Hurtful Words

Good Morning,

I recently wrote a few lines about gossip and am compelled again to further address the matter of our response to sin or the behavior of another.  

Satan is called the “accuser of the brethren.” (Revelation 12:10) I certainly do not want to join his team by doing the same.  

I do not want to be responsible for anyone going to Hell.  As a teenager, I worked one summer for the California road department.  At only sixteen years of age, I could not run the big equipment, but I could hold a sign that said stop or slow. While working that job, I sat at lunch with the men. One man talked about the local pastor who borrowed his truck and returned it with almost no gas. As an unsaved sixteen-year-old, that statement became significant to me.

I am thankful for my parents; for when I heard that statement, rather than joining in the criticism of the pastor or hating Christians or churches, my first thought was, “I need to be sure to always return borrowed trucks full of gas.”  

If I had accepted this comment (or any others like it), I might have tossed out the idea of church for my future.  Sadly, I could have been sent to hell by the critical gossip and slander.  The story may have been true.  The actions of the pastor seemed to be wrong from the little information we were given, but one day, that man might have faced God with my blood on his hands!  

If a problem exists, fix it.  The scenario might have been an oversight.  Perhaps the pastor told someone else to fill it with gas, and it was not done.  Yet, here I am, fifty-two years later, thinking about that pastor who borrowed a truck and did not fill up the gas tank; and truly, I know none of the facts, just the comments from one gossiping critic.  

Thankfully, I did not seriously take the words to heart, and I still got saved a few years later.  By the way, that pastor was a great help to me early in my Christian life. 

When we criticize another, we set ourselves up as judges.

James 4:11 “Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.”

vs. 12 “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?”

When we criticize or judge another we are forgetting that we will all face Christ at the Judgment Seat.

Romans 14:4 “Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.” 

vs. 10 “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”

The text concludes with a dreadful warning:

Romans 14:12 “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

There is no way of knowing how many people heard slander or criticism, and Satan used those comments to keep people from church or from getting saved.  Potentially, a crybaby complaining about gas in his truck is now facing God for a family who went to Hell because of his whining and gossip.  

Satan loves slander, gossip, half-truth accusations, and hurtful words.   

Pastor