slander

A Sheep Contemplates Colossians 3:8-10

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Put Away the Old, Put On the New

My dear friends,

With some warm tea or hot cocoa in hand, let’s keep going in our study of Colossians. We’re still sitting in chapter 3, right after Paul told us to put to death the earthly things that used to run our lives. Now he turns to the way we treat each other with our words and attitudes.

Here’s what he writes:

“But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Colossians 3:8-10)

That little phrase “but now” is full of hope. He’s not saying, “Try harder so you can become someone new.” He’s saying, “You’ve already put off the old self and put on the new one. So live like it’s true.” The work of becoming new is already underway. Our part is to stop wearing the old clothes.

Let’s look at the list, because these show up in everyday conversations more often than we’d like to admit.

Anger is the slow burn—the irritation that simmers when someone cuts you off in traffic, dismisses your idea, or fails you again. It feels justified, but it quietly poisons the atmosphere around you.

Wrath is anger that boils over. It’s the sharp word, the raised voice, the outburst that leaves everyone else walking on eggshells. It may feel powerful in the moment, but it usually leaves regret behind.

Malice is the desire to see someone else hurt or diminished. It’s the quiet satisfaction when things go wrong for a person who wronged you, or the willingness to withhold help just because you can.

Slander is speaking about someone in a way that damages their reputation—whether it’s true but told with a twist, or simply exaggerated so others will think less of them. It often hides behind “I’m just being honest” or “I need to process this with someone.”

Obscene talk is speech that is crude, degrading, or sexually charged in a way that dishonors people made in God’s image. It can be the joke that goes too far, the comment that objectifies, or the language that treats sacred things as casual.

Then Paul adds a simple but searching command: “Do not lie to one another.” Lying isn’t only bold-faced deception. It can be the half-truth that protects your image, the silence that hides what you did, or the carefully edited story that makes you look better than you are.

All of these belong to the old self. Paul says we’ve already put that self off. We’ve already put on the new self—the one that is being renewed, day by day, to look more like Jesus, the true image of God. That renewal doesn’t happen by sheer willpower. It happens as we keep coming back to who Christ is and who we are in Him.

My friends, as I look at this list, the Holy Spirit convicts me that I am nowhere close to imitating Jesus in my life. I have issues that still need to be worked on and actions that I need to repent and ask forgiveness for. Thank God that He invites us to come to Him for the strength needed.

That invitation is both simple and costly: when anger rises, when the sharp word is on your tongue, when the half-truth feels safer than honesty—remember whose clothes you’re wearing now. You don’t have to keep putting on the old ones.

A few questions to sit with

  1. Which of these (anger, wrath, malice, slander, crude speech, or lying) shows up most easily in your life right now? What does it usually look like in practice?
  2. Is there a relationship where you’ve been living more from the old self than the new? What would “putting away” look like in that relationship this week?
  3. Where do you need the Spirit to renew your mind so that the new self feels more natural than the old habits?

Prayer
Father, thank You that I have already put off the old self and put on the new. Help me live like that’s true—especially with my words and attitudes toward others. When the old responses rise up, remind me whose image I’m being renewed into. Renew me in the knowledge of You. Amen.

Your fellow sheep,

When Curses Flutter By

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Proverbs 26:2 says, “Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest” (NIV). Picture it: a little bird zips overhead, looks around, shrugs its tiny shoulders, and keeps going. It never lands on you. That is Solomon’s picture of a curse, insult, or slander that has no just cause behind it.

In the ancient world, people took curses seriously. Words were thought to have almost magical power. Solomon, with typical wisdom-literature understatement, says: not if they are undeserved. A curse without a landing strip just keeps flying.

Sparrows dart. Swallows wheel and dive. They do not settle unless there is a nest, a crumb, or a reason. An undeserved curse is the same. It has nowhere to roost because God has not given it permission. Matthew Henry put it simply: the curse does the innocent no more harm than a bird flying over his head.

This is not a promise that mean words will never sting. It is a promise that they cannot stick in the way the speaker hopes. Gossip may circulate. Accusations may fly. Someone may try to speak failure, shame, or doom over you. If there is no cause—if you have not given the enemy a foothold of unconfessed sin or willful rebellion—those words do not get to take up residence.

Balaam discovered this the hard way. He was hired to curse Israel and could only say, “How can I curse those whom God has not cursed?” (Numbers 23:8). The prophet was paid to launch birds that had nowhere to land.

Most of us do not have professional curse-casters on retainer. We have co-workers who mutter, relatives who “just tell it like it is,” online strangers who diagnose our character from three posts, and the occasional well-meaning saint who delivers a “word from the Lord” that sounds suspiciously like their own frustration.

The proverb does not tell us to pretend those words do not hurt. It tells us they do not have the final authority. The righteous are not sitting ducks for every flying insult. God is not obligated to honor every angry sentence spoken in our direction.

There is even a quiet hint in some readings that the curse may eventually circle back toward the one who sent it. Birds of passage tend to return home. That is not our job to arrange. Our job is to keep our own hearts clean so there is no convenient perch.

For the Christian, this proverb finds its deepest rest in Jesus. He absorbed every undeserved curse—ours included—on the cross. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). The accusations that actually had a case against us were nailed there.

Now Romans 8:33 asks the question that should settle our nerves: “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” If the Judge of all the earth has declared you righteous in Christ, the sparrow of slander can flutter all it wants. It has no legal right to land.

That does not make us reckless. We still confess real sin quickly. We still refuse to give the devil a foothold. But we also refuse to live as if every harsh word is a prophecy that must come true.

So the next time someone tries to speak death over your marriage, your calling, your kids, or your future, you can smile a little. Picture a slightly indignant swallow circling, looking for a place to sit, and finding only the solid ground of God’s verdict. Then go about your day. The bird has other places to be.

A Few Questions to Sit With

  1. Is there any “cause” you have given—an unconfessed pattern, a bitter root, a hidden compromise—that might be giving an accusation a place to land? What would repentance look like this week?
  2. Whose words have you been treating as if they have more authority than God’s? A parent’s old criticism? A former spouse’s prediction? An anonymous comment?
  3. How might remembering that Jesus became the curse for you change the way you respond when someone speaks against you?
  4. Is there someone you have been quietly (or not so quietly) cursing with your words or your attitudes? What would it look like to bless them instead?

WORLD | In defense of Richard Dawkins | Marvin Olasky | March 16, 2013

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Another cowardly attempt to paint Christianity as evil and never address Islam. If we beheaded those who disparaged Christ would they stop their pathetic efforts to ridicule something they cannot possibly understand?
Why is it okay to slander Judaism and Christianity but not Islam? Dawkins is not only a fool (that’s what the Bible says about those who do not worship God) but an opportunistic coward. If he truly does not believe in a God, then it doesn’t matter what religion’s god is being talked about, Dawkins must show the same lack of belief in any of them to be consistent with his claim of being an atheist.
Of course, a true Muslim would be offended by his slander of the God of the Hebrews anyway – that is, if they read their Qur’an. So how about it Muslim world — any takers on defending God’s name?

WORLD | In defense of Richard Dawkins | Marvin Olasky | March 16, 2013.