The Ten | Part 9 | Don’t Be A Bad Mouther!

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.  Exodus 20:16 (NIV)

²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.  Romans 1:29-31 (NIV)

God has a real issue with us bad mouthing each other

¹⁸ Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow is one who gives false testimony against a neighbor. Proverbs 25:18 (NIV)

⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. ¹¹ Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹² My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. James 3:9-12 (NIV)

Our words can bless or they can curse, which honors God?

¹ Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?

² The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; ³ whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; ⁴ who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; ⁵ who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things

will never be shaken.   Psalm 15:1-5 (NIV)