Our generation has venerated slander and consecrated verbal abuse.

We feel fully justified to speak ill of our neighbors as long as we perceive them to be ideological enemies.

We have the audacity to think that when our words are graceless, they can be godly, that we are somehow like Him or he like us when we speak against another with venom, half-truth, misquotes, presumptive assumptions, anger, or malice.

Such speech has nothing to do with God. God is not like us that way.

It's not just what you say that matters. 

It is also how you say it.

It is also what you hope to accomplish through your words.

It is, even more, your attitude in speaking them.

It is, above all, your heart, a heart of love, truth, purity, and grace.

“You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your own mother's son.
These things you have done, and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you."