Sermon Tone Analysis

*16—The Blasphemous Sin of Defaming Others (**4:11–12**)*

*Do not speak against one another, brethren.

He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?

*(4:11–12)

When medieval monks compiled a list of the seven deadly sins, they included pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and laziness.

Conspicuously absent from that list was the sin of slandering others.

Nor, in all likelihood, would slander rank very high on any contemporary list of serious sins.

It is so widespread we scarcely seem to notice it.

Despite our seemingly casual attitude toward it, slander is a particularly destructive sin.

Writing in the 1828 edition of his dictionary, Noah Webster defined slander as “a false tale or report maliciously uttered, and tending to injure the reputation of another by lessening him in the esteem of his fellow citizens, by exposing him to impeachment and punishment, or by impairing his means of living.”

Slander strikes at people’s dignity, defames their character, and destroys their reputation—their most priceless worldly asset (Prov.

22:1; Eccles.

7:1).

Human society recognizes the gravity of slander and passes laws allowing those whose good name is slandered to sue for defamation of character.

Not only is slander a devastating sin, it is also a ubiquitous one.

While other sins require a particular set of circumstances before they can be committed, slander needs only a malicious tongue driven by hatred (cf.

Pss.

41:7–8; 109:3).

Because it is easy to commit, slander is widespread, almost inescapable.

As Hamlet warned Ophelia, “Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny [slander]” (Shakespeare, /Hamlet, /act 3, scene 1).

The Bible has much to say about slander.

The Old Testament denounces the sin of slandering God or men more often than it does any other sin.

In Leviticus 19:16, God commands His people, “You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people.”

It is the mark of a godly man that “he does not slander with his tongue” (Ps.

15:3); it is the mark of the wicked that they do slander others (Ps.

50:19–20; Jer.

6:28; 9:4; Rom.

1:30).

The seriousness of slander caused David to vow, “Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy” (Ps.

101:5), and to pray, “May a slanderer not be established in the earth” (Ps.

140:11).

Solomon wisely counseled against associating with a slanderer (Prov.

20:19).

The New Testament also condemns slander.

The Lord Jesus Christ identified its source as an evil heart (Matt.

15:19) and taught that it defiles a person (Matt.

15:20).

Paul feared that he would find slander among the Corinthians when he visited them (2 Cor.

12:20), and he commanded the Ephesians (Eph.

4:31) and the Colossians (Col.

3:8) to avoid it.

Peter also exhorted his readers not to slander others (1 Pet.

2:1).

The Scriptures chronicle the devastating effects of slander.

Proverbs 16:28 and 17:9 note that it destroys friendships.

Proverbs 18:8 and 26:22 speak of the deep wounds inflicted on the one slandered, while Proverbs 11:9 and Isaiah 32:7 warn that slander can ultimately destroy people.

Slanderers stir up contention (Prov.

26:20), spread strife (6:19), and become fools (10:18).

The Bible gives many illustrations of slander.

Laban’s sons slandered Jacob, saying of him, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth” (Gen.

31:1).

Saul’s conniving servant Ziba slandered Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth to David, falsely accusing him of plotting to usurp David’s throne (2 Sam.

16:3)—a charge Mephibosheth vehemently denied (2 Sam.

19:25–27).

At the instigation of the wicked queen Jezebel, two worthless men slandered righteous Naboth, bringing about his execution (1 Kings 21:13).

The enemies of those Jews who returned from exile slandered them to their Persian overlords (Ezra 4:6–16), causing the work of rebuilding Jerusalem to be halted (Ezra 4:17–24).

The Arabian king Gashmu slandered the returned exiles and Nehemiah, claiming they plotted to rebel and make Nehemiah their king (Neh.

6:5–7).

Haman, that genocidal foe of the Jews, slandered them to the Persian king Ahasuerus (Esther 3:8).

David (1 Sam.

24:9; Ps.

31:13), John the Baptist (Matt.

11:18), our Lord (Matt.

11:19; 26:59; John 8:41, 48), and the apostle Paul (Rom.

3:8) were also targets of slander.

One of the most striking illustrations of the catastrophic damage the sin of slander can cause is found in David’s war with the Ammonites and their Aramean allies.

The story unfolds in 2 Samuel 10:

Now it happened afterwards that the king of the Ammonites died, and Hanun his son became king in his place.

Then David said, “I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.”

So David sent some of his servants to console him concerning his father.

(vv.

1–2/a/)

Seeking to show kindness to the Ammonite king whose father had shown him kindness (perhaps when David had been a fugitive from Saul in nearby Moab; cf. 1 Sam.

22:3–4), David sent a delegation to console him.

Hanun’s advisors, however, poisoned his mind against David:

But when David’s servants came to the land of the Ammonites, the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think that David is honoring your father because he has sent consolers to you? Has David not sent his servants to you in order to search the city, to spy it out and overthrow it?”

So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle as far as their hips, and sent them away.

When they told it to David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly humiliated.

And the king said, “Stay at Jericho until your beards grow, and then return.”

(vv.

2/b/-5)

Realizing that their public humiliation of David’s envoys would inevitably result in war with Israel, the Ammonites hired mercenaries (v.

6).

Hearing of the Ammonites’ mobilization, David sent his army, led by Joab, to meet them in battle (v.

7).

The ensuing war ended in a disastrous defeat for the Ammonites and their allies:

The sons of Ammon came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the city, while the Arameans of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the field.

Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him in front and in the rear, he selected from all the choice men of Israel, and arrayed them against the Arameans.

But the remainder of the people he placed in the hand of Abishai his brother, and he arrayed them against the sons of Ammon.

He said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the sons of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come to help you.

Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God; and may the Lord do what is good in His sight.”

So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to the battle against the Arameans, and they fled before him.

When the sons of Ammon saw that the Arameans fled, they also fled before Abishai and entered the city.

Then Joab returned from fighting against the sons of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.

When the Arameans saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together.

And Hadadezer sent and brought out the Arameans who were beyond the River, and they came to Helam; and Shobach the commander of the army of Hadadezer led them.

Now when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan, and came to Helam.

And the Arameans arrayed themselves to meet David and fought against him.

But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed 700 charioteers of the Arameans and 40,000 horsemen and struck down Shobach the commander of their army, and he died there.

When all the kings, servants of Hadadezer, saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them.

So the Arameans feared to help the sons of Ammon anymore.

Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah.

(10:8–11:1)

A war involving several nations, resulting in more than forty thousand deaths on the losing side alone (including the commander of the Aramean forces), as well as the loss of Ammon’s capital city (2 Sam.

12:26–29), was brought about by the the Ammonite princes’ slanderous lies about David’s motives (2 Sam.

10:3).

Slander originated in the Garden of Eden, perpetrated by Satan (whose other common title, “devil,” fittingly means “slanderer”; cf.

Rev.

12:10).

Key to his successful temptation of Eve were his slanderous misrepresentations of God’s character and motives:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!

For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”