Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will absolutely destroy our neighbor.
Think about it.
Think about how much as Christians we intentionally ignore God’s teaching concerning how we talk, our misinformation, joining the prayer chain to keep up on the gossip, giving false witness to conversations and events to enhance our position in a relationship with a person or a group, getting revenge by cultivating a story that damages another person’s reputation because we are angry and resentful.
Let it fly, baby. That’s right. As the wife of a previous associate once told me concerning a problem she was having on the job: “They don’t know who they’re messing with.” And she said this like it was a good thing.
(Proverbs 25:18 GW) Like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow, so is a person who gives false testimony against his neighbor.
But we don’t think about it because we choose not to. Too much information. Too much information that would convict my sinful soul. Too much dissonance for a rebellious heart.
Don’t confuse me with the facts, even if the source is God.
So I will slant the account, bend the facts, give false testimony or witness, and in doing so God tells me that I am clubbing the person with a sledge hammer, cutting and stabbing them with a sword and piercing them with an arrow.
And we do it without a second thought.
Why?
Because this is our nature and this is our behavioral pattern in interpersonal relationships.
In short, this is how we do things, in spite of what God says.
