By now many know Rick Warren’s son committed suicide after years of battling depression. Our prayers are with the Warren family during their time of grief. May our God who comforts the hurting envelop them with His Spirit of comfort.
What angers many right now is that in the midst of the Warren tragedy, haters are attacking a family deeply wounded by unimaginable grief… some of which are from the family of faith. In response, I highly recommend a well written evaluation by Beth Moore (CLICK HERE). Now for a few thoughts about “church haters” (Odd term isn’t it?).
Meditate long and hard on Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Think on this verse. Drive it deep into your soul. Commit it to memory. Ask God to edit your thoughts and words by His Spirit as you live each day.
Just because something is… or might be true… does NOT mean it should be said. If you’ve heard (Or know) something negative about someone else, there is no good reason for you to say anything to someone else about it (Including your best friend). Keeping Ephesians 4:29 in mind, 99.99% of the time the best thing we can do is keep our mouth shut… unless our words are purposeful to build someone else up.
This is close to my heart because I’ve observed and experienced (In church!) people embellishing events… gossiping… slandering… and wounding the character of other Christians. Not only that, they justify their actions (In some warped way) that they are actually defending truth and standing for righteousness! These people don’t shoot the wounded in the church, they wound them… kick them… and keep doing it after the event is over.
Yes, it angers me when I see and am around that type event. It troubles me most when it is done by those who are supposedly church leaders. What is in a person’s heart will come out of their mouth. Consider Matthew 12:34-37…
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
It is no wonder people don’t care to hear about Jesus when from the same person they have heard criticism, vilification, and slander about one who is supposed to be part of their family of faith! People in the church must remember the words of Jesus as recorded in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
This is oh so true. What goes in our ears in difference to people and things should not come out our mouths. God bless.
AMEN! Thank you for writing about this because it is so true.