There has been much evidence for evil speech among Christians popping up all around us this season. There are many professing Christians speaking evil.
What is evil speech?
Evil speech is not what many Christians have been taught it is by the repetitive statements about “cussing” that comes from many pulpits. In some churches, you’ll hear a negative statement about “cussing” in nearly every service, while they never once actually mention what Scripture calls evil speech and warn the people against that. This could be because they are practicing such evil speech themselves but like feeling self-righteous because they don’t “cuss” but “sinners do.” If Jesus were to speak to them face to face like he did the Pharisees, I have no doubt he would call them hypocrites while looking them right in the eyes! And the modern ones would probably start plotting to kill him, or at least his reputation, like the ones did back then.
Nowhere in Scripture is evil or foul speech defined as being one word in a language versus another. God does not care which word for feces you choose to use, or even if you make an exclamation in pain, calling what happened crappy. So whether literal or metaphorical use of words, it is not bad in and of itself, despite man’s attempts to make one word better or worse than another by their own religious definitions. Our society is so overrun with such understanding of foul language, even though it is not scriptural, because of religious Christianity that has dominated this society for so long, and has taught such erroneously, just like they used to make even married couples feel ashamed of enjoying sex – thank God most of the churches have overcome that religious bull.
Now we have movie ratings influenced by synonyms that all mean the same thing, but if the actor says, “Poop!,” it can be a lower rating than a certain alternative synonym. If we stop to think about this seriously without just simply accepting conformity to traditions of men, we can realize just how foolish it is, and it makes me wonder what in the world the original religious people who made such rules up were thinking, or if they were.
I mean, their KJV translations say, “Ass,” but if someone says that aloud in front of them, they’ll call it foul language. I guess their beloved KJV Bibles use foul language, then. Foolishness! But, if you were raised with this understanding of things since you could speak, it is so ingrained that despite the fact it makes no reasonable sense for one synonym to be acceptable while another is bad language, it is normal, and accepted based on that merit alone.
You may think, “Why is he going off on that tangent?” It is important in coming to the right definition of what is evil speech. There is a counterfeit rule of evil speech being passed around in churches that has nothing to do with the original. If you are buying into the fake religious ideas about speech, you may be missing the real and genuine issue concerning evil speech. It is a distraction to many Christians, such as a church lady who will get on to you for saying, “Ass,” with no malice in its use, while she’ll then go gossip about you doing it, and harm your reputation among people. Irony. Which one do you think God is going to judge as wrong?
So let’s get rid of such from among us, and focus on what truly is a wrong use of our mouths, to use them maliciously to harm others and their reputations.
Here are some examples of what Scripture defines as evil or foul speech, which Jesus taught comes from the wickedness of someone’s heart. Gossip (tail-bearing – negative reports being told to people who have no business knowing them), slander (spoken words to harm someone’s reputation – we now call libel the written form), backbiting (conversation that is like gnawing at someone behind their back – relationship backstabbing can go along with this), false testimony (lying about what someone did or said), and sowing discord (division) among the brethren, such as trying to form clicks and sects based on malice toward others being disagreed with.
In the past few weeks I’ve seen a major issue caused at one local assembly due to this, a minor issue with just a handful of people involved which harmed our ministry reputation among some from another local assembly, along with several other people I’ve personally witnesses professing to be Christian but using their mouths to speak evil of other people, for various reasons, including to speak evil of ministries doing things they neither understand nor agree with. Even if we don’t understand something or agree with it, that doesn’t mean we are justified to go around speaking evil of that person or group.
In addition a local assembly staff member actually showed no concern whatsoever that he’d become involved in evil speech that affected our ministry, though he calls himself a friend.
This is an indicator of the state of most churches and their leaders, when their hearts are so insensitive to this issue of evil speech and things God calls abominations. They of course love to get stuck on spiritually immature views of synonyms in a language and make sure to remind their congregations to stop cussing. I never hear them teach their people to stop using their mouths for evil and harm, through the scriptural ways of evil speech mentioned above.
If you are a Christian, and have a problem using your mouth to do harm to others by attacking them and their reputation to others, repent. Ask God to deliver you from such bondage, and set you free to use your mouth in a way that is an overflow of the Holy Spirit abundance in your heart, full of the fruit of the Spirit, including love, joy, and peace.
If you are a Christian leader who is not instructing those under your leadership about this subject, repent, take it seriously, because God does, and provide the proper instruction on the matter to your people. This is such an important issue as evidenced by the overwhelming amount of evil speech going on in churches amongst the regular members, even against their own fellow members and leaders! It is ridiculous, and I guarantee you leaders that you will be held accountable if you have not dealt with your people about such in the camp. The presence of such could be one reason your church lacks the tangible manifest glory of God, because of this sin in the camp. It is a sign of hatefulness in the hearts of the members, and is thus the opposite and contrary to the love of God the Holy Spirit would bring into the lives of those involved.
Also, people and congregations claiming to be Spirit-filled need to get a clue, that if they and their congregations are full of evil speech coming from the wicked abundance of their hearts, they cannot be Spirit-filled. They can call themselves that all they want, but it is impossible to be true. James mentions this in his letters, that two types of water cannot come from the same spring, both bitter and sweet water. Bitter water comes from bitter springs while sweet water comes from sweet springs. People with bitter speech are full of bitterness, not the sweetness of heaven, the Holy Spirit. Their regular evil speech reveals their hearts, regardless of what they say they are. I could stand in a garage and call myself a car all day long but that doesn’t make it true.
It is time the Pentecostal groups and churches start realizing that being Spirit-filled is much more evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit coming out of the Spirit-filled heart, rather than speaking in tongues, which can be faked by people just speaking gibberish. Speaking gibberish is not the same as getting baptized with the Holy Spirit, or being Spirit-filled every day. I can stand in a room and pray with a stammering tongue for hours, but if I then go out and slander and backbite, I’m proving that the Holy Spirit is not what I’m filled with at the time. If my heart were overflowing with the Holy Spirit, my speech would be holy – meaning it would be full of love for God and others. Again, my speech being holy does not mean I need to conform to man’s religious rules.
Yes, love may correct at times, as this ministry does expose religious bondage, and other problems Christians face. But that too is love, because we want the people set free from such. Do people in what we expose take it personal sometimes and feel attacked? Yes. But again, if you examine our speech and writing, you will see we don’t go around practicing the evil speech as mentioned above. Even when we bring God’s correction to the people that he has put on our hearts, in love for them, it is not personal toward one person or group or ministry, to try to destroy such or their reputations. In fact, we’d love all ministries participating in religious bondage be set free and become free indeed ministries in Christ full of his purity without dilution.
But, even how ministries warn and bring correction to the Body, as five-fold ministries should, must be done in a righteous manner from the overflow of a heart full of God’s love, joy, and peace! If it steps on toes and they take it personal, oh well. We hate that such happens and wish everyone would just get free from the issues we expose, that are destructive issues in their lives. But we must speak in love, when it is well received, and when it is not.
We also must not attack our persecutors back! When you are persecuted for what God is doing and leading in your life, rejoice! They persecuted Jesus too, and great is your reward as you grow in Christ-likeness manifest in the flesh, and thus become persecuted because you are different. Just keep loving everyone anyway, and refuse to yourself practice any evil speech, no matter how much other Christians around you are doing so, and justifying it as okay.
If all Christians would repent of this one issue, it would be no stretch of the imagination to see them united, rather than divided by denomination, sect, political groups and clicks in churches, etc. We should be rallying around Christ if we truly all follow as disciples, rather than squabbling and ripping each other new holes with evil speech! At least in the western world we are past the horrific practice of past Christians who actually murdered people over religious disagreement. Now we need to get rid of the killing people with words!
Our prayer is that the Most High would pour out a heavy wave of conviction to cause born of the Spirit Christians, who truly fellowship in Christ, to be ashamed of any involvement in evil speech against others, and repent! With this, may there continue to be a line drawn among the churches and groups of Christ-followers to separate the true believers from the faker church players.
