11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
What is it to speak evil against a brother or sister in Christ? To speak evil is by something you say lowering others’ estimation of a person…perhaps so you can vent, so you can look good, so to pass the time…
Or to enlist others to pray! Please pray for Joe Christian. I’ve heard through reliable sources that his marriage is on the rocks and it’s no wonder because have you seen the way that he spends money and all while trying to look so holy on Sundays and you didn’t know his dad but he was the same way I think it’s an Irish trait. So, yes, please pray for Joe Christian.
When we ministered in the Boston area for 16 years we lived in Watertown along the Charles River and the meeting house was in Newton along the Charles River. So, I’d often walk or ride my bike to work. Which meant I would often pass by people going the same direction as I. I began to notice a pattern: most of the time when I would walk by two women walking together they’d be speaking about another person, and almost always they were speaking negatively about that person. Often their colleagues.
And it’s not only children of Adam who find some gain in portraying others in a bad light. Talking the other day with an old friend of mine who lives in another state who for a short time has sat on his church’s deacon board – he was surprised to find out that a lot of leadership meetings consist of speaking poorly about other local churches and pastors…and even sometimes gossiping about people in their own church. He can’t get out of there fast enough…
Speaking evil also is to criticize a person in contexts that couldn’t possibly be constructive, couldn’t cause any remedy, doesn’t alert to or avoid danger. There is no doubt that the letters of the New Testament contain some critiques of people. But these are public, official critiques that were intended to promote some good. When Paul said that Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm, he was warning Timothy and the listening church against trusting him. When Paul told the Galatians that he had rebuked Peter to his face, the end goal was to bring about further unity in the Church around the true gospel.
But when two mothers get together and criticize their kids’ teacher, or when families “have the pastor for lunch,” criticizing him at Sunday lunch – – where is that going? To what end?
When you relay a weird or uncomfortable or distressing encounter you’ve had with someone to somebody else that also knows the person: Why did you do that? Are you getting advice? But then, did you have to use the person’s name…couldn’t you have disguised his identity? Even if that person you’ve discussed is a known dud, a known nobody, a known ne’er do well…why are you discussing her to this party when you know there’s nothing positive to say?
There should be such discipline in our speech about other people! Especially, as James here emphasizes: speaking against a Christian brother or sister. Parents, you should be managing the culture of your family so that even in the comfort of your home it would be most uncommon for anybody at any time to say something negative about someone in the church.
Brothers or sisters, let me insert something personal here. You might divulge some confidence to me or there might have some unpleasant interaction between clergy and congregant…and in the back of your mind you’re thinking: well, I guess Tonia is going to be weird to me or I hope the pastor’s mom and brother and kids won’t spread what they hear. But I want to say that though Tonia knows who I meet with she doesn’t know either the generalities or the specifics about things we talk about. And when I see an ugly side of someone, I don’t pass on that to her.
My sons know you and keep up with you from afar and we tell them things about you but only the good things. This is part of my family’s culture. It is a great thing to spend a Christmas season with your family and there are meals together and a lot of talking…but if there’s ever anything negative that has to be said about somebody for practical reasons, it’s said so carefully, so diplomatically that you’d have to think a couple minutes to realize there were any shadows in there. And that’s with family!
Discipline, discipline, discipline. You’ll be pulled into conversations and you’ll have to practice the blank stare or the non sequitur:
Joe: pray for Jack Christian who I hear is regularly intoxicated.
Sam: There are some great Hallmark movies set in the Napa Valley. Speaking of movies, did you like the Audrey Hepburn or Julia Ormund Sabrina?
My dad was in the Navy and used to quote: “Loose lips sink ships.” Church, don’t have side conversations about other people. Don’t have water cooler conversations about other people. Leaders, as you get together never ever bring up something negative about another brother or sister unless it’s for some official, productive reason that has as its goal more unity.
Charles Simeon was a Church of England pastor in the early 19th century. In 1817 he wrote this in his journal:
The longer I live, the more I feel the importance of adhering to the rules which I have laid down for myself in relation to [matters of evil speaking].
- To hear as little as possible what is to the prejudice of others.
- To believe nothing of the kind till I am absolutely forced to it.
- Never to drink of the spirit of one who circulates an ill report.
- Always to moderate, as far as I can, the unkindness which is expressed toward others.
- Always to believe, that if the other side were heard, a very different account would be given of the matter.
Ok. Next, notice James’ stated reason for not speaking evil of another. It’s not because it’s ‘not nice,’ or because the person will be hurt or even because unity will be upset. No, rather: The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. If you speak evil of your Christian brother or sister, in that same move you speak evil of the law that has its heart “love your neighbor as yourself.”
If you judge your brother or sister – that is, if your posture toward him is one of critique, of suspicion, of standing above reprovingly – well, then go ahead and assume that your posture to God’s word is the same.
So, to speak evil of your brother isn’t simply not nice, but it’s also – surprisingly – astounding arrogance. Only One stands over the Law as its Giver and Judge – and that’s God Himself. So, when to your boyfriend you sneer at the person who says too much in church group discussions – “she just loves to hear herself talk” – even if you don’t think of it this way or feel it this way – it’s an attempt at God dethroning.
Whoa, James. You went heavy on us. Can’t actions just be simple? Ok, so I pointed out to some of my friends that the girl who used to be my best friend is so flirty with every guy she comes across…but no big deal. Ok, I should’ve kept my mouth shut, shouldn’t have muddied her reputation…but that has nothing to do with what I think about God.
And James says, in trashing your old best friend you’re saying the Law doesn’t apply to you…you’re standing over the Law…which means you’re competing to be the One… the One– – don’t you know that There is only one lawgiver and judge?
And…don’t miss the ominous description of God: he who is able to save and to destroy. Your flirty/ shallow/ intoxicated/ extravagantly spending/ bumbling/ unwise Christian brother or sister you’re sneering at God is able to bring out of the pit and save.
And those who in verbally running down that brother or sister are revolting against God…?
We’ve come up to a spiritual law: as you act toward your Christian brother or sister, you correspondingly act toward God. That’s because the word has bound God and Christian together.
When you give a ride to or host or lean in and listen attentively to or pray for a brother or sister in Christ, there’s Jesus the Son of God in your passenger seat, nibbling on your crackers, appreciative of the politeness, benefiting from your prayers. On the other hand, if when you’re persecuting the Church of God you’re lucky enough that Christ interrupts you, he’d say something like, “Saul…Saul…why are you persecuting Me?”
Your brothers and sisters are holy, because they’re next to God in Christ through the agency of the Spirit-filled Word!
Your holy brothers and sisters – be careful!
Let’s talk about holiness. When Moses came up to a bush burning yet not burning up, God alerted him to the fact that this was holy ground. “Take off your shoes…” – that which has come into contact with less holy ground – because you’re on holy ground. The place where life and energy are gathered. Even as God is omnipresent, even as Christ is Lord over heaven and earth, there are yet places more or less holy.
Took a walk with Zach Topor over the break and he really likes living in Virginia Beach. He said something interesting: that life…reality… was thicker there. I asked him what he meant and he said that where he lived is at the edge of migration patterns: so the northern birds and southern birds congregate. He’s close to the biggest estuary in the US – bracken waters, where salt and fresh waters combine and so you have fresh water and salt water species. More than 150 major rivers and streams flow into the bay. So, a lot of life converging. Somewhat holy as all around are the signs of God’s goodness.
You won’t think me weird to say that Zack has at least a little point if you compared where he lives with the self-checkout at Walmart under the fluorescent lights. You’ve arrived there after walking through a store not talking to anyone, filling your cart with things of which you don’t know where they came from, who raised the food, who made the stuff. Now you’re still not talking to anyone but scanning SKUs and occasionally the mechanized voice tells you to please scan your item before setting it down. Here is a place thin on reality, low on life, not very holy, hard to see through it unto God. Hard, not impossible.
Walmart – Virginia – Burning Bush… places more or less holy. That get us to thinking, what exactly are the ingredients of holiness? Well, there was a place thickest with holiness, with life, with reality – where heaven and earth converged. That place was the Temple. And what makes the Temple, the Temple? What are the ingredients? Where comes together the non-human creation, the human creation, the Word of God, the mysterious Presence of God, and the way of Mediation between them all, an altar and priest. Between God and sinner. The Temple: through which the earth looks up to Heaven and Heaven looks to and deals with the earth. And because the Temple is where God is, and God is sheer life, from the Temple there is blessing, protection, fertility. Holy, holy, holy. Life.
Well, something amazing happened in the 1st century and the world will never be the same. The Temple went mobile. And it went human. The Word of God made flesh. The Logos has lungs and a liver. Heaven and Earth came together completely in One Man. Yes, Jesus is the Ladder between what we call the supernatural and the natural. Messengers down from heaven and messages up to heaven, coming through Him. Jesus: the Mystery of God which our hands have handled. The Central Truth of everything could be found at this street address in the dining room with a roll in his mouth.
Jesus the Temple… zoomed into Jesus the Altar made of stones unhewn by man. The sin of covenant breaking Israel who represented the world was all laid on him, the representative of Israel. The judgment of God falls on Jesus, and he and our sin are exiled into Sheol. The Temple is destroyed, destroyed by the nations. The great wealth of Israel, the Man who returned humanity to the summit of creation is taken out of the land of the living.
But lo, God raises up this Temple and from his faithfulness and love pledges to unite all things in heaven and earth in him. The resurrected Jesus is the cornerstone of God’s intention to marry heaven and earth. God starts building onto Jesus, fitting onto the cornerstone other stones, living stones, additional heaven and earth connectors.
And thus sinners are baptized into His body. Made to eat of Him, drink of him. Bound to him in solemn covenant. The Word of God in them as a seed. Partakers of the deepest mystery. And so, what? Don’t you know that you are the Temple of God? Don’t you know that individual brothers and sisters are living stones of that Temple? The Church is where heaven and earth come together. The Church the great alive of the world. The Church the center of heavenly energy.
And, If any man defile the temple of God [through slander and schism], him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
You’ll hear rumors about fellow Christians – stay out of those conversations! Because God is in them! You’ll find yourselves in conversations where Joe Christian is being blamed – don’t pile on…because the word of God is animating him! You’ll find yourself around unnecessary conversations that have set church folks in a weak light, a shameful light…don’t get high and mighty, don’t lecture and scold. You’ll quickly find yourself in a coup against God! So… play dumb! Back out pronto! Champion non sequiturs!
If you have something challenging to say, say it to that person alone. If the controversy becomes complex enough let the two of you bring it before some church leaders and then let them officially, carefully judge what is right and wrong. Don’t you know that the church will judge angels?
Brothers and sisters, you are the temple of the living God. We are the intersection of heaven and earth, the Body in which God shows up to earth and through which the earth is taken up into heaven (through our prayers and praises). Be holy, for God is holy. Use your speech for life, for progress, for invention, for beauty, for clarity, for order, for good. When you come into a dry valley where words are sterile (please scan the item before putting into a bag), where words are ignorant, where words are cruel, turn that wasteland into a place of springs. You’ll do that by taking words seriously.
At the altar of God even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself. Do you not know that the life of the world has come out of death? Do you not realize that God intends to set tigers and lily pads and mitochondria free, and that it’s the destruction of Jesus the Temple that will have launched that?
Here’s what I’m saying: sacrificial death is behind all life. Sacrificial death is behind all life. Put your tongue on the altar and let life come out of it. You feel like venting stress through a little gossip? Put it to death! Conversely, you feel like staying quiet and putting your head into your phone screen and just browsing. Fathers, put your no-speech to death! Make a phone call to your kids. Write your cousin. Go out with your teenager and pry words from him. The life of God flows through you. It really does. YOU ARE THE TEMPLE, JOINED TO THE CORNERSTONE BY GOD’S SPIRIT.
AMEN
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