YES, I feel like saying, Don’t, my brother, don’t. Please Stop right where you are. My heart is sick and my brain is weary with hearing it. Let us change the subject. But what is the trouble ?
Well, there is an evil which I have seen, and it is common among everyone, and everywhere I go; It is, “the almost universal habit among members of the church (corporate, independent, or present truth) of constantly speaking evil of one another.” I have preached as plain a sermon against this evil as I knew how to preach. Yet, after the sermon, someone would heartily indorse it as being just right; then I would go home with them for the night, and scarcely would we became seated around the fire before he would begin talking about the faults or sins of his brethren. This does not happen once in a while, but often!
Moreover, it seems to be a subject very fruitful of thought; for if you will only listen, the tongue will rattle away on this theme for hours. The next day it will be just the same, and the following, the same, on and on without end. Nor is it only some irresponsible member that does this; but often very good brethren and sisters do it, and even the “pillars” of the church. These good people do not seem to think that they are backbiting as long as they speak only what they regard as the truth. But let us see what backbiting is? I quote from Webster: “Backbite, —To censure, slander, reproach, or speak evil of the absent.” To speak evil of a person behind his back or in his absence is to backbite. What is said may all be true, yet it is backbiting for all that. When the prophet asked who should dwell on high with the Lord, the answer was, among other specifications “He that backbiteth not with his tongue…” Ps. 15:3. So we say again, “Don’t, my brother, do NOT, if you hope to dwell in Heaven.”
“But I am only relating what Bro. Brown or sister Walker told me.” Very well, listen to the word of the Lord again: “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people.” Lev. 19:16. A talebearer is one who carries tales and gossip from one person to another. Whether that tale be true or false does not change the matter; he is a talebearer just the same. It is this kind of work that makes so much trouble, parts friends, and causes church trials. Hence the Lord says: “He that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.” Prov. 17:9. And, “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out; so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.” Prov. 26: 20. Friend, how much of this kind of work are you guilty of? I have done this in the past, but never again with the help of God !
In every possible way the Bible warns us “To speak evil of no man…” Titus 3:2. Does this mean that you can freely speak of all the evil you know about your brethren and sisters ? From their conduct, we would understand that this is what many understand this text to mean.
I have been for days with Christians who never had a word to say about their “joy in the Lord,” their “peace of mind,” their “hope of salvation.” But you encourage it a little, and they would talk for hours about their brethren. There must be a plague-spot somewhere in such hearts, which needs to be cleansed by the grace of God.
By: Mark Robanske