Words

Words

He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.

Proverbs 21:23, NIV

During the Middle Ages, a young man approached a monk and confessed, “I’ve sinned by making slanderous statements about another person. What should I do?” The monk replied, “Put a feather on every doorstep in town.” That’s exactly what the young man did. Then he came back to the monk and asked, “Is there anything else I should do?” The monk said, “Yes. Go back and retrieve all those feathers.” The young man was upset and cried, “But that’s not possible! The wind has probably blown the feathers all over town!” The wise monk responded, “In the same way, your slanderous words are impossible to retrieve.”

To slander is to speak falsely of someone and hurt his or her reputation. This can happen in many different ways, possibly most often when we jump to conclusions (or join our children in jumping to conclusions) about another person. If the conclusion we come to regarding someone else is false, we have been guilty of slander.

Sometimes we forget that slander is prohibited in the ninth commandment: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16, NIV). The commandments about murder, stealing, or adultery seem to stand out more, but God hates slander because the devil does it too—about us! Satan is called the great accuser because he opposes Christians and accuses us before God.

Since we don’t like the idea of being falsely accused, we’re wise to be careful about protecting the reputations of others. Once the feathers are distributed, they can’t be easily retrieved.

Father,

Please help us to guard our mouths from slandering others. Amen.