They are all going to come to the same conclusion: your words KILL!

Transcription

1 1 James 4:11-12 Critical speech but words will never hurt me It didn t take much. Just a few careless words. Even though the young mother had not been entirely well since the birth of her second baby, she was happy. They were a simple family, humble, living in a small town in North Dakota. The neighbors knew the warmth in their hearts and would see the husband and father being met at the gate by his wife and two little children. There was laughter in the evening, too. And when the weather was nice, the father and the children would romp together on the back lawn while mother looked on with happy smiles. One day, a completely untrue story made its way to the young mother s ears. Her husband was unfaithful, so she heard, and it was more than she could bear. That night, the husband was not met with laughter at the gate and delicious smells from the kitchen. There was only coldness that chilled his heart as he made his way to the basement to find them hanging from the wooden rafter beam. A few careless words led to irretrievable alienation and death. I know it s a horrid picture, but it s a true story and I want this picture to grab you deep inside. We are in the book of James but I don t want you to turn there this morning. I want you to turn to 2 Samuel 10. As you do that, I want to read the first phrase of our passage from James this morning while you are keeping in your mind this picture of a few careless words and a family hanging from a basement beam. Verse 11 is clear. Do not speak evil against one another. Do not slander one another. Do not talk down to one another. Do not criticize or judge one another. All of these are legitimate translations or interpretations of this text. They are all going to come to the same conclusion: your words KILL! Now look with me at 2 Samuel. I want the picture to be palpably clear before we even begin to exegete. NIV 2 Samuel 10:1 In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. 2 David thought, "I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me." Recall that the Ammonites are generally enemies of Israel, but Nahash had treated David well and David wanted to repay the kindness.

2 2 So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father. When David's men came to the land of the Ammonites, 3 the Ammonite nobles said to Hanun their lord, "Do you think David is honoring your father by sending men to you to express sympathy? Hasn't David sent them to you to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?" Lock onto these phrases. The Nobles say a few words without sufficient understanding. They criticize David. They denounce him. They speak evil of him. So what happens? 4 So Hanun seized David's men, shaved off half of each man's beard, A greatly humiliating act. Even if you didn t know that was an attack on their dignity you probably could figure it out by the end of the verse cut off their garments in the middle at the buttocks, and sent them away. I am not even sure what to say about that. 5 When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, "Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back." They couldn t even come back into town. They had to stay until their beards grew back. These men were humiliated by a few horrible words by Hanun s nobles. 6 When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench in David's nostrils, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maacah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob. Now David is ticked, but it doesn t even seem there is a plan to do anything yet. Instead the Ammonites make the second move too. Hiring mercenaries. So now David brings out the big guns. 7 On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. 8 The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance to their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the open country. 9 Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. 10 He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother and deployed them against the Ammonites. 11 Joab said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you. You hear what is happening here? A ton of Ammonites and a ton of Syrians (Arameans) and a ton of Israelites are about to start killing each other because of a few careless words.

3 3 Skip to vs 17. There s been some fighting, some fleeing, some regrouping. 17 When David was told of this, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan and went to Helam. The Arameans formed their battle lines to meet David and fought against him. 18 But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers. He also struck down Shobach the commander of their army, and he died there. More than 40,000 people are dead from poor choice of words. Skip to 11:1 for just a second. NIV 2 Samuel 11:1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. (2Sa 11:1 NIV) The people of Aram defeated, the country of Ammon decimated. Because of words. Someone spoke evil of another and thousands upon thousands are dead. A woman and her children hanging; thousands destroyed; and we say stupid things like Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will kill us in ways never imagined by the rock thrower. They will step on our heart and crush our spirit and steal our hope. Brothers, DO NOT SPEAK EVIL AGAINST ONE ANOTHER! Jam 4:11-12 NIV 11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your neighbor? What does it mean to slander? I have already mentioned that this word slander (in the NIV) has a range of meaning that is greater than slander. Slander means to say something untrue about someone, but the word we have here is more than that: it is Katalaleo it is literally kata = down and laleo=speak. Macarthur says the word is onomatopoeia in that it is meant to sound like gibberish. La la la. It is not the normal word for speak lego which is the verbal form of logos, word, logic, center etc, but is less formal, less strict, less firm. It may even connote a kind of careless, illogical sense. I think he might be overemphasizing the use of this word, but it surely means at least to speak down to. To be critical, to speak against. It s words used to hurt someone. It might be that simple.

4 4 A pastor s heart And note this as well: brothers! James has just finished a tirade of sorts, calling these people adulteresses, but now he comes back to the more friendly and endearing term brothers. And he is going to use it three times in this verse so let s recall again the context. James is speaking to the church. Specifically to teachers in the church who are out for control, and lack humility and use words to hurt. Don t forget the first 12 verses of chapter 3 are all about the use of the tongue and how it turns a ship or a horse and burns down forests it is a powerful force for good or for evil. And it is being used by these teachers in the church to the detriment of the church. James is nothing if not a pastor. He loves his people and he is scared to death. He is scared that they will not heed his warning and the church of God will not remain a light to the nations. The church will cease to shine. God s children will be so wrapped up in themselves and quarrelling and speaking evil against one another that they won t have time to take care of widows and orphans and show their community that they are different. That they live in light of the resurrection. What s going to happen if they speak evil of one another? James may not be clear but we know the answer it s more than a sin, it s more than dishonoring God although these are huge enough. The practical result is that the church will die. Because relationships die when people hurt others with their words. Why ought we not to speak evil of one another? John Blanchard organizes the answer memorably: 1. Because of the partnership it spoils. 2. Because of the precept it smashes (I changed that a little) 3. Because of the prerogative it seizes 4. Because of the presumption it shows 1. It spoils partnerships Relationships can t be sustained when evil is spoken. Friends, we can t speak evil of one another because we are brothers and sisters. We are a group of people for whom Christ has died. (Romans 14:15). We are unified for a reason to proclaim and placard the blazing center of the cosmos the God of creation, the God of history, the God of the cross, the God of our puny and yet very valued lives. Brothers and sisters, hear this clearly. Be careful how you speak. Why ought we not to speak evil of one another? 2. Because it smashes precepts We find this in verse 11.

5 5 The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. The law is filled with precepts. What law are we talking about here? I think the answer is obvious if you have been following James throughout. It s Leviticus 18, Love your neighbor as yourself. You surely wouldn t want others to speak evil against you, so why would you do it against another? How can you, a Christian Brother, speak evil against one made in the image of God? It s senseless. It s ludicrous. The whole reason we have mouths is so that we might proclaim the goodness of God. So that we might lift up our neighbor whose very existence is a testament to the goodness of God. Eph 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 1 Th 5:11 encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. Are you an encourager? Or do you smash precepts while smashing people? 3. It also seizes the prerogative of God God makes laws how he sees fit, but these laws are based on his character. Precepts are based on principles which are based on the person of God. They aren t arbitrary, they are designed for the good of his people. Bobby Brown, Uncle Andrew, and I am above the law And here come his people, clay molded by the potter, and we decide it s okay for us to smash the other clay people and not abide by the precepts given. We say with Bobby Brown, it s my prerogative. I can do what I want to do. (Yes I can quote late 80s music because my parents could no longer keep me from pop music since I had a car) This is madness, but it s what we do. We decide whether this or that law should be obeyed. Don t ignore this. This should be sobering. You know that sign on the highway that says Road work ahead, reduce speed to 50 mph? But there aren t any workers out there, so this is just a dumb law. So you drive the normal speed. You are saying you get to choose what laws you follow and don t. Now I actually think a compelling case might be made for this in some circumstances, but James is saying that you can t choose not to love someone or to speak critically of them just because you feel like it.

6 6 I know I overdo C. S. Lewis illustrations but it s because they are always so perfect for what I am teaching. You remember Uncle Andrew in the Magicians Nephew? He has what he suspects are magic rings, but he doesn t want to risk putting them on because who knows what might happen. Later (I think it s chapter 2) the kids condemn him for putting them in harms way without knowing what might come of the experiment. They are talking about keeping promises and Uncle Andrew says: Oh, I See. You mean that little boys ought to keep their promises. Very True: most right and proper, I m sure, and I m very glad you have been taught to do it. But of course you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys and servants and women and even people in general, can t possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. No, Digory. Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy is a high and lonely destiny. Let me ask you this my friends, Are you above the law? Do you think most of these things apply to others but not to you? That s what it means to say that if you speak against a brother or judge a brother you are speaking against the law and judging the law. You sit above the law. You sit above what God has called you to. And James cares primarily in these two chapters that the church remains in community. That it speak well of each other. Do you find yourself spreading positive gossip about people in the church? Do you take every opportunity to encourage people via s? Are you listening for anything commendable in someone or waiting to get hurt by them? And do you only spread the negative without emphasizing the positive? How are you above the law? When I say with James that you must love widows and orphans and you decide you don t have to because you have a lot on your plate what with wrestling and ballet practice. When I say that we need you to help with the Little Lights do you say, well that applies to all the younger families, I did my job. When I say you need to be hospitable and you say that applies only to people without three kids or only applies to people living in Poolesville, or whatever your rationalization is. Convicted of things but without change I love it when people walk out the door and tell me they were convicted but most people say it in areas like more encouraging speech, or in appreciating people more. Things that are hard for people to judge and then when they blow up they feel bad but it s over. People never thank me for the sermon because I do need to be hospitable pastor, and I am going to plan that for next week with someone. They don t get up and go to Kyle and say, you know what, I do need to serve in Little Lights. I have just been selfish and not thinking about my community and putting myself above the law of God.

7 7 I love the quote from Timothy Gombis (this is a tangent so consider this part free) "...we keep Jesus safely tucked away in our hearts, self-satisfied with our piety. But we intentionally avoid doing what he says with our bodies, social practices, and community dynamics. It s too threatening. If we actually did the things Jesus says to do, we d have to change, and we just don t want to." I am going to use that a few more times in this book I am sure. Might I remind you that this God who gives us precepts based on principles, based on his person is the judge? He makes judgments about people because he has all the information and because he understands the ideal (more on that in a second). He is the one who will save or destroy. I wonder if there isn t a warning inherent in there as well. Be careful little mouths Do you remember the song we sung when were little: Be careful little mouths what you say,... Be Careful. I find it interesting that the next line is for the Father up above is looking down in love, be careful little mouths what you say. In love. Yes. But love manifests itself in justice. Love sometimes means discipline. Let us never pit love against justice. Justice is subsumed in love. It is what love must be. More on this in a few minutes too. Don t seek to put yourself above the law of God. For God is above all and he saves and he destroys. 4. It shows presumption The presumption we have is that we somehow have permission to judge our brother. Who are you? But who are you to judge your neighbor? You lack information First, you don t have all the information you need to make a proper judgment about someone. You don t know why they did what they did, you don t know what is happening in their head, you don t know what their home looks like, you don t know how they are struggling and you speak against them. Speak down to them.

8 8 Hear this, this doesn t mean that you don t make judgments against someone. I know this fits perfectly with Romans 14:10 You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God s judgment seat. 11 It is written: " As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God. " 12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Or even Matthew 7, which I am convinced James is working directly off of. NIV Matthew 7:1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. James says don t judge, both these passages say don t judge. Seems obvious that we shouldn t judge. But think this through. This must be within a context. We have to judge to live. Even James has made judgments against these teachers that they are adulteresses and that they aren't repentant enough and that they need the wisdom from above. John 7 tells us to make right judgments and guard ourselves against angry, greedy immoral people. That s a judgment. And Romans 14 has a context: look it up. Matthew 7 continues after saying don t judge to explain how you should judge: 3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Yes, you are to take the speck from your brother s eyes. Of course you should. Matthew 18 is clear that we are to go to our brothers and sisters in sin and humbly beg them to repent. It even has a general process whereby we can move them forward, back to proper unity with the congregation. I Corinthians 5 says that the church is to make a judgment against this guy who is sleeping with his mother and they are to remove him from the church. The exact line is Are we not to judge those inside (the church)?

9 9 So yes judge, but do it with heavenly wisdom. You aren t to speak evil of someone. Again, it s how you speak. So don t speak down to someone because it may be that you don t have all the information. We don t fully understand the ideal Second, be careful judging because we don t always fully know the ideal. Only God exhaustively knows the ideal. I say this to make clear you don t know everything about the situation and you don t know everything about God. I love listening to new theology students, or people after they just read a persuasive book who like to spout off all they know. James would caution you I think. Wisdom usually is seen in silence. Most learned and wise men will tell you that the more you know, the more you know what you don t know. This is true of God for sure. This doesn t mean we can t have opinions on things. It surely doesn t mean I can t call you to many things from the word of God and even that I can t claim to have truth. I can have sufficient truth without exhaustive truth. But it does mean, we make calls to people with great humility. Remember humility doesn t mean pushover: it means not thinking more of yourself than you ought. And we ought not to presume the place of God when it comes to many things. I want to add a fifth to Blanchard s points because it brings me back to where I started and it s a consistent theme of James 5. Speaking down slaughters people. Now, I can think of a hundred caveats to what I have said above. What if the person is sleeping with his mother? What if you are an actual judge? What if you are an elder and must make a choice? What if they need to hear the negative sometimes? Yes, I think there are plenty of exceptions to what I have said and I think James would recognize them. But I think the clear take away is that our words kill people. Sticks and stones do break bones, but words rip us open and pull out our intestines and set them on fire. They kill us. And it only takes a moment and it takes virtually no skill The Wrecking Crew I stood on the street of a busy town,

10 10 Watching men tearing a building down. With a ho heave ho and a lusty yell, They swung a beam and a side wall fell. I asked the foreman of the crew, Are those men as skilled in all they do? Oh, no, no indeed. The foreman said. That s just Bob and that s just Fred. Just common laborers are all I need. To tear down a building is a simple deed. They can tear it down in a day or two. What took a skilled man a year to build new. No skill is involved - no skill do they need, You see - tearing things down is a simple deed." And then I thought as I went my way. Just which of these two roles am I trying to play? Have I walked life s road with care, Measuring each deed with a rule and square? Or am I one of those who roam the town, Content with the labor of tearing things down? Are you content with the labor of tearing things down? Or are you ready to be known as one who builds up? As we come to the close, I want to take you back to the beginning. Back to the more than 40,000 people who were killed, back to the family hanging from beams in the basement. Words slaughter people. And we use them without a moment s thought sometimes. They kill. My guess is that you have been party to the near death of more than one person in your life. You have shot words at your husband, wife, child, parent, boss, neighbor, etc and you have cried over your sinfulness. Yes you may have slaughtered hundreds and close family members may be hanging from a beam, but can I draw your attention to a particular one who was hung from a beam because of your words.

11 11 For some, this should be a moment of guilt. Your sin put Jesus on the cross. For most of us here, it should be a moment of gratitude. Our sin meant Jesus went willingly to the cross. This God almighty abhors your sin. He is angry when you speak down to one he has created. And his justice demands action be taken for your sin. But this God is not only angry; his anger is subsumed under his love. He must be angry with sin because of his love for goodness and his love for making things right. I have been singing this song Be careful little mouth what you say, for the father up above is looking down in love, be careful A word of warning about a loving God? But that is it exactly. His love requires justice. It s part of his character. And justice happened. 10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. Isa 53:10 Justice happened. When this loving God determined to send his Son to the Cross to take our critical speech, our evil words, our animosity towards our fellow man and put all that on Jesus and hang him from a wooden beam. All of our hate filled words were there hanging. He hung in our place. Should we correct our speech? Of course we should. Out of the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. And out of gratitude for he who took our sin. Let s pray.

12 12 23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. (Act 2:23 NIV) For most of my life, I have been a very critical person. Trying to change from having a critical nature, creating a culture of criticism to recognizing criticism is needed, but letting mercy triumph STORY: A bishop was invited to dinner. During the meal he was astonished to hear the younger daughter state that a person must be very brave to go to church these days. Why do you say that? asked the bishop. Because, she answered, I heard Dad tell Mom last Sunday that there was a big shot in the pulpit, the canon was in the vestry, the choir murdered the anthem, and the organist drowned everybody! STORY: A husband and wife were leaving the office of a marriage counselor. The husband turned to his wife as they walked to the car: Well, did what the counselor say about being considerate and not criticizing me finally get through your thick skull? "I consider looseness with word no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels." John Calvin. Illustration: A practicing lawyer loved to attack his opponents through scathing letters printed in newspapers. In 1842, he ridiculed the wrong man. James Shields did not take kindly to the anonymous writer who lampooned him in the Springfield Journal. Mr. Shields tracked down the attorney who had publicly embarrassed him and challenged him to a duel. The man was a writer, not a fighter, but he could not get out of the duel without losing his honor. He was given the choice of weapons and chose swords in hopes of using his long arms to his advantage. He trained with a West Point graduate as he prepared to fight to the death. On the appointed day he met Mr. Shields on a sandbar in the Mississippi River. At the last minute their seconds intervened and convinced the men to stop the duel. The lawyer returned to his practice as a changed man. Never again did he openly criticize anyone. In fact, years later when he heard his wife criticize the southern people of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln said, "Don t criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances." Do you have a critical spirit? Lincoln did, but he changed. How to Win Friends and influence People, Dale Carnegie, 1981, p9-10 If you want to stir up resentment tomorrow and may continue across the decades and endure till death, just let us indulge in a little stinging criticism- no matter how certain we are that it is justified. D. Carnegie page 14

13 13 We cant comprehend the communal aspect in our individual culture. I cant ge tth across how you are to care for one another. Assuming control Sermon on the mount don t worry about tomorrow 1. Too much control 2. Let God do everything Plans for the future: arrogant at neglect of neighbor connect this to chapter 5 rebuking rich. Shakespeare said it, "Sound and fury signifying nothing." Example of kids being critical of each other to get them in trouble. We ask what they want us to do. Pray? They're like G.B. Hardy of whom...g.b. Hardy who said of a friend, "He could find the manure pile in any meadow." Example of Marine Sgt Stein posting criticism about Obama and being stripped of all benefits and removed from the military.