the people who believe in you. In an atmosphere of suspicion, men shrivel up, but in that atmosphere they expand, and find encouragement and educative fellowship. It is a wonderful thing that here and there in this hard, uncharitable world there should still be left a few rare souls who think no evil. This is so different from the world. Love ‘thinketh no evil’, imputes no motive, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every action…To be trusted is invaluable and if we try to influence or elevate others, we shall soon see that success is in proportion to their belief of our belief in them. For the respect of another is the first restoration of the self-respect a man has lost. Our ideal of what he is becomes to him the hope and pattern of what he may become…’rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth’…It includes, perhaps more strictly, the self-restraint which refuses to make capital out of others’ faults; the charity which delights not in exposing the weakness of others, but ‘covereth all things’; the sincerity of purpose which endeavours to see things as they are, and rejoices to find them better than suspicion feared or calumny denounced” (Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World).

What are we going to be: friends or talebearers? These two are contrasted in the Bible, and we shall now take the space to see the opposing characteristics of the two kinds of people, so that we may avoid being talebearers and strive to be friends.

“Hatred stirreth up strifes; but love covereth all sins…he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends” (Proverbs 10: 12; 17: 9). Love does not expose people. (However, it does correct). The tale carrier on the other hand will run to and fro with his wares. He finds pleasure in stirring up strife between two persons. He listens to one, carries a distorted tale to the other and from the other he returns with a like distorted story. What does he get? The enjoyment of seeing friends fall out. This is a hateful business and when the talebearer’s activities are discovered he is despised and hated.

Christian workers specially must keep confidence. To break confidence is the violation of a person’s trust. “A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter” (Proverbs 11 13). Keep confidence. This is a mark of the friend. To disrespect confidence is to cripple your person-to­person ministry. Sooner or later people will discover your unfaithfulness in the matter and will no longer confide in you. The worker who finds himself distrusted has stopped being useful to the Lord. People shrink from such a person and the Lord must use another if He is to reach them.

In connection with this matter of keeping confidence we will take some space to deal with what we shall call “third party counsellors and counselling”. Let us say that Mr. A has come to know of a fault of Mr. B. Now there is Mr. C, who is older, or perhaps a Christian worker. So Mr A goes to him and tells him about Mr B. Is this right?

The Lord said that if a brother is at fault, we must first of all tell him the fault between him and us when by ourselves. If he listens and gives heed, a brother is won, and no one need be unhappy. However, if the brother does not listen, then we are to visit him with two or three “elders”. If he refuses to listen to them, the church must come to let its influence bear on him. If he still refuses to listen, he is to be treated as a heathen, and a publican (Matthew 18:15-17).

Mr. A did wrong in going straight to Mr. C, “the third party counsellor”. But Mr. C is also in the wrong. He knows that Jesus Christ had said that Mr. A must try to win Mr. B by himself. He should have found out whether such an effort had been made. If the effort had not been made he should have refused to listen. But too often Mr. C’s curiosity gets the better of him, and he asks leading questions to find out things.

This “third party counselling” is a lot of humbug. It is just plain hypocrisy. Mr. A just wants to share a bit of slander with Mr. C and goes to him tor “counsel”. Mr. C (sub­consciously) desirous of hearing the story pretends to counsel. “An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour” (Proverbs 11:9).

Under the guise of concern a brother is run down between the A-s and C-s of this world. The C-s are more to blame than the A-s. It is known that C-s have a ear for slander in the name of counselling and so it is that the A-s go to them. All the while there is no real concern for Mr B. Mr A is only concerned about letting Mr C know what sort of a fellow Mr B is, and Mr C is only interested in knowing the slanderous details of Mr B’s life.

But if we will do the will of the Lord, and if we have any of God’s love in us, let us stop this hypocrisy and go straight to the brother concerned rather than seek “counsel”. Also, Christian workers must refuse to “counsel” until the first man has himself tried to win his brother.

Even then let the Christian worker not come to any conclusion about the matter until he has heard the other side of the story. We are so quick to condemn the brother or sister who is the subject of any slander. But here is something we can learn from the prayer of a Sioux Indian: “Great Spirit, help me never to judge another until I have walked in his moccasins for two moons.” Until we know all the facts, until we can put ourselves in the other ‘s place, until we have learned to be compassionate, we must not judge anyone. If we fulfil all these, our judgment will be just. “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him” (Proverbs 18:13). The American Translation edited by J.M .P. Smith puts it thus: “Do not answer before you hear, and do not interrupt in the middle of what is being said.”

A friend is loving. Such a one regards another with love. Love sees beyond evil. lt does not think evil. It does not concoct evil. Love has no pleasure in evil. It has no interest in evil. Rather it is interested only in what is good. Love patiently bears everything, but believes—believes in the person, the object of the love.

Jesus Christ was “the friend of sinners”. He says, “Come, and I will make you fishers of men”. If you will be a fisher of men, you must be a friend like Jesus was to men.

Dedication of the Small Member

If thus far our conversations have consisted mainly of slander, and if that is removed, what shall we converse about, for converse we must? We are humans and it is characteristic of humans to converse. It is our main occupation in life, taking up more time than anything else. We cannot stop conversing with people while we live in the society of other men. So then, what shall we converse about?

What you are, the sort of person you are, must and will determine your conversation. The book of Proverbs contrasts the talk of the good and the bad people. The wise man disperses wisdom at the mouth, but not so the foolish man. “In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found…wisemen lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction” (Proverbs 10:13-14). The just and righteous men have their own kind of talk, while the perverse are so in speech also (Proverbs 10: 31-32). In like manner, if you are godly, your conversation will be godly—it must be godly. If you are a Christian then there must be something to identify your conversation as Christian. When people listen to your conversation they must know that you are a Christian. It must not be thought that this means that every time you converse you have got to ask persons: “Are you saved?” Your conversation, your whole conversation, must be Christian. You may talk about commonplace things, but the way you talk will tell. And then, your talk must sooner or later (quite naturally) veer to spiritual matters.

So “now ye also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth” (Colossians 3:8). Swearing and communication of filthy matters are to be given up. But we are not merely to put off filthiness; we are to put it off for the sake of godliness. “Laying aside all malice and all guile, hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speaking, as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word” (1 Peter 2:1-2). If we put off slander, we would find some more time for the Word of God. How little time we spend in the study of God’s Word! We excuse ourselves saying that we cannot find very much time. Oh, how much more time we would have if we cut out slanderous conversations from our daily schedule!

“Immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:3-4, RSV). It is not becoming that saints should be immoral or covetous. But neither is it becoming for them to trade in filthy, silly talk and jesting of the same description. If we give up the many hours we spend in these we would find time to commune with God. How little time we spend praising God! We do go to Him with our needs, but when we have no pressing needs to present to Him, we have no praises either. Oh, we do sing, but too often it is because we enjoy singing, rather than because we mean to praise. If we made a conscious effort to give up these sinful conversations, looking for divine help all the time, we might also begin consciously to praise God.

When people listen to us do they get blessed by the mere hearing? “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29). Our talk must not merely lose its sinfulness, but it should also begin to impart edification to the listeners. If we do not thus bless people, we have not truly followed the One who always imparted blessings to people by talking with them.

We must put off sinfulness in our conversations, give more time and attention to Bible study and praising God, and be a blessing to people through our conversations with them. And when we do talk, what exactly shall we talk?

“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8). The things that ‘we think about will in some way or other colour and even feature in our conversations and if we give thought to all that is true and honest and just and pure and lovely, what a lot we should have to talk about more than enough for us to never have time for slander again. If you are talking about the untrue, the dishonest, the unjust, the impure and the unlovely, then others will know what you keep thinking about and what you enjoy thinking about. When you think that you are exposing somebody else, it is actually your own filthy mind that you expose. This does not mean that you must put on the air of one who thinks about what is good, for that will be seen to be unnatural. Rather, begin actually to give more and more thought to that which is good.

Let us dedicate our tongues to God. They are such small members and yet how much an instrument of good or evil they can be! To leave them undedicated is to leave room for Satan to use them. Let us then dedicate them to God’s use and to the worship of God. If we dedicate our tongues to God, we cannot also slander people. When we do not slander, we cut off our offerings to Satan (for that is what we have been doing). When we stop slandering, and dedicate our tongues to God, then He will Himself help us in making offerings to God with our tongues.

Appendix

Entering into a personal relationship with God

In our chapter, “To Abide in God’s Tabernacle” we were dealing with how to maintain the personal relationship with God that we had entered into sometime prior to reading this book. However, some of our readers may be wondering as to how one begins to have a personal relationship with God. For their benefit, this chapter has been appended.

It may be that the reader does not have a personal relationship with God. You have just a nodding acquaintance with God. You visit Him at church once in a way. At crises times you feel desperate because you have no assurance that God will come to your aid. When the crisis is past, life returns to normal. You do not bother God, and He remains in the church. When you think about it such a relationship is not at all satisfying. You would like the relationship between God and you to be more than just a nodding acquaintance.

In order to enter into a personal relationship with God, in which He is more like a companion than a distant, impersonal Being, one must first of all remove all barriers to such a companionship. What kind of things can act as barriers between us and God?

“Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you so that He does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2, RSV). Our sins come between us and God. The first step would then be to recognize that there is this barrier between us and God and only then will we think of removing it.

“What is sin”, you ask. Sin is anything short of God’s own standards. Thus “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

And yet, there is hope for all to have fellowship with God, because “for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, RSV). Knowing that we cannot meet His requirements, God decided to credit His own righteousness to our account. He decided to clothe us with His righteousness so that we can be reckoned righteous.

This was accomplished in Jesus Christ. God became human in the person of Jesus, and cancelled our sin by paying the penalty of sin on the Cross and then the righteousness of Jesus was credited to our account. Thus “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:21).

There remains only one more thing to be done. We have to respond in thankfulness to God. We have to call to Him, as an acknowledgment that we cannot meet His requirements, and need the righteousness of Jesus which is available to us for no effort of our own, but for the asking. “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13)