Most of the time our tongue stays out of sight and yet the tongue has the power to

destroy lives, to damage relationships, even to bring down nations. Today on Truth for Life we'll

look at the often overlooked and all too easy sin of slander. Alistair Begg continues our study in the book of James.

James chapter 4 and verse 7 submit yourselves then to God resist the devil and he will flee from you,

come near to God and he will come near to you, wash your hands, you sinners and purify your

hearts you double-minded, grieve, mourn and will, change your laughter to mourning and your joy to

gloom, humble yourselves therefore before the Lord and he will lift you up. Brothers do not slander

one another anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it.

When you judge the law you're not keeping it but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one

law giver and judge the one who is able to save and destroy but you who are you to judge your neighbor.

Father we pray that as we have our Bibles open before us and as we turn to the Scriptures

for the help of the Holy Spirit to quicken our understanding, to illumine the page to us,

to bring us into alignment with your truth and to send us on our way, rejoicing on the pathway of

obedience. We ask for your help in this humbly and sincerely in Christ's name. Amen.

If we've been around churches for any length of time it will sadly have become apparent to us

that we contribute to the circumstance whereby it is possible for us to rage and rail against things

that are so clearly wrong on the outside while at the same time failing to pay any real attention

to the things that are wrong and dreadfully wrong on the inside. And James here introduces us in

verse 11 and 12 first to the sin of slander and then to the sin of judgmentalism. I think it was

Seneca who's reputed to have said when I think over all the things I have said I envy dumb people

and those of us who use our tongues a lot and our talkative will very quickly be able to identify

with that kind of sentiment. We're not going to get beyond the simple sentence with which verse 11

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