Nile Street Notes Anna Church of Christ 104 Nile Street, Anna, Illinois 62906 833-5815

Website: www.annachurchofchrist.com

Vol 23. Issue 50 Dec. 13, 2009

Back Trouble

The word “backbite,” according to Webster, means “to say mean or spiteful things about (one absent): slander.” The word in the Hebrew from which backbite comes suggests the idea of “to play the spy.”  That is, the backbiter attempts to spy out the faults and defects of another person’s life or to circulate reports unfavorable to others by low and petty remarks, as well as those which may be malicious and slanderous. It is conveyed in the New Testament by the word “evil speaking” (James 4:11; I Peter 3:16).
The sins of the tongue are many and they’re serious. The tongue isn’t made of steel, but it can cut and it wound worse than any blade ever forged. Its wounds are not always to the face, but more often to the back. The scorpion harms only the one it stings, the snake only the one it bites, but the backbiter hurts, wounds and slays both near and far, at home and abroad, and spares neither the living nor the dead.

In Galatians 5:15, the Bible says, “But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” Mutual destruction by slander and backbiting is very real! Backbiters are those who speak ill of others when they’re not present to speak for themselves. Backbiters never tell “secrets,” but only those things which are notoriously “true.” They never speak to the person, only about the person.

An old but funny line by A. T. Robertson may still have a modern application. He says, “Some forty years ago I wrote an article on Diotrephes for a denominational paper. The editor told me that twenty-five deacons stopped the paper to show their resentment against being personally attacked in the paper” (Word Pictures in the New Testament, Volume 6, p. 263). Sounds like these folks knew they had a problem! It’s wrong when one creates contention with his words (Proverbs 6:18-19). For this reason many warnings are given in the New Testament regarding the wrongful use of the tongue.

Dear Reader, how is your neighbor’s back today?

- R.W. McAlister via The Preaching Pen

SERMON TOPICS

A.M. – “Is God Really There When I

Hurt?” (Psalm 13)

P.M. – “Questions and Bible Answers”

(Matt. 7:7-8)

Those For Whom We Are Praying:

Kathleen Ritchey

Rodney & Nikki Lingle

Bill Whitnel

Mitchell Shock – Grandson of Rosemary’s cousin.

Paul Etherton - Sara Wilkins’ father. Hospice has been called.

Bonnie Mangum

Donna Bell - Recovering well from knee surgery.

Quotable Quote: “They are ill discoverers that think there is