‘To speak evil of no man.’ Now we have got the Internet and mobiles and information coming at us constantly, a deluge of it. We see all the comments people are making: personally, politically and in connection with national life. Even some Christians feel completely free to insult people, to insult rulers. But here is God’s instruction: ‘Speak evil of no man’. Here is the standard for Christians; here is the command of Christ; here is the word of God: to speak evil of no man. Yes, among ourselves, we can certainly express an observation: ‘That man is not honest!’ What did Putin do? He said he wasn't going to invade Ukraine; his troops were just on exercise; he wasn’t going to do anything, and he kept this up for several weeks. Then he struck, and everybody said, he lied, and he lied in various other respects too. Well you are entitled to observe that, of course, and you must. But you mustn't make a habit of insulting people and calling them names and running them down, and yet it happens constantly.
‘But gentle, showing all meekness [humility] unto all men’, and women. If a husband wants to correct a wife, he better be able to be corrected by his wife. It’s a two-way traffic: humility. ‘All meekness towards all men’; towards all people, whether older or younger.
You read some of the blogs, and again – going back to the time of the pandemic – what names that chief man for medicine in the United States was being called by Christians! They didn't know whether those things were true of him or not, but they were calling him by terrible names. ‘To speak evil of no man’ – those insults were sins. ‘Oh but that comment came from one who is our leading intellectual Christian blogger.’ Well then, he has sinned against the Lord. He has disobeyed the Scriptures, and so do we if we join in – ‘speak evil of no man.’ People say things which are intended to get back to people, and to hurt them, and to wound them. That is all sin.
Are we argumentative? Now there is a place for argument and discussion, and comparing views and reasoning things out, but there are some people: their arguments are driven by pride. 'Don't you know, I am superior? I am much more intelligent. I know things you don't know. Therefore I cannot be wrong’ – that kind of argumentative pride is the great curse of the fallen human heart. Everybody, every Christian, has trouble with pride. Pride ruled you before conversion, and the devil is just waiting for an opportunity to re-grow that seed of pride from the old nature within, and bring it back again, and there are some people he scores with. There are true Christians, and their usefulness to God in their lives has been wrecked by Satan's success in bringing back pride. They are proud people, and they must always do things their own way. Something says to them in their minds and hearts, ‘Oh those ordinary people: they all go along with this, but I am exceptional; I have a different way of thinking, a different view, and they are not up to this.’ So they are contentious and argumentative. They have got an idea and they won’t part with it, because to part with it they would have to accept, ‘I have got it wrong’, and they can't do that. Pride is in charge. They have still got some charm, and they speak of Christ; there are nice things about them; but pride rules them. They go through life like that, and they are always a nuisance in their churches. Their pastors are always in trouble over them, and they can't work in any team without breaking away from it, because they know better in some way. What a terrible thing: for the devil to steal away years of usefulness! The great goal for all of us is humility. The word for ‘humility’ in this passage will be meekness. I don't think much of myself. When I have an accomplishment, I put alongside it all my failures. That is good for me; that tempers my thinking and my view. That is how we have to think. Be open to teaching, to reasoning, to argument.
The same is true in the family. Some men, some fathers, have got teenagers growing up. The teenager has got it right for a change. He may get nine things out of ten wrong, but one thing he gets right and his dad has got it wrong. His dad can't take that; he won’t have it. Why is that? Because of pride. ‘I can't let my teenager be more right than me for a moment.’ Watch pride. It’s so subtle, and it ruins us. So we hold out and that teenager doesn't think much of his dad, because he knows his dad is wrong, and he knows his dad can't even take one percent correction. So he sees him from that moment on as proud, and he has lost his witness to his son. Always be open. Superiors, be open to subordinates; be advised when you need to be, see reason. Always watch out for pride and beat it down.