“The LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
(Proverbs 6:16-19)
VI – GOD HATES A FALSE WITNESS THAT SPEAKETH LIES - “A false witness [that] speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”(Proverbs 6:19).
God hates slander. Words falsely spoken that damage the reputation of another. A false accusation of an offense. An abusive attack on a person’s character and good name. Charge falsely or with malicious mischief.
LESSON: RASH JUDGEMENT
Truth is very important to us because Jesus said He is the truth.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).
Honoring the truth means respecting other people’s reputation. If we respect them, we wouldn’t want to judge them rashly. Rash judgement is assuming that what someone did was wrong without knowing the whole story.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in his shoes. “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” (Matthew 7:1-2). This commandment of God is one that is often neglected. All of us are guilty of misjudging people, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
The word “judge” in Greek is “Krino”, from where we get the words “critic” and “criticism”.
Are we constantly criticising and judging other based on our own defective principles of righteousness?
Jesus says: “You too will be judged” “For with the judgement ye judged, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again”.
“And with what MEASURE YE METE”. The word “measure” here is a picture of a WEIGHING SCALE.
Illustration:
There is a story of a BAKER who used to buy one pound of butter from the local dairy farmer everyday.
One day, he decided to weigh the butter and found out that it was less than a pound.
Enraged, he sued the dairy farmer for fraud.
The judged asked the dairy farmer if he used a weighing scale in measuring out the butter he said.
To his surprise, the farmer replied that he did not have a weighing scale.
“How did you measure the butter? Asked the judge.
“It is very simple, your honor”, replied the farmer.
“When the baker started buying butter from me, I decided to start buying bread from him. So everyday, I simply used the one-pound loaf of bread that I buy from him as the measure for the butter I sell. So if there is any problem with the weight of my butter, he only has himself to blame!”
Application:
The standard of measure we use will be used against us. Jesus teaches us then to be careful before passing judgement for our own lives will also become subject to scrutiny.
There are four reasons why we should not judge others:
We should never judge a person until we ourselves have experienced all the circumstances in that person’s life.
a. We never truly know all the facts in a person’s life.
Our task is not to judge others but to look for the good inside every person.
b. We can never be completely objective or impartial.
We are already stained or pre-set with different sets of biases, some ingrained in us even as far back as our early childhood. It is very difficult to shed off these biases and render a completely impartial judgement.
c. We wrongly assume God’s role and authority. “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?” (James 4:12).
The minute we start judging others, we pass judgement on ourselves.
d. We are not good enough to pass judgement.“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10).
How can any man pass judgement when man himself is lacking in the very necessary faculty of righteousness?
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam [is] in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5).
Instead of passing judgement, we should first examine ourselves and then minister to our neighbours with LOVE and MERCY, being quick to forgive them of their faults.
The traits that bother us in others are often the habits we dislike in ourselves. Our unbroken bad habits and behaviour patterns are the very ones we most want to change in others.
Knowing that the ONLY true and FINAL JUDGE is Jesus Christ, we should never try to claim the right to play God and act as judge.
LESSON: DETRACTION -The act of discrediting someone’s reputation.
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking.”(1 Peter 2:1).
“Laying aside all malice” means to “Strip away everything vicious” (poisonous, venomous, harmful).
“All guile”means everything deceitful. “Hypocrisies” means Pretenders “All evil speaking”
Means disparaging remarks of any kind. When we falsely accuse someone of something, we take from him or her something that can’t be returned.
Golden rule: “Treat others as you want to be treated.”
LESSON : PEOPLE OF THE TRUTH
How?
We need to be TRUTH Seekers.
We have to be TRUTH Speakers.
VII – GOD HATES HE THAT SOWETH DISCORD AMONG BRETHREN - “A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” (Proverbs 6:19).
Causes of Division are:
1.Jealousy
2. Personalities
3. Spiritual gifts
4. Arguing
Jealousy - “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.”(Genesis 26:12-16 ).
Jealousy is a dividing force strong enough to tear apart the mightiest of nations or the closest of friends.
Cure: When you find yourself becoming jealous of others, try thanking God for their good fortune.
Personalities – “Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:12).
The Corinthian church favoured different preachers. Paul make it clear that the MESSAGE is more important than the MESSENGER.
Spiritual Gifts - “Now concerning spiritual [gifts], brethren, I would not have you ignorant.”(1Corinthians 12:1).
Instead of building and unifying the Corinthian church, spiritual gifts were splitting it.
They had become symbols of spiritual power, causing rivalries and setting up hierarchies of supposedly spiritual and unspiritual people.
Arguing - “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, [even] the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.” (1 Timothy 6:3-5).
Division within the church often begins with quibbling over minute points of theology.
A person’s understanding of the finer points of the theology should not become the basis for lording it over others. Instead, theology should always unify the church. Stay away from those who just want to argue.
Conclusion:
Living does not mean we will agree on everything; there will be many opinions just as there are many notes in a harmonious chord of music. But we agree on our purpose in life – to work together for God.
Be a builder not a destroyer. Let us build through Evangelism.Let us build through Exhortation.
To exhort is to encourage. Let us encourage those who feel like giving up. Let us encourage those in leadership. Let us encourage all in the family of faith. Let us build through Edification. To edify is to build up. Refuse to be part of a wrecking crew. Let us rise up and build.
(From Rev. Teofilito A. Rufon’s Worship Sunday Messages)
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