Definition
and Classification:
Sin is defined as a "violation of the law or standards of
God." These divine laws and standards are revealed in the Word
of God. The very sinfulness of sin lies in the fact that it is
against God, even if it is committed against others or done to
ourselves. Therefore, since God's character and standards are
perfect, anything that violates this is defined in the scripture as
sin. So sin is an act of volition against God.
Sin
originates from Adam's violation of a direct command from God. This
is why God imputes Adam's original sin to the old sin nature, when He
gives soul-life at birth. It is important to note that sin preceded
human good and evil. Adam had to first sin in the garden before he
produced good or evil in the garden.
Though
temptation comes from the old sin nature, sin itself always comes
from our own free will, i.e. human volition. Sin can be a thought, a
motive, or an act of wrongdoing, all of which is a state of
alienation from God. As already noted, sin comes from human volition.
At the point of physical birth we are born physically alive and
spiritually dead. This spiritual
death means total depravity, therefore, we are prone to sin. We are
spiritually dead before we commit our first sin. Furthermore we are
totally helpless to do anything about our status of total depravity,
totally helpless to understand any spiritual phenomena, because we
are dichotomous. That is, we have a body and soul but no human
spirit. In order for us to understand any spiritual phenomena such as
the Gospel, God the Holy Spirit must act as a human spirit, on our behalf.
So the twofold source of sin is spiritual death at birth, and then
the function of human volition. We start sinning because we are
already spiritually dead. All sin is the result of human volition. No
sins are forgiven the unbeliever in spiritual death until he believes
in Jesus Christ. For the believer, all sins prior to salvation are
blotted out at the moment of salvation.
The two categories of sin come from human volition. Sins of
Cognizance occur when a person recognizes a temptation as a sin and
willingly does it. The person knows he is doing it and probably even
enjoys doing it. This sin is a transgression involving human
perception and or cognizance. Temptation, however, in and of itself,
is not sin. It is not until we act on that temptation that it becomes
sin. The second category is the Sins of Ignorance. In this category a
person is not aware that the old sin nature is tempting him to sin;
but nonetheless,
he or she desires to commit the sin and does so. An unknown sin is
still sin. This is because divine knowledge is available to all. It
is still a volitional decision, so it does not matter that the act is
committed without human perception or cognizance.
Because
all sin is related to the function of human volition, the believer
is responsible for both categories of sin in his life. In both of
these categories the believer is equally guilty. God doesn't excuse
anyone. What
a believer thinks about his sins doesn't matter,
because
God
is not impressed by what anyone thinks about his sins. So volition
is involved in both known and unknown sins, for volition is the issue
in the
Angelic Conflict, which is an interrelated doctrine.
Since we are totally helpless to solve it, and responsible to God
even for sins we are unaware of, how does a believer handle the sin
problem? First of all the believer must understand that Jesus Christ
was judged on the cross for both sins of ignorance and sins of
cognizance. When the believer acknowledges or names a sin of
cognizance in recovery or rebound (1 Jo 1:9), he is simultaneously
forgiven the sins of ignorance committed during the time of being out
of fellowship. This is why we begin our studies with 1JO 1:9,
"If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Beginning our study in this manner ensures our fellowship with God.
The sins of cognizance and the sins of ignorance cause the believer
to get out of fellowship with God, because the free will of the
believer was used. Ignorance is no excuse, because both the sin
nature and human volition are involved in the commission of sin.
Note
the four categories of the essence of the sin nature.
1)
The area of weakness. This is the source of all temptation to sin.
When linked with negative volition, this area of weakness results in
personal sin. Remember, it is not sinful to be tempted, but it is
sinful to succumb to that temptation.
2)
The area of strength. This produces a negative type good, called
human good. This is also called "dead works" and "wood,
hay, and stubble."
3)
The trends of the sin nature. These trends are legalism, which
results in moral degeneracy, and antinomianism, which results in
immoral degeneracy.
4)
The lust pattern of the old sin nature. This pattern includes power
lust, approbation lust, social lust, sexual lust, chemical lust,
monetary lust, crusader lust, inordinate ambition resulting in
inordinate competition, lust for revenge, criminal lust, and pleasure
lust. Lust refers to any area in life where your normal desires
control you, thereby destroying your Christian walk.
Six
principles related to lust:
1)
The lust pattern of the sin nature eliminates or destroys Bible
doctrine as the number one priority in life.
2)
Lust destroys the motivation of the believer to execute the PPOG
(Predesigned Plan of God), neglecting the principle of Perception,
Metabolization, and Application of Bible doctrine.
3)
Lust is a distraction to the normal operation of the Christian Way
of Life.
4)
Lust divorces the believer from reality, which nullifies the
understanding and use of the problem-solving
devices of the PPOG.
5)
Lust turns the believer into a tricky and deceitful person.
6)
Lust destroys the believer's motivation to glorify God, and turns
the believer's motivation into self-promoting motivation.
There
are also four categories of personal sin. The first category is
emotional sins. For instance, sins related to fear, including worry
and anxiety, and sins related to hatred, including anger, violence,
and murder, are emotional sins. This category also includes sins
related to self-pity, and sins related to guilt. The second category
of sins is mental attitude sins. These include arrogance, pride,
jealousy, implacability, bitterness, vindictiveness, inordinate
ambition and inordinate competition, all motivational sins, and
sinful thoughts. The third category is our subject of verbal sins.
These verbal sins include gossip, maligning, slander, judging, lying,
and verbal deception. The fourth category is overt sins. They include
chemical sins, sexual sins, criminal sins.
Let's
take a closer look at verbal sins. Simply put, they originate from
mental attitude sins, which lead to motivational sins, which lead to
the sins of the tongue. Verbal sins are designed to destroy your life.
Jam
3:5-10 "...So
also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of
great things. Behold, how great a forest is set on fire by a very
small spark! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity;
the tongue is so placed in our anatomy so that it contaminates the
entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life and is set on
fire by the agency of hell.
For
every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the
sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind. But no one can tame
[control] the tongue; it is a restless evil full of deadly poison.
With it we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who
have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both
blessing and cursing. My brethren these things ought not to be this way."
Three of the seven worst sins, from God's viewpoint, are related to
our subject of verbal sins:
Pro
6:16-19
"There are six things which the Lord hates, in fact, seven are
an abomination to him: (1)
Arrogant eyes,
(2)
a
lying tongue, and (3)
hands that shed innocent blood,
(4) A
right lobe that devises evil plans
[anti-authority sins, conspiracy, and revolution], (5)
feet
which run rapidly to evil
[a
trouble-maker],
(6) A
false witness who utters lies
[perjury],
and (7)
a
person who spreads strife among the brethren
[gossip, slander, maligning, judging]."
"A
lying tongue, A false witness who utters lies, and A person who
spreads strife."
There
is a double standard related to the sins of the tongue. PSA 12:2
"They
speak emptiness one to another with flattering lips; and with a
double standard they speak."
The "emptiness"
here is gossip, slander, maligning, and judging from self-righteous
arrogance; this is the conversation of the believer involved in
legalism and moral degeneracy. They flatter the one who is listening
to the maligning and slander of another. It is amazing how many
friendships are based solely on this foundation. The legalism of
self-righteous arrogance rejects the grace standards of Bible
doctrine, resulting in the double standard of the sins of the tongue.
The tongue is used to flatter those who a person is trying to
persuade with regard to his slander, while at the same time
slandering the victim. Self-righteousness sets up a double standard
of self-vindication on the one hand, while judging and maligning on
the other hand. While justifying their sins of arrogance, these
believers are guilty of the sins of the tongue.
There are two Sins of the Tongue involved here.
1)
Flattery and hypocrisy toward those that the believer is
communicating his evil to.
2)
The gossip and maligning that the believer directs toward the one
that he is speaking evil against.
The double standard also means that in arrogance the carnal believer
ignores his own sins, while slandering, maligning, and judging the
sins of others. The Lord spoke of this in MAT 7:1-4.
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way
you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use,
it will be measured to you. 'Why do you look at the speck of sawdust
in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own
eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of
your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?'"
The carnal believer is distracted in two ways. First, through
subjective arrogance he creates a role-model and then destroys it
through gossip, slander, maligning, and judging. He becomes a
distraction to others through the function of legalism. Secondly, by
the slander, maligning, and judging of another believer, his
self-righteous arrogance does not vindicate self, but condemns self,
without his knowing it.
A key word used by the self-righteous is "duty" or
"responsibility." The self-righteous Pharisees thought it
was their "duty" to destroy the perfect Son of God. The
legalistic Judaizers also thought it was their "duty" to
discredit the grace ministry of Paul and stone him. So be careful of
these individuals who consider it their duty to speak evil and
discredit other people.
The sins of the tongue are mentioned in several passages.
Rom
2:1 "Therefore,
you are without excuse, every person who keeps on judging others;
for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who
judge practice the same things."
In the blindness of arrogance, the carnal believer commits the worst
of sins of all when he maligns, slanders, or judges someone else for
committing a certain sin. The self-righteous arrogance of the evil
believer assumes the prerogative of replacing our Lord Jesus Christ
as the presiding Judge of the Supreme Court of Heaven. We are not
responsible to evil self-righteous people who create false standards.
A legalistic believer judges the sins of other believers, real or
imagined, which are different from his own sins. Usually those who
judge with the tongue are what society calls respectable persons.
Respectability for maligning others is one of the most evil functions
in the Christian Way of Life. The legalistic judge not only
blasphemes, but he ignores the fact that he is using his own sin
nature to the maximum.
It is a double standard of arrogance for a believer to judge,
slander, malign, or condemn the sins of others, while at the same
time ignoring or being blind to his own sins.
So this passage teaches that in the slander, maligning, and judging
of other believers, the self-righteous arrogant believer is not
vindicating himself, but he is actually condemning himself. Those
with such self-vindication and self-righteousness regard it as their
duty to gossip, slander, malign, and judge others.
It is not the duty, responsibility, or prerogative of the believer
to assume the role and function of Jesus Christ as the Supreme Court Judge.
It is however, the responsibility of believers to self-evaluate or
judge their own lives in light of the standards of Bible doctrine.
1)
Bible doctrine in the soul produces true standards of grace righteousness.
2)
Grace-righteousness and self-righteousness are mutually exclusive.
3)
Grace-righteousness avoids verbal sins.
Two verses are pertinent to the self-righteous arrogance of the
legalistic believer.
Rom
14:4 "Who
are you to judge the servant of another? To his own Lord he stands
or falls. And stand he will; for the Lord is able to make him stand."
Rom
14:10 "But
you, why do you judge your fellow-believer? Or you again, why do you
regard your fellow-believer with contempt? For we shall all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ."
So, it is important to remember that all of us are the servants of
our Lord Jesus Christ. We are members of the body of Christ, the
Royal Family of God. The evaluation of our lives is the
responsibility of our Lord. In the case of criminality, that
responsibility has been delegated by our Lord to the government.
Regarding another believer with contempt indicates a tremendous
function of arrogance in one's life. Why? Because no one knows the
exact stage of another believer's spiritual growth. If one believer
exercises contempt for another, it is inevitable that he will find
some way to malign, slander, or judge him. After the resurrection of
the Church all believers will be evaluated by our Lord Jesus Christ.
This evaluation will have two aspects:
1.
The condemnation of all of the things we have done apart from the Filling
of the Spirit. This is the shame which is described as related to
the judgment seat of Christ.
2.
The rewards and blessing for all the things we have done to execute
God's plan via proper motivation.
Principles
concerning sins of the tongue:
1)
It is the embodiment of human arrogance and the epitome of blasphemy
to slander, gossip, malign, and judge other believers. You are
assuming the prerogative of our Lord Jesus Christ as the God-Man.
2)
It is not our duty to judge other believers. An exception is the
evaluation a board of deacons and pastor must make of believers who
are violating the privacy of others in a congregation.
3)
Under the privacy of the priesthood the principle is always: live
and let live. Therefore, we must conclude from the Scripture that the
Lord Jesus Christ doesn't need our help or council in evaluating the
lives of others.
4)
Verbal sins are a sign of weakness, arrogance, blasphemy, and
presumption. And the Lord has not called on us to act as judges of
our fellow believers. We would have to know all the facts, which is
impossible. The Lord knows all the facts, therefore He says, in
effect, "I'll do all the judging," ROM 11:33-34.
5)
The sins of the tongue as taught in the book of James. James
emphasizes the fact that verbal sins are always motivated by mental
attitude sins in the arrogance or emotional complex of sins. Jam
3:14.
"But
if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your right lobe
[and
you do],
stop being arrogant, and stop lying against the truth."
Gossip or slander, here, is called
"lying
against the truth."
In JAM 3:15
"This
wisdom is not that which comes down from heaven", "this wisdom"
is a system of thinking which includes gossip and slander, the sins
of the tongue.
Remember not to take the Scriptures out of context! In this context
we are talking about speaking evil and judging from bitterness in the
soul, and this so-called wisdom is cosmic viewpoint, not divine
viewpoint. Many legalistic, self-righteous individuals think that it
is their duty or responsibility to bring up other people's sins.
Jam
3:15
"this
wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly,
natural, demonic"
Jam
3:16
"for
where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is dissension and
every evil
[worthless]
deed."
These evil or worthless deeds include the sins of the tongue.
Jam
4:11
"do
not speak against one another, brethren, he who speaks against or
slanders or maligns a fellow-believer or judges a fellow-believer,
slanders and judges Bible doctrine
[the
Law of God]."
Jam
5:9
"do not complain, brethren, against one another that you
yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing right at
the door."
When you start judging others, the judge (Jesus Christ) is standing
at the door of your life. The reason He does not come in is because
you are out of fellowship.
Just
as in Revelation 2,
"behold,
I stand at the door and knock."
This verse anticipates the function of our Lord in the judgment of
those believers who are out of fellowship.
6)
There is intensified divine discipline against the sins of the tongue.
Except for the maximum discipline of the sin unto death, there is no
category of sins which bring such concentrated divine discipline as
the believer involved in the sins of the tongue.
Three
categories of sins of the tongue:
1)
The slander category. This includes gossip, maligning, judging, and
complaining against others.
2)
The falsehood category. This includes untruth, deception,
misrepresentation, perjury, fabrication, pathological lying,
distortion, equivocation, puzzling and unclear expressions designed
to mislead, verbal deception, and hypocrisy.
3)
The whining and complaining category. This category refers to
complaining when you are blessed by God and are the beneficiary of
his grace. It is disorientation to the grace of God. This is
whimpering, whining, grumbling, or complaining by the believer. This
is experientially contradictory to the predesigned plan of God. In
the sniveling of arrogance, the individual frets and complains in a
whining and tearful manner. However, there is a legitimate expression
of pain which is not related to the sins of the tongue.
Please note that the sins of the tongue carry liability for triple
compound divine discipline. MAT 7:1
"Stop
judging, so that you will not be judged."
Believers are ordered by God to stop slandering, maligning, or
judging others.
The sins of the tongue involve two categories of sinfulness related
to Christian degeneracy:
1)
Mental attitude sins which motivate the verbal sinning;
2)
Actual verbal sins which result.
No one ever slanders, maligns, judges, or gossips about another
without the motivation of some mental attitude sin. Verbal sins are
motivated by fluctuating between self-righteous arrogance and
self-pity in emotion. Verbal sins involve verbal murder, which is
character assassination of others, plus the blasphemy of assuming the
prerogative of God in judging others.
1Jo
3:15
"everyone
who hates his brother is a murderer."
The sins of the tongue carry three categories of liability for
disciplinary action from God (Triple Compound Discipline).
A)
Divine discipline for the mental attitudes that motivate sins of the tongue.
B)
Divine discipline for the verbal sin itself.
C)
Divine discipline for the sins that you mention.
Here is the scenario: you name certain sins,
real or imagined, which you assign to another believer. The sins that you
name have penalties attached to them. If the person is guilty, his
discipline is removed, because the judgment didn't come from Heaven, and the
punishment is transferred to the one who maligns. If the person is innocent
and the sins are imagined, then the victim gets blessing comparable to the
intensity of the discipline. However, this is only as long as he (the
victim) puts the matter in the Lord's hands and does not attempt to
vindicate himself.
So the victim of your slander doesn't receive these penalties, but
you do! You are mentioning sins which you didn't commit, but you
assign them to your victim by slandering him. You get the punishment
for the mental attitude sins which motivated the verbal sins, and for
the sins which you named. Therefore, while not committing those sins,
you get judged for those sins as if you had committed them. This is
the perfect justice of God in which he reminds you to mind your own
business and live your own life as unto the Lord.
Mat
7:2
"For
in the way that you judge, you will be judged. And by your standard
of measure, it will be measured against you."
The first sentence in this verse is the law of liability regarding
verbal sins. There is no stronger law in the supreme court of heaven.
Two categories of sins are involved in this liability: the mental
attitude sins which motivate the verbal sins of judging and the
verbal sins which result. However, you are also liable for the
content of the sins you name. Remember
that the Royal Priesthood demands privacy to live your own life as
unto the Lord.
Therefore the believer has no right to destroy this freedom by
intruding on the privacy of others. Before you become concerned with
the lives of others, remember that no one ever gets away with anything.
The second sentence in MAT 7:2 refers to the law of the reversal of
disciplinary action. The believer who is guilty of verbal sins will
always receive the reversal of divine disciplinary action. You will
always receive the discipline for the other person's sins which you
name, for your verbal sins, and for your sinful motivation in
committing the verbal sin.
The sins you name carry punitive liability from God. The victim of
your slander and judging does not receive that punitive liability
from God. Instead, God transfers to you the gossip, the slander, and
the judgment.
So the judgment or penalty for sins verbalized in slander is
transferred by God from the victim to the guilty believer. The victim
you judge and slander is not punished for those sins, but you are. No
believer has the right to destroy the privacy of the priesthood of
another believer by the sins of the tongue. Verbal sins contradict
the principle of live and let live. So even though you are not
committing the sins that you mention in slandering someone else, the
punishment of those sins is assigned to you.
There are two categories of sins mentioned in gossip and maligning:
1)
Sins the believer did commit (gossip).
2)
Sins the believer did not commit (maligning).
If a believer actually did commit the sins mentioned in slander,
then the punishment is removed from him immediately.
If a believer did not commit the sins, then there is great blessing
given to him as a result of receiving unfair slander.
Triple
compound discipline includes:
1)
Divine discipline for the mental attitude sins that motivate the
verbal sins.
2)
Divine discipline for the actual verbal sins. There are at least
five verbal sins for which there is discipline: gossip, slander,
maligning, judging, and dishonest
or distorted complaint against another person.
3)
Divine discipline for the sins which are mentioned (the law of the
reversal of divine disciplinary action).
There is great blessing in avoidance of sins of the tongue.
Psa
34:12-13
"Who
is the person who desires long life, and loves length of days that
he may see prosperity? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from
speaking slander."
The
pattern and punishment for the sins of the tongue is mentioned in
PSA 52:1-5
"Why
do you boast in evil, o mighty man? The grace of God endures all day
long. Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor, o worker
of deceit. You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking
what is right. You love all words that devour or destroy, o deceitful
tongue. But God will break you down forever. He will snatch you up
and tear you away from your tent
[human body],
and uproot you from the land of the living."
Principles regarding verbal sins and their consequences:
1)
Believers have deliverance from the sins of the tongue, JOB 5:19
"In
six troubles He will deliver you. Even in seven, evil will not touch
you. In famine He will deliver you from death, and in war from the
power of the sword. You will be hidden from the scourge of the
tongue. Neither will you be afraid of death when it comes."
2)
God protects the pastor from verbal sins, ISA 54:17
"'No
weapon that is formed against you will prosper, and every tongue
that accuses you in judgment, You
[Jesus Christ]
will
condemn. This is the heritage of the servant of the Lord and their
vindication is from Me,' decrees the Lord."
3)
It is important to recognize the sins of the tongue and separate
yourself from those who are habitually involved in them. Rom
16:17-18.
"I
urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and
put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have
learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our
Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery
they deceive the minds of naive people."
4)
Apostasy is related to the sins of the tongue, PSA 5:9
"Not
a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with
destruction. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they
speak deceit."
Notice
that it says that their throat and tongue are the opening of the grave.
5)
In the congregation, control of the tongue plus avoidance of the
sins of the tongue is a sign of spiritual maturity.
Jam
3:2
"If
anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man."
Verbal sins can destroy an entire congregation.
Jam
3:5
"The
tongue is a small part of the body and yet it boasts of great
things; behold how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire,
and the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is
set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and it
sets on fire the course of our life and it set on fire by hell."
Since the sins of the tongue can destroy a congregation, it is the
solemn duty of the pastor to warn and guard against this evil.
Those who commit the sins of the tongue are identified as mischief makers.
Job
15:35
"They
conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, therefore their mind
prepares deception."
Mischief is defined as the conduct or action resulting in harm,
trouble, or schism, especially against legitimate authority. A
mischief maker is against legitimate authority. Mischief makers in
the local church use attractiveness and personality resources to
acquire power and approbation.
Then they use this power to attract others, to discriminate, to
distract others, and to reject others and Bible doctrine. Mischief
makers can also perform good deeds, and this results in schism,
control, and manipulation of others. The end result is that authority
is attacked in three areas of the local church: husbands, parents,
and pastors.
Mischief makers stand between people who are attracted to them and
the teaching of the word of God from the pulpit. Mischief makers are
believers who use their abilities to stir up trouble and discord.
They cause peer pressure, heartache, and rejection in the local
church, which inevitably undermines the authority of the pastor in
the teaching of the word of God.
Psa
7:14.
"Behold,
he
[or she]
is
pregnant with evil, and he [or she] conceives mischief, and gives
birth to disillusion."
Psa
7:16
"The
mischief he causes returns on himself, and his violence comes down
on his own head."
Here, under the law of volitional responsibility, the believer as a
mischief maker inflicts on himself or herself unbearable suffering
from bad decisions from a position of weakness. Then out of these bad
decisions come the sins of the tongue. Mischief makers also
hallucinate; they dream and fantasize. They use doctrinal vocabulary
to hallucinate about their own spiritual status, because they believe
that they are more spiritually advanced than they really are. By
mischief making, they slip into the early stages of mental illness.
In their blind arrogance they hallucinate about their spiritual
status, so they fail to use recovery, and so compound their problem.
Mischief making generally originates in a believer, suffering from
environmental handicaps developed in childhood or adolescence, who
has a sincere desire to straighten out the world in the spheres where
he has personally been hurt. Mischief makers do not forget those
things which are behind; they want to right the wrongs of the world
where they have personally been victims. They start out by helping
others, but genuine expressions of gratitude often stimulate their
own desire to go farther and farther with straightening out the world.
Remember there is a danger in helping others, if it creates in you
approbation lust. If you are using the gift of helps, are you doing it as
unto the Lord, or because of the gratitude of others? The secret to the gift
of helps is to create dependency on God's word. The gift of helps was never
designed to create dependency on people, but only on Bible doctrine. Another
danger is that mischief makers find it stimulating if people become
dependent on them. If dependencies are created, then the believer has to be
strong enough from spiritual skills to avoid arrogance, power, and
approbation lust. In his arrogance the mischief maker begins telling others
how to run their lives, and tries to establish himself as the authority in
spiritual matters and life-in-general.
In this way, mischief makers are always involved in the sins of the
tongue. They are either judging others, or telling others how to run
their lives.
Mischief making is related to two categories of the sins of the tongue:
1)
Judging the life and production of others.
2)
Bullying others into producing dead works.
This bullying is accomplished through clever phrases which indicate
that you are not doing enough for God. For example:
A)
"You are hiding in doctrine."
B)
"We need less doctrine and more works."
C)
"Forget doctrine and get involved."
D)
"We need less preaching and more working."
This causes spiritually immature believers to become distracted from
doctrine and involved in dead works.
Five
categories of mischief makers:
1)
The sincere but ignorant believer, who is both self-righteous and a
crusader by nature, becomes compulsive and obsessive in his desire to
straighten out the lives of others. This is the interfering or
bullying mischief maker.
2)
Believers who establish themselves as role-models and experts on how
others should live are classified as control mischief makers. They
superimpose their own personal judgment over Bible Doctrine. They
establish their own authority, while rejecting the authority of the
pastor-teacher. They reject the right of self-determination in
others. They are quick to criticize other people, but when they are
criticized, they never face the issue, but switch to self-justification.
3)
The motivational mischief maker combines self-righteous arrogance
with crusader arrogance to promote legalism and dead works.
4)
The flawed mischief maker is the one who bypasses the infrastructure
of the local church, and forms a control group, which erodes the
authority of the Pastor-Teacher, thus creating a church within a church.
5)
The weak conscience mischief maker is inconsistent in exposure to
Bible Doctrine, or is so out of fellowship that doctrinal norms and
standards are ignored.
Lets look at the Hebrew vocabulary for the mischief maker. The word
awwen means mischief or trouble that moves to evil.
Psa
36:4
"He
plans mischief (awwen) on his bed; he sets himself on a path that is
not good, and he does not despise evil."
Eze
11:2
"Then
he said to me, son of man, these are the men who devise mischief and
give evil advice in the city."
The word hawwah means mischief related to lust.
Psa
52:2
"Your
tongue devises mischief like a sharp razor, o worker of deceit."
The word zimmah means mischief in the sense of arrogant thinking or
motivation for evil planning.
Psa
26:10
"In
whose hand is mischief and whose right hand is full of bribes."
The word amal means mischief in the sense of causing pain or misery.
Psa
10:7
"His
mouth is full of curses, deceit, and oppression; under his tongue is
mischief and wickedness."
The word ra means mischief in the sense of causing or producing evil.
Pro
6:14
"The
person who with persistence with what is wrong in his right lobe
devises mischief continually, who therefore spreads strife."
-
Conclusion -
-
11 principles on the verbal sin of slander as described in the Bible -
1)
Slander comes from the evil heart.
Luk
6:45
"The
good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is
good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is
evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart."
2)
It often arises from hatred.
Psa
109:3
"They
have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me
without cause."
3)
It can result from idleness.
1Ti
5:13
"And at the same time they also learn to be idle, as they go
around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also gossips and
busybodies, talking about things not proper to mention."
4)
The wicked are addicted to it.
Psa
50:20
"You
sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son."
5)
Hypocrites are addicted to it.
Pro
11:9
"With
his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor, but through
knowledge the righteous will be delivered."
6)
Slander is a characteristic of the devil.
Rev
12:10
"Then
I heard a loud voice in heaven say: 'Now have come the salvation and
the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his
Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our
God day and night, has been hurled down.'"
7)
They who indulge in it are fools.
Pro
10:18
"He
who conceals hatred has lying lips, and he who spreads slander is a fool."
8)
Women are especially warned against it.
Tit
2:3
"Older
women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious
gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good."
9)
Christ was exposed to it.
Mat
26:60
"And
they did not find any, even though many false witnesses came
forward. But later on two came forward,"
10)
Rulers are exposed to it.
Jud
8
"Yet
in the same manner these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh,
and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties."
11)
Ministers are exposed to it.
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