Now most Christians understand they need to be committed to the truth, but I’m talking about commitment to the truth about people. In our world today, it seems that someone’s reputation doesn’t matter anymore. False accusations and slander are easily thrown around and someone’s dignity is soiled.                

When Israel returned from Babylon and legally began to rebuild Jerusalem, her enemies didn’t like it. Ezra 4 tells us they offered to help with the construction, but the Jews saw through their false intentions and refused. Incensed, a letter was fired off to the Persian king Artaxerxes full of slander about the Jews. They claimed that the Jews were rebellious troublemakers and that when Jerusalem was completed, no taxes or tolls would be paid again. This caused a lot of hardship for the Jews and it took quite a while to legally exonerate themselves and get on with their work. A little slander, a little lack of respect for people’s reputations goes a long way to causing great troubles. Often, it’s because somebody didn’t get what they w

Joseph was thrown into jail because his boss’s wife accused him of rape (Gen.39:7-20). Stephen lost his life because certain jealous people couldn’t deal with his powerful preaching and they cooked up false accusations against him (Acts 6:9-12). And need I remind us that Jesus was crucified because of similar false accusations? (Luke 23:1-2).

We need to be committed to the truth about people. Give people an honest chance. Refuse to spread unfounded information of which you are unsure. Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbour, for we are members one of another.” We’re also told in Colossians 3:8, “But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.”

We all want a good reputation. Let’s make sure we don’t inadvertently harm someone else’s.

– Tim Johnson