Thou shalt not raise a false report.
Slander characterized, prohibited, and punished
I. Slander is characterized.
1. Originating a false report. It may be from--
(1) Envy.
(2) Carelessness.
(3) Hasty conclusions.
2. Listening to false reports.
3. Circulating a false report.
II. Slander is prohibited.
1. Affecting antecedents.
2. Affecting character.
3. Affecting family or social relations.
4. Affecting goods.
III. Slander is punished. The slanderer is--
1. Excluded from religious fellowship (Psalms 15:3).
2. Exposed to contempt of mankind (Proverbs 10:18).
3. Object of Divine vengeance (Psalms 10:5).
4. Excluded from kingdom of heaven (Revelation 22:15). (J. W. Burn.)
Description of slander
The tongue of the slanderer is a devouring fire, which tarnishes whatever it touches; which exercises its fury on the good grain equally as on the chaff, on the profane as on the sacred: which, wherever it passes, leaves only desolation and ruin; digs even into the bowels of the earth, and fixes itself on things the most hidden; turns into vile ashes what only a moment before had appeared to us so precious and brilliant; acts with more violence and danger than ever in the time when it was apparently smothered up and almost extinct; which blackens what it cannot consume, and sometimes sparkles and delights before it destroys. (Massillon.)
Envious slander
The worthiest persons are frequently attacked by slanders, as we generally find that to be the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at. (Bacon.)
How to avoid slander
The celebrated Boerhaave, who had many enemies, used to say that he never thought it necessary to repeat their calumnies. “They are sparks,” said he, “which, if you do not blow them, will go out of themselves. The surest method against scandal is to live it down by perseverance in well-doing, and by prayer to God, that He would cure the distempered minds of those who traduce and injure us.” It was a good remark of another, that “the malice of ill tongues cast upon a good man is only like a mouthful of smoke blown upon a diamond, which, though it clouds its beauty for the present, yet it is easily rubbed off, and the gem restored, with little trouble to its owner.”
Slander reproved
When any one was speaking ill of another in the presence of Peter the Great, he would shortly interrupt him, and say, “Well now; but has he not a bright side? Come, tell me what have you noticed as excellent in him! It is easy to splash mud; but I would rather help a man to keep his coat clean.”
Listening to slander
Calumny would soon starve and die of itself, if nobody took it in, and gave it lodging. (Leighton.)
There would not be so many open mouths if there were not so many open ears. (Bishop Hall.)
The progress of slander
It is AElian’s observation, how that men being in danger to be stung by scorpions, use to place their beds in water, yet the politic serpents have a device to reach them: they get up to the top of the house, where one takes hold, the next hangs at the end of him, a third upon the second, a fourth upon the third, and so making a kind of serpentine rope, they at last wound the man. And thus it is, that amongst scandalizers and slanderers, one begins to whisper, another makes it a report, a third enlargeth it to a dangerous calumny, a fourth divulgeth it for a truth. So the innocent man’s good name, which, like a merchant’s wealth, got in many years, and lost in an hour, is maimed, and so secretly traduced, that it is somewhat hard to find out the villain that did it. (J. Spencer.)
False reports
The Rev. C.H. Spurgeon has given publicity to the following letter: “Dear Mr. Spurgeon,--As I see that you are still occasionally put to the trouble of answering inquiries as to the truth of various anecdotes, etc., concerning yourself, I thought the following brief statement might interest you, or some of your numerous readers, if you think it well to publish it. About seventeen years ago I was for some time at a well-known health resort on the south coast. At the table d’hote I sat next to a young married lady, who was, alas! consumptive, and of that temperament which is so common in such cases, tres spirituelle, and very learned and accomplished. You may be sure she never lacked auditors for her lively conversation. At dessert one day she was ‘telling stories’ (in the literal and juvenile sense of the phrase) about yourself. I let her go on for some time, until I thought the fun was getting a little too fast; and then I said, ‘I hope Mrs., you do not believe the stories you are detailing, because I assure you, I heard nearly all of them in my boyhood, before Mr. Spurgeon was born, and that most of them were then attributed to Rowland Hill--doubtless with equal lack of authenticity.’ She looked me calmly in the face, with a comical expression, and replied, ‘Oh, Mr.
, we never ask whether such stories are true; it is quite sufficient if we find them amusing.’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘so long as that is understood all round, by all means keep on.’ The poor, brilliant, thoughtless woman and her husband also have many years since passed away; but she has many, many successors, who are without her wit, and not quite so goodhumouredly candid as to their practice. If only you can get it ‘understood all round ‘ that such folk really do not consider whether their ‘anecdotes‘ are true or not, it might save you some trouble. Yours faithfully.” Mr. Spurgeon himself adds: “This is quite true, but it is a pity that people should lie in jest. The lady was let off very easily. Our friend has touched the root of the matter, It is not malice, but the passion for amusement, which creates the trade in falsehood, which never seems to decline.”
Description of calumny
Apelles painted her thus: There sits a man with great and open ears, inviting Calumny, with his hand held out, to come to him; and two women, Ignorance and Suspicion, stand near him. Calumny breaks out in a fury; her countenance is comely and beautiful, her eyes sparkle like fire, and her face is inflamed with anger; she holds a lighted torch in her left hand, and with her right twists a young man’s neck, who holds up his hands in prayer to the gods. Before her goes Envy, pale and nasty; on her side are Fraud and Conspiracy; behind her follows Repentance, clad in mourning, and her clothes torn, with her head turned backwards, as if she looked for Truth, who comes slowly after. (A. Tooke.)
False insinuations
Often are the most painful wrongs inflicted through the medium of covert inuendoes and malignant insinuations. Half of a fact is a whole falsehood. He who gives the truth a false colouring by a false manner of telling it is the worst of liars. Such was Doeg in his testimony against the priests. He stated the facts in the case, but gave them such an artful interpretation as to impart to them the aspect and influence of the most flagrant falsehoods. It was through the same mode of procedure that our Lord was condemned.
An unrighteous witness.--
The duties of witnesses
I. Not to co-operate in an unrighteous cause (verse 1). This “commandment is exceeding broad,” and conveys a lesson--
1. To judicial witnesses.
(1) Personal friendships.
(2) The guilt of the accused on some other point.
(3) A show of justice must not influence us.
2. To all partisans, controversialists, politicians.
3. To trades unionists, etc.
II. Not to co-operate in any unrighteous cause because it is popular (verse 2).
1. Because majorities are no test of truth. Multitudes may be roused by passion, prejudice, or self-interest.
2. Because men should be weighed as well as counted.
3. Because righteousness, from the constitution of human nature, is often unpopular and in the minority.
III. Not to co-operate in an unrighteous cause Because it is apparently benevolent (verse 3; Leviticus 19:15).
1. Because we may be putting a premium on vice which is the source of all misery.
(1) By endeavouring to conceal the crime.
(2) By extolling other virtues, so as to minimize the enormity of guilt. But to what purpose is it if we extol a man’s honesty, if he is lazy, or a drunkard; or his sobriety, if a thief?
2. Because justice is above mere sentiment, and for the well-being of the whole community, and not for the exclusive benefit of a class.
3. Because of its influence on the object himself. Let a man feel that you do this or that for him simply because he is poor, and he will see no advantage in helping himself.
Learn then--
1. To entertain none but righteous considerations.
2. To pursue them at all cost. (J. W. Burn.)