Words Mean Things Part 3
December 9, 2009 @ 11:20 AM EST | Category:
Gospel Theology
If someone said to you,
"If you don't have anything good to say about someone, don't say it at all."
Would that be a Biblical statement? In other words, whether implicitly or explicitly could you, in context, back that phrase up with scripture?
Most of us at one point or another have either been on the giving end or receiving end of that statement. I recently heard one Christian instruct other Christians in this manner and wondered whether or not they had really thought this through.
I believe that this kind of advice is just one more tell-tale sign of how worldly philosophy has crept into the church. Sticking close to the scriptures will prevent this. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,"
For an example of how the above phrase is unbiblical here is 10,000 ft overview of Matthew 23:1-36. And this is without much digging. (Nevermind mentioning whole books of the OT prophets who constantly proclaimed dreadful things.)
In Matthew 23:1-6 Jesus pronounces woes and judgments on the Scribes and Pharisees. He calls the hypocrites, sons of Hell, blind guides, blind fools, greedy, self-indulgent, unclean, full of death, lawless, sons of murderers, serpents, brood of vipers, condemned to hell, and murderers themselves.
Now, if the above principle applies that we shouldn't say anything at all if it's not nice then Jesus is WAY out of line here.
But, as Christians we should be more concerned about speaking truth, in love, (Ephesians 4:15) rather than speaking only so-called "good" about someone. I would imagine Joel Osteen could market the above phrase to his congregation as bona-fide biblical truth. That phrase, to me, is borderline word-faith, Robert Schuller, positivism.
Furthermore, if the above phrase is true then you would literally have to trim the gospel down to nothing. You could not speak of sin, lawlessness, rebellion, hatred of God, judgment to come, eternal hell, etc. with a lost person AT ALL because, although those things are true, they are not in line with being "good." Your gospel would be so lop-sided that it would probably fall off the table.
...just a quick post to possibly wake you up to some worldly philosophy that you might still be held captive to and promoting rather than the truth of scripture....
