Leviticus 19:16-17 — Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor: I am the Lord. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.

Saturday is “social media” day for me. It’s the day I get more time to read blogs and look at Facebook. I’ve been increasingly burdened about the bile spewed out in some of what I read.
On any day of the week you can read comments after news and sports reports that are at the very least unkind and objectionable to the writers and to others who might see fit to comment. I don’t suppose any of you have missed the speed at which the comment descends into vulgarity and profanity.
It’s not really the secular blogs that bother me. It’s not the political abuse from those I disagree. It’s certainly not the occasional brick thrown at my own head. No, what bothers me — grieves me — is the way people that I know to claim themselves to be Christians — and otherwise bear all the hallmarks — hurl abuse at each other and at those who disagree with them.
From one end of the Bible to the other — from Leviticus to James — there is clear instruction against this sort of thing. The Bible, of course, focuses on the “tongue” — which James calls “a fire, … that defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and is set on fire of hell.”
Of course the Bible did not talk of blogs, and social media, and of all the other electronic means we have at our disposal to share our thoughts with the world — but it laid out the clearest principles on which we should base our behavior.
The heart of it is in the verses in Leviticus. We are not to slander our neighbors. We are not to conspire to harm them. We must rebuke our neighbors when they need it — but never in an unkind way. We must “speak the truth in love”. The end of it is that we shall not hate our brother. (And we might remember that to old-fashioned grammarians “you shall not” has the force of a prohibition.)
But how has this spewing forth of verbal bile come about? I fear it was always there. I know that I think thoughts that I would be ashamed to speak or write. I don’t believe I am the only one! I’ve usually managed not to publish them — but I used to be a verbal assassin. I am not ashamed to say — in fact I am grateful to say — that the Holy Spirit has mostly enabled me to control my tongue … But I still struggle to control my thoughts. I have to pray, often, for help in “taking every thought captive”. The best I can say is that I’m doing better! But if you use Facebook, or Twitter, or Bunches, or LinkedIn — or if you write a blog, or comment on them, won’t you join me in trying to bring civility back to the written word?