The Book of James Week Four Lesson Five

“Righteous Versus Malicious”

“Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?” James 4:11-12

This passage isn’t just about gossip. It’s about malicious lie-telling. It’s about taking on the role of judge and jury. Intentionally telling lies and spreading them around, is wrong. The Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, denounces the sin of defamation against God and our fellow man more than any other.

Read James 4:11-12. What do you think slander means?

What do we do when we slander someone?

What commandment are we breaking? (See Exodus 20:16)

The modern term for “slander” is “defamation of character.” It means, “proclaiming something false with malicious intent.” Each of us has a right to have our character preserved, but none of us are exempt from slander. Because we live in a fallen world, defamation is present. James is teaching us, as followers of Jesus, to refrain from lying about others and then spreading it around.

The Greek word for “slander,” used in our passage today is “diablos” which means “a malicious utterance.” The English word “diabolic” comes from this word and means “showing wickedness and cunning typical of the devil.”

Read Romans 1:28-32. The Apostle Paul is talking about God’s wrath against mankind in this portion of Scripture. What has God given certain people over to? 

What have they become filled with?

In other words, those who choose to be disobedient to God and be obedient to selfish, self-promoting, character-bashing lives, will reap the result of their. He rejects them. Without God, this is a death sentence. 

Believers, are free from the death sentence because of Jesus. James, is warning us that God will discipline His children. It is a test of faith to avoid slander even though everything within us wants to get the other person.

Proverbs has a lot to say about this very subject. Look up the following verses and list the effects of slander and gossip found in each one:

Proverbs 11:13 -

Proverbs 16:28 -

Proverbs 18:8 -

Proverbs 20:19 -

Proverbs 26:20 -

Being slanderous and taking the place of God as judge is a sin. But what about when we know someone, especially one who is in authority over others, is sinning against others and leading them down the wrong path? What do we do about that? Do we just sit back and say nothing?

Read Jude 1:3-4 (NLT) I have for you here:

“Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

What does Jude warn us about?

Look at the sentence I italicized. What is the difference between this and judging?

Is it wrong to stand up and speak truth? How should a believer go about this? 

I believe that we should never slander someone. Slander and defending the church, the Bible and all believers, is different. It becomes sin when we embellish truth and spread gossip. It takes obedience to what God is telling you to do versus what we as humans want to see happen.

Here’s an example of defending the truth versus being slanderous. Read Galatians 2:11-14. What did Paul do? Why?

Was this a sin? Why or why not?

What is the truth that Paul was defending?

We must stand up and proclaim the truth but we should never take on the discipline portion of an individual. The discipline is God’s to impart. This is where judgment comes in. For example, if you heard a preacher preach an outright false teaching, you go to them and point it out. God takes care of the rest.

Read Psalm 75:7. Who is the proper judge? What does He do?

As believers we must trust in God’s judgment alone. However, we must stand up to what we know is true and what goes against the Bible. We must live lives of integrity. It is wrong to allow sin to flourish in our lives and in the lives of our churches. We must be aware of what goes on, bring the sin to light and allow God to deal with it. 

Slander must never be a part of our lives. We must always ask ourselves this, “Am I being malicious or am I living righteously in God’s Will?” This takes staying close to God and listening to Him as we spend time in prayer and in His Word. Remember we are living in a battle field. But, we learned in our last lesson that God gives us the spiritual armor to fight. Let’s stand unified behind the Truth ~ Jesus.