Don’t Say Hearsay Here
The story is told that a desert brother told Abba Poemen (Egypt approximately AD340-450) he had heard something distressing about one of the others. Poemen asked, “Is it true?”
The brother answered that the source was trustworthy. The Abba did not agree. “The one who told you is not reliable. If he were, he would never have passed it on to you. When God heard cries from Sodom, he did not believe it until he had gone down and seen it with his own eyes.”
Then the brother confirmed that he had seen it with his own eyes also, to which Poemen referred to a parable Jesus told.
“Stop judging so that you will not be judged. Otherwise, you will be judged by the same standard you use to judge others. The standards you use for others will be applied to you. So why do you see the piece of sawdust in another believer’s eye and not notice the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to another believer, ‘Let me take the piece of sawdust out of your eye,’ when you have a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye. Then you will see clearly to remove the piece of sawdust from another believer’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-5 God’s Word Translation©).
Abba Macarius (Egypt AD300-390) lived by the mercy of God with such integrity that he ignored the faults of others as though blind and was deaf when someone slandered another.
Defamation is obviously delicious to swallow, but it rots the hearer from the inside out. So the example of these two great teachers should show us to zip our lips when anyone would cast aspersions and refuse to swallow slander or talk about tittle-tattle.
February 23, 2023
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