The Slanderers and the Proud-Hearted

The Slanderers and the Proud-Hearted

He who slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence. He who has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure…….. Psalm 101:5

Last night, while watching a few minutes of a movie called “Mean girls” starring Lindsay Lohan, I was struck by a very typical facet of human nature – the tendency to say something bad about a person behind his back. In the movie, there was a scene of utter chaos in the high school, when a book containing gossip about almost each and every girl student was revealed for all to see.

No one fully understands this part of human nature. Perhaps it makes one feel better about himself to put someone else down, or maybe it’s just a way to grab the attention of a friend. Newspapers depend wholesale on stories of gossip and negativity, scandals sell like hotcakes, and bad news always hits the headlines.

However, Scripture is clear that we must not follow this path, and the first part of the verse clearly shows God’s contempt for the practice of malicious gossiping.

Psalm 15:1-3 reads:-

  LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
       Who may live on your holy hill?

 He whose walk is blameless
       and who does what is righteous,
       who speaks the truth from his heart

 and has no slander on his tongue,
       who does his neighbor no wrong
       and casts no slur on his fellowman,

Whoever wishes to live with God must not have slander on his tongue or speak bad things about his fellow man.

How then can we control our tongues? Although man has tamed almost every creature on the land and in the sea, he cannot tame his tongue. With our tongues, we praise God and we curse men, it has the power of life and death…. Yet, we use it, oh so flippantly. What we speak is from the overflow of our heart, and our heart is deceitful indeed. However, with God, nothing is impossible, and if we continually submit our hearts, our minds and our hearts to Jesus, we will be transformed into a different person.

Still, first of all, we must acknowledge this sin in our lives, and make a firm decision in our hearts to stand up against it. The Bible says that no temptation has seized us beyond what we can bear, and that with Christ, we can do all things, including controlling our speech.

The second part of the verse also helps us do that. If we are proud and impatient, we will be quick to accuse and complain and slander. If we are humble and patient, we certainly have more control over ourselves. Let us then, pray for and cultivate humility and patience, for when we consider others as better than ourselves, we will be less inclined to slander them.

May our Lord Jesus be with, and transform us by the renewing of our minds each day, as we continue our walk with Him.

God bless,

Jason