Avoiding All Lies and Deceit (3): Avoiding this Evil in the Church

Backbiting, slandering, rash judging, and falsifying a man’s words are the atmosphere in which bitterness against the office-bearers—the pastor because his sermons are not “up to snuff,” and the elders because they do not do anything about it—grows. And children who are present soak in that bitterness so that they, too, despise the pastor and the elders, which has a devastating effect upon their ability to receive the catechism instruction from their pastor. 

God is not glorified in that no matter how zealous for the truth the group appears to be. If the pastor has weaknesses and infirmities, the members must bear patiently with him. If they are serious weaknesses, the elders must address them in a proper way. Raising sects and mutiny in the church under the guise of defending the truth is never justified in a faithful Christian, but is the sinful way of schism.

Avoiding All Lies and Deceit (2): Receive No Evil

Avoiding All Lies and Deceit (1): Speak No Evil

Jesus' enemies deliberately changed the meaning of the Lord’s words to suit their own wicked purposes, which was to secure condemnation against Jesus or to curry favor with the religious leaders of Israel. It is also possible to falsify a man’s words, even if you quote him verbatim. You omit from your quote a qualifying statement that further explains the intention of the neighbor. The result is that you deliberately make him seem to say something that he did not actually mean. To falsify a man’s words is wicked, because a man himself must determine his own meaning. We may not impose a foreign meaning on our neighbor’s words. If a man is unclear, then in charity we must seek to determine the meaning of his words either by asking him or, if that is not possible, by reading his words carefully in their context.