by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n
Never speak evil. We are not to speak evil of anyone, including those in positions of power. Not even Michael the archangel would bring a railing accusation against the devil, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!<\/em>” (Jude 9) The powers that be are in God’s hands and judged according to His will; in His time, He will deal with them as He wills. When they fail to honor God, then He will judge them.<\/p>\n This is not to say that we endorse or appreciate everything about people in power. I have severe differences with many who make laws, and I try to leave no doubt as to where I stand on moral issues (like abortion or homosexual activity). However, as a Christian, I try to be careful about what I would say about those in authoritative positions, especially when I disagree with them. We can deal appropriately with the various issues without bringing railing accusations against those in power or dishonoring their position.<\/p>\n Remember the example of Jesus (I Peter 2:21-25): “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously<\/em>….”<\/p>\n If we are truly disciples of Jesus, then we will seek to follow this example. This should impact how we interact in person, on social media, or any other form of communication. Christians do not get to hide behind a wall so they can insult and revile. Even when being put to death in the most shameful and degrading way as a criminal by the ruling authorities, Jesus did not revile or insult but rather offered forgiveness and died so that they could choose to enter into His grace.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Doy Moyer Never speak evil. We are not to speak evil of anyone, including those in positions of power. Not even Michael the archangel would bring a railing accusation against the devil, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (Jude 9) The powers that be are in God’s hands and judged according to His will;…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[310,1558],"class_list":["post-83766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-government","tag-speech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":70510,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-the-elections-are-over\/","url_meta":{"origin":83766,"position":0},"title":"When the Elections Are Over","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer When the election is over and whoever wins is in power (like it or not, agree with the results or not), Christians need to remember: The kingdom of God remains unharmed and will always continue well past any current administration (Daniel 2:44). It does not depend on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38972,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-make-bad-things-happen-by-speaking-about-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":83766,"position":1},"title":"Can you make bad things happen by speaking about them?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you put bad things and words into the universe by saying them?\u00a0 My husband says in Mathew 12:35-37 it says you can.\u00a0 When I try to tell him his son is going to die if he keeps using drugs, he tells me I am putting that into the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92970,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-sovereignty-of-god-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":83766,"position":2},"title":"The Sovereignty of God (Benton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 31, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton I recently saw someone suggest that Calvinists would change John 3:19 to read: \"And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, but I sovereignly chose not to regenerate them, so they had no choice but to love darkness instead.\" This would need\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61048,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-so-many-afraid-to-call-a-dog-a-dog\/","url_meta":{"origin":83766,"position":3},"title":"Why Are So Many Afraid to Call a Dog – \u201cA DOG\u201d?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Brian A. Yeager When one reads of false brethren and those teaching errors (false teachers\/prophets) throughout the word of God you find that they were labeled, at times, in colorful ways. Of the watchman in Israel, Isaiah penned the following: \"His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30712,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-submit-to-a-corrupt-government\/","url_meta":{"origin":83766,"position":4},"title":"How do you submit to a corrupt government?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I appreciate your Biblically sound responses. As I observe the turmoil our nation is experiencing right now my thoughts are continually on the following topics: submitting to government authority even though we may not like what is happening with all the corruption and dishonesty because God has established\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60388,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/those-other-sinners\/","url_meta":{"origin":83766,"position":5},"title":"Those “Other” Sinners","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert F. Turner \"And John answered and said, `Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us'\" (Luke 9:49). Answered what? The word may mean, \"began to speak\" but Vine says, it is always \"where something has preceded,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}