For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. (Proverbs 26:20)
The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body. (Proverbs 26:22)
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. (James 3:5-6)
There are some crimes that are obviously heinous and disgraceful. These are the ones that hit the headlines for their graphic nature and obviously harmful impact. We recoil in horror and dread at the re-telling of the incident and rightly express a desire that justice be done to properly reprimand perpetrators of such horrific acts that can forever scar the hearts of the victims.
There are far more deadly crimes that take place every day in broad daylight that are nothing less than the assassination of characters without due process, consideration, mercy and compassion. These leave far more devastating impacts on the lives of the victims that not only scars the hearts but also seriously disfigures the very soul leaving a distorted outlook that affects relationships. Not only are these crimes rarely ever detected, they are rarely ever pursued and properly dealt with. That is because in their nature they appear relatively harmless, yet have power far greater than given credit for, but the innocuous use of the tongue.
It is so prevalent and easy to engage in the whispering campaign against someone. Just pick up a vendetta or even a justified disliking of someone and let that slowly drip feed poison in stolen words to others. Everyone, the wise man says, loves a juicy piece of gossip that always appears so secretive – just between you and me. It’s so tasty to digest these words that we don’t pay too much attention to the health warning that comes with them. As they settle deep within corrupting any loving attitude we may have held for the person being spoken of, it further poisons our mind not only in our engagement with the person, but also in spreading the poison surreptitiously to others.
How often a person stays in a situation the victim of the whispering campaign never understanding why they are the recipient of negative looks or fake smiles. There’s no room for recourse, of course, because there’s no law against it. Yet the suffering is evident and can become suffocating. How pervasive this can be all because of the power of that tongue that as James so cannily depicts in the metaphor as the spark that starts a fire that spreads through the forest of hearts and minds of hearers who take it on board.
This is why the advice given on how to fight the fire from the wise man becomes all the more important. It’s not about being derogatory in front of someone’s face. It is about being responsible and mature about relationships and wherever possible seeking to make peace or at least make any underlying sense of dissatisfaction open whilst processing it appropriately for the good of everyone. It’s about having the guts to be able to say the same thing to a brother’s face as you would behind his back and have the compassion to have something to say that builds rather than destroys the sister’s character. Or if you don’t have anything good to say, not saying anything. That can kill the whispering campaign dead in the water. Rather than talking about the someone behind their back and poisoning the minds of others, that open approach and not going to whispers can do more good than harm especially in looking to build bridges rather than burn them.
Exposing such malicious whispering campaigns and killing them dead through transparency and honesty in relationships may be sordid business and mark someone else as the targets for quiet abuse. It is far better, however, to live with that purity of heart and mind in dealings with all, than to slowly have attitudes and behaviours become ever more twisted by that sick approach to seek the downfall of another.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 