By Lisa Wilmore
Scripture: Speak not evil one of another, brethren, He that speaketh evil of his brother, a 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. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? (James 4:11-12).
My Dear Christian Friends,
penning this message, you must believe that this is not what I want to write and shutter with the thought that God has placed this on my heart. Well, since this is the message for the week, I need to “tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so, help me God.”
First, it is very disappointing and disheartening when preachers, whether male or female, negatively converse about other preachers and ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, when these types of conversations occur, one may think that you are bad-mouthing another in secret, but as the Lord shared with us in last week’s message, we never know who is listening to what we are saying or watching what we do. Most importantly, God always hear our conversations and sees our actions whether it is negative or positive.
The question to ponder in this message is: What purpose does it serve to put others down, especially, the ones who are “called by His name?” Why do preachers and believers in Christ talk about each other when the Bible, inspired by God, specifically tells us to build each other up. “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesian 4:29 ESV).
Our main goal as Christian believers, preachers, teachers of the Gospel is to illuminate God’s Word in our lives-that is to set a clear path to Jesus, our Savior, through or conversations whether verbally or behaviorally. Interestingly, the world sees a different illumination in the lives of some Christians and believers in Jesus. There are those persons who illuminate the disgraces of the enemy by speaking evil of their brother while judging them according to human standards.
James declares in our scripture reading to “Speak not evil one of another.” Therefore, we must remember the law established by Jesus in Matthew 22, “Love the Lord thy God…”; “Love your neighbor as thyself…”-the law of love which should be demonstrated in our attitudes toward other preachers and Christian believers.
So, when preachers and Christian believers stop putting others down, congregations are better, Jesus’ light shines, and God’s love is revealed.
