Calumny

Brothers in the Lord, you must hate and expose calumny. What’s calumny? Calumny is the making of false and defamatory statements about someone. In the Scriptures we have several examples of persons who calumniated innocent people in order to ruin them.

● When the wife of Potiphar saw that Joseph refused to lie carnally with her and he left his garment in her hand she calumniated Joseph before the men of her house and her husband, for it is written: “She called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice: And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out. And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home. And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me: And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out” (Genesis 39:14-18).

● Jezebel the wife of king Ahab, induced the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth to calumniate Naboth in order to put him to death and thus she managed to give the vineyard of Naboth to Ahab his husband (the vineyard of Naboth was in Jezreel, next to the palace of Ahab and Naboth had refused to give it to Ahab). The Scripture says: “And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread? And he said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it: and he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard. And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people: And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die. And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them. They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died” (1 Kings 21:1-13).

● The chief priests calumniated Jesus in the presence of Pilate by saying: “We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar ….” (Luke 23:2). That accusation was false because Jesus did not pervert the nation of Israel nor did He forbid to pay taxes to Caesar, rather, with regard to the payment of taxes, He commanded to pay taxes to Caesar, for He said: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s ….” (Matthew 22:21 – NKJV).

● Some men were induced (by some members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen) to calumniate Stephen by saying: “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God” (Acts 6:11 – NKJV).

According to the law of Moses, calumniators, that is, false witnesses, after their witness proved to be false, had to be punished, for God said: “If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong; Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days; And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you. And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you” (Deuteronomy 19:16-20). The book of Proverbs says about the false witness: “Whoever spreads slander is a fool” (Proverbs 10:18 – NKJV), and: “A wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame” (Proverbs 13:5 – NKJV), and again: “The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor” (Proverbs 11:9 – NKJV), and again: “A false witness will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 19:5 – NKJV).

As you can see, the false testimony spoken against somebody in order to ruin him is condemned by the Scripture, and whoever speaks it is a fool and will not go unpunished. But even though the Scripture is very clear with regard to this, there are some among the people of God who take pleasure in calumniating, for they spread all kinds of false accusations against certain upright men who live righteously in order to move their friends away from them and make them appear evildoers.

To these people calumny is a weapon through which they think they can ruin people and they put their trust in calumny, but calumny sooner or later will prove to be a false accusation and therefore it will fail and those who have spread it will be put to shame and punished by God because they are deserving of God’s punishment.

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