Paul-A Victim Of Slander Series

But to pre-judge and slander before you hear the evidence is evil of the lowest kind, and it makes the

believer who does it extremely worldly. The sins of the flesh tend to destroy you, but the sins of the

spirit tend to destroy others. This makes it an even worse evil.

The sin of slander puts us in the category of a drug dealer. It is self-destruction to be a user, but

the dealer is destroying other lives and he doesn't care. Roger Palm tells of how he wrote an article

for a Christian Journal on the subject of clergy and their families. The editor left out the positive

side, which gave the article balance. The lack of balance led to negative reaction, and he had a lot of

his friends turn cold on him. His reputation for balance was lost. He felt like suing, but he knew this

was not the answer. A wise pastor helped him see that even Jesus was slandered, and he was called a

glutton and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. The people who knew him personally

did not listen, for they knew who he was. He was saying that the people who know you will know

you are balanced, and those who misjudge you do not know you, and so it is their problem and not

yours. This helped him adjust and go on.

Roger Palm now says that he doesn't believe everything he reads, even if it is by the very man he

may be evaluating, for his editor may have radically changed his intent. The point is, we need to be

very careful in dealing with another person's reputation. Slander is not unforgivable sin. Jesus died

for this sin, and we need to confess it and get cleansed from it. But the consequences can last a

lifetime if by careless speech we ruin another's reputation. Even sin forgiven can go on having

negative consequences. May God motivate us to make sure that we never make any innocent person

a victim of slander.