Are YOU a REVILER? (part 1)
How often have we spoken thoughtlessly, “saying things which [we] ought not” (1 Tim. 5:13)? How often have we reviled or belittled others, spread gossip and rumors, cursed or spoken profane words, flattered or misled? If we’re honest with ourselves, we’d probably lose count on at least some of these!
The apostle James wrote,
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell [lit. Gehenna].
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. (Jam. 3:6-10.)
Though there are many sins of the tongue, let’s focus here on the one addressed here by James: cursing. Speaking evil and deadly poison. Or, as it’s called elsewhere, reviling.
Danger!
Earlier, James had warned, “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless” (Jam. 1:26). That’s extraordinary! Is it really true that going to church, doing nice things for others (“serving”), keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days, and even believing in Jesus Christ are USELESS if we don’t bridle our tongues?
Yes indeed! The apostle Paul declares in Gal. 5:19-21:
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
In the Psalms, King David also foretold the fate of those who don’t bridle their tongues. “For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride, and for the cursing and lying which they speak” (Psa. 59:12). Again, “As he loved cursing, so let it come to him; as he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him” (Psa. 109:17).
To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10).
Yes, our tongues can and will keep us out of God’s Kingdom if we don’t bridle them! So what is it that we shouldn’t say? What, exactly, is reviling?
What Is Reviling?
“Revilers” in 1 Cor. 6:10, where we just read, is Strong’s # G3060, or loidoros in Greek. Strong’s defines it as “abusive, i.e. a blackguard”; Thayer’s defines it as “a railer, reviler.”
Both mean the same. Dictionary.com defines “revile” as “to assail with contemptuous or opprobrious language; address or speak of abusively.” As for “rail,” this is defined as “to utter bitter complaint or vehement denunciation.”
In other words, a reviler is a verbal abuser, someone who rails against and denounces others. Verbal abuse often springs from a rabid temper, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mat. 12:34). It includes many of the “works of the flesh” that we saw in Gal. 5:20: “hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions.”
Common themes of verbal abuse, or reviling, include the following:
Flying into a rage for little, if any, reason
Shouting and screaming
Name-calling and belittling
Lambasting the person for past mistakes (real or imagined)
Hurling accusations
Making threats
But these don’t always merge into a single outburst or tantrum. The verbal abuse can take a more subtle form, such as persistent nitpicking and belittling.
The reviler tongue-lashes others, not because they’ve committed a heinous crime, but because they’ve said or done something which displeased the reviler. In essence, the reviler is self-focused, expects others to conform to his or her wishes, and reacts with verbal abuse if they do not.
In the Old Testament, the word most commonly translated as “revile” is qalal (Strong’s # H7043), which the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon defines as, “be slight, swift, trifling.” To revile, then, is to make light of or diminish someone, to treat that person with contempt. To dishonor or belittle.
Young’s Literal Translation offers two vivid examples. God promised Abraham, “And I bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming [qalal] thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been all families of the ground” (Gen. 12:3; YLT). And of those who would dishonor or belittle their parents, we read, “Cursed is he who is making light [qalal] of his father and his mother (Deut. 27:16; YLT).
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ warned about reviling and even gave specific examples. Here’s Mat. 5:21-22:
21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.'
22 "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.
Both “raca” and “fool” are examples of verbal abuse or belittling. Notice that to even be angry with someone else for little or no reason is a grave matter, but to give vent to that anger and revile someone puts one in danger of burning in the lake of fire.
Some versions, such as the YLT, translate “raca” (Strong’s # G4469) as “empty fellow.” It stems from the Hebrew or Aramaic word reyk (Strong’s # H7386), which appears many times in the Old Testament. For example, when David’s wife Michal reviled him for dancing before God, she compared him to a reyk, or worthless fellow: “Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, ‘How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows [reyk] shamelessly uncovers himself!’” (2 Sam. 6:20). To say “raca” to someone, then, is to revile that person as empty or worthless.
As for “fool,” it’s translated from the Greek word moros (Strong’s # G3474), from which we get our English word “moron.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon notes that it is also “equivalent to impious, godless (because such a man neglects and despises what relates to salvation).” To denounce someone as a fool, idiot, moron, stupid, etc. is exactly what Jesus condemned.
There’s also some thought that Jesus, as He did with raca, may have intended a Hebrew term, in this case moreh or marah (Strong’s # H4784), which means “rebel.” Brown-Driver-Briggs defines marah as “contentious, refractory, rebellious.” When Moses and Aaron disobeyed God by striking the rock, Moses directed that very word at the Israelites: “And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, ‘Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?’” (Num. 20:10). But God reminded Moses that he himself had disobeyed God’s instructions and rebelled (marah) against the Most High (Num. 27:14).
Whether this was the term Jesus intended or not, notice the similarity. A fool, or moron, is one who “neglects and despises what relates to salvation,” as Thayer’s defined it, a fact illustrated many times in the Book of Proverbs. A rebel rejects God and likewise neglects and despises His instructions. Thus, in this context, a rebel and a fool are one and the same.
“Am I Guilty?”
So let each one of us examine our own selves and ask some questions. Am I guilty of reviling? Do I often get angry for little or no reason, or have a violent temper? Do I have a habit of belittling or verbally abusing others who don’t conform to my wishes? Do I revile or belittle other people, not because they have done some terrible evil, but simply because they have displeased me?
If the honest answer to any of these questions is “Yes,” then let us heed the warning of our Savior that those who do these things are in danger of the lake of fire. As the Bible tells us many times, revilers will not be in the Kingdom of God.
Revilers have no place among God’s people, either in this age or in the age to come. The apostle Paul grouped them together with the rest of the wicked, and told us to put them out of our midst: “But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner – not even to eat with such a person” (1 Cor. 5:11).
Now, to be clear, it is appropriate to condemn wickedness. If it were not, we could not even condemn reviling! In some cases, it is appropriate to speak ill of the wicked and revile them, as we’ll see later on in this series, but this requires wisdom and discernment.
As God’s people, we are to be one with Him. Jesus prayed to His Father on our behalf, that we “all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us” (John 17:21). As such, we must learn to love what our God loves and to hate what He hates.
God hates sin and wickedness, and so should we! But we must take care not to sin with our lips, or to revile people whom God told us to honor.
To Be Continued…
So who, exactly, should we not revile? Yeshua/Jesus specifically forbade the reviling of brothers, that is, fellow believers: “Whoever says to his brother…” The apostle Paul declared that revilers in general won’t be in God’s Kingdom.
But elsewhere, the Bible singles out specific groups of people to forbid reviling them. Next time, we’ll take a look at these!
Comments
Post a Comment