Jam 18ff, 62-63 3/21/90; 9/30/83

DOCTRINE OF THE SINS OF THE TONGUE

A. Definition and Classification.

1. Definition.

a. Sin is a violation of the law or standards of God. These divine standards are revealed in the Word of God. Sin is also transgression against divine law.

b. The Westminster Catechism’s definition of sin: “Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of any law of God given as a rule to a reasonable creature.”

c. Dr. L. S. Chafer’s definition of sin: “Sin is that which proves unlike the character of God.”

d. The sinfulness of sin lies in the fact that it is against God even when the wrong we do is to others or ourselves. The essence and law of God are perfectly harmonious. Therefore, since God’s character and standards are perfect, anything that violates that has been defined in the Scripture as sin.

e. Sin is an act of volition against God. Sin originates from Adam’s violation of a direct mandate from God, so that when God gives soul- life at birth, He also imputes Adam’s original sin to the genetically formed old sin nature. Sin preceded human good and evil. Adam could only sin in the Garden; he could not produce good or evil. Temptation comes from the old sin nature, but sin always comes from human volition.

f. Sin is both a thought, a motive, an act of wrongdoing, plus a state of alienation from God. The source of sin is twofold.

(1) Spiritual death at birth. At the point of physical birth we are born physically alive and spiritually dead. Spiritual death means total depravity. Therefore, we are prone to sin. We are spiritually dead before we commit our first sin.

(a) We are totally helpless to do anything about our status of total depravity.

(b) We are totally helpless to understand spiritual phenomena because we are dichotomous, having a body and soul but no human spirit. God the Holy Spirit must act as a human spirit so that we can understand spiritual phenomena such as the gospel.

(2) The function of human volition. We start sinning because we are spiritually dead. No sins are forgiven the unbeliever in spiritual death until he believes in Jesus Christ. All sins prior to salvation are blotted out at the moment of salvation.

g. Two categories of sin come from human volition.

(1) Sins of cognizance, in which a person, recognizing the temptation as a sin, wants to do it, and he does it. A known sin is a transgression involving human perception and/or cognizance. You know you are doing it. Temptation is not sin.

(2) Sins of ignorance, in which a person is not aware that the old sin nature is tempting him to sin; but he desires to do the sin, and he does it. An unknown sin is a violation in which the act is committed without human perception or cognizance.

h. Because all sin is related to the function of human volition, the believer is responsible for both categories of sin in his life. In both categories you are equally guilty. God doesn’t excuse you. It doesn’t matter what you think about your sins, God isn’t impressed. Volition is involved in both known and unknown sins, for volition is the issue in the angelic conflict.

(1) Jesus Christ was judged on the cross for both sins of ignorance and sins of cognizance.

(2) When the believer acknowledges or names a sin of cognizance in rebound, he is simultaneously forgiven the sins of ignorance committed during the time of being out of fellowship.

(3) The sins of cognizance and the sins of ignorance cause the believer to be out of fellowship because volition was used.

(4) With volitional involvement, ignorance is no excuse, because both the sin nature and human volition are involved in the sinful modus operandi.

(5) The source of temptation is the sin nature, which is perpetuated genetically through twenty-three male chromosomes which fertilize the female ovum. The male is the source of the sin nature.

i. The essence of the sin nature. There are four categories to the sin nature.

(1) The area of weakness. This is the source of all temptation to sin. When linked with negative volition, the area of weakness results in personal sin. It is not sinful to be tempted; it is sinful to succumb to the temptation.

(2) The area of strength. This produces a negative type good called human good. This is also called “dead works” and “wood, hay, and stubble.”

(3) The trends of the sin nature: legalism, which results in moral degeneracy; antinomianism, which results in immoral degeneracy.

(4) The lust pattern includes power lust, approbation lust, social lust, sexual lust, chemical lust, monetary lust, crusader lust, inordinate ambition resulting in inordinate competition, lust for revenge, criminal lust, and pleasure lust. There are six principles related to lust.

(a) The lust pattern of the sin nature eliminates or destroys Bible doctrine as the number one priority in life.

(b) Lust destroys the motivation of the believer to execute the protocol plan. He neglects the principle of post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation.

(d) Lust divorces the believer from reality, which nullifies the understanding and use of the problem solving devices of the protocol plan of God.

(e) Lust turns the believer into a tricky and deceitful person.

(f) Lust destroys the believer’s motivation to glorify God, and turns the believer’s motivation into self-promoting motivation.

j. Guilt is the same regardless of punitive action taken by God. God may give a lighter sentence to a sin of ignorance, but the person still has something coming by way of discipline.

2. There are four categories of personal sin.

a. Emotional sins. There are four categories of emotional sins.

(1) Sins related to fear, which includes worry and anxiety.

(2) Sins related to hatred, which includes anger, violence, and murder.

(3) Sins related to self-pity.

(4) Sins related to guilt.

b. Mental sins. These include arrogance, pride, jealousy, implacability, bitterness, vindictiveness, inordinate ambition and inordinate competition, all motivational sins, and sinful thoughts.

c. Verbal sins include gossip, maligning, slander, judging, lying, and verbal deception.

d. Overt sins include chemical sins, sexual sins, criminal sins.

3. The Source of Verbal Sins.

a. All verbal sins originate from mental attitude sins, which lead to motivational sins, which lead to the sins of the tongue, which are designed to destroy your target.

b. Jas 3:5-8, “So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. Behold, how great a forest is set on fire by a very small spark! And the tongue is a fire, the wickedness of wrongdoing; the tongue is so placed in our anatomy so that it contaminates the entire body, therefore, setting on fire the cycle of existence, and being set on fire by the agency of hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind. But no one can tame [control] the tongue; it is a restless evil full of deadly poison.”

B. Out of the seven worst sins from God’s viewpoint, three are related to the tongue as verbal sins, Prov 6:16-19. “There are six things which the Lord hates, in fact, seven are an abomination to Him: Arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a right lobe that devises evil plans [anti-authority sins, conspiracy, and revolution], feet which run rapidly to evil [a trouble-maker], a false witness who utters lies [perjury], and a person who spreads strife among the brethren [gossip, slander, maligning, judging].”

C. The double standard related to the sins of the tongue.

1. Ps 12:2, “They speak emptiness one to another with flattering lips; and with a double standard they speak.”

a. The “emptiness” here is gossip, slander, maligning, judging from self-righteous arrogance; hence, the conversation of the believer involved in polarized legalism and immoral degeneracy.

b. They flatter the one who is listening to your maligning and slander of another.

2. The legalism of self-righteous arrogance has rejected the grace standards of doctrine. Therefore, the double standard of the sins of the tongue. The tongue is used to flatter those you are trying to persuade with regard to your slander, while at the same time slandering someone else.

3. Self-righteousness sets up a double standard of self-vindication on the one hand, while judging and maligning on the other hand. While justifying the sins of arrogance, these believers are guilty of the sins of the tongue. There are two sins of the tongue involved.

a. Flattery of a role-model followed by the feet-of-clay syndrome.

b. Role-model or iconoclastic arrogance destroys the role-model through slander.

(1) You cannot possess a double standard by creating a role-model out of any believer, and then try to destroy them through gossip and slander when you are disappointed in or by them. When we start setting up role-models, we are ignoring that our Lord Jesus Christ is the only perfect role-model for the Christian.

(2) It is inevitable that the carnal believer involved in moral degeneracy, whose trend is toward self-righteous arrogance, will create role-models. Legalism is always creating role-models out of people, just as legalism is always creating its own standards out of arrogance.

(3) The double standard means that in arrogance the carnal believer ignores his own sins, while slandering, maligning, and judging the sins of others.

(4) The carnal believer is distracted in two ways.

(a) Through subjective arrogance by creating a role- model and then destroying it through gossip, slander, maligning, and judging.

(b) He becomes a distraction to others through the function of legalism.

4. In the slander, maligning, and judging of another believer, the self-righteous arrogance does not vindicate self, but condemns self without knowing it.

5. A key word used by self-righteousness evil is “duty, or responsibility.” The self-righteous Pharisees thought it was their duty to destroy the perfect Son of God. The legalistic Judaizers thought it was their duty to discredit the grace ministry of Paul and stone him.

D. The sins of the tongue are mentioned in several passages.

1. Rom 2:1, “Therefore, you are without excuse, every person who keeps on judging others; for in that you judge another person you actually condemn yourself, because you who are judging actually practice the same things.”

a. The blindness of arrogance is that you are committing the worst of sins when you malign, slander, or judge someone else of committing some sin. The self-righteous arrogance of the evil believer assumes the prerogative of replacing our Lord Jesus Christ as the presiding judge of the supreme court of heaven. We are not responsible to self-righteous people who create false standards, and who are evil compared to the persons they are maligning.

b. Legalism judges the sins of other believers, real or imagined, which are different from his own sins. Respectability maligning others is one of the most evil functions in the Christian way of life. The legalistic judge not only blasphemes but ignores the fact that he is using his own sin nature to the maximum.

c. It is a double standard of arrogance to judge, slander, malign, condemn the sins of others, while at the same time being blind to or ignoring your own sins.

d. In the slander, maligning, and judging of other believers, the self-righteous arrogant believer is not vindicating himself, but he is actually condemning himself. Such self-vindication and self-righteousness regards it as their duty to gossip, slander, malign, and judge others.

e. It is neither the duty, responsibility or prerogative of the believer to assume the role and function of Jesus Christ as the supreme court judge. It is the responsibility of every believer to judge his own life in the light of Bible doctrine.

f. It is the responsibility of believers to self-evaluate or judge our own lives in the light of the standards of Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine in the soul produces true standards of grace righteousness. Grace-righteousness and self-righteousness are mutually exclusive. Grace- righteousness avoids verbal sins.

2. Two verses are pertinent to the self-righteous arrogance of the legalistic believer.

a. Rom 14:4, “You, who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own lord he stands or falls. And stand he will; for the Lord is able to make him stand.”

(1) All of us are the servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are members of the body of Christ, the royal family of God.

(2) The evaluation of our lives is the responsibility of our Lord. In the case of criminality, that responsibility has been delegated by our Lord to government.

b. Rom 14:10, “But you, why do you judge your fellow-believer? Or you again, why do you regard your fellow-believer with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”

(1) Regarding another believer with contempt indicates a tremendous function of arrogance in your life. Why? Because you do not know the exact stage of that believer’s spiritual growth.

(2) If you exercise contempt for another believer, it is inevitable that you will find some way to malign, slander, or judge them.

(3) After the resurrection of the Church all believers will be evaluated by our Lord Jesus Christ. This evaluation will have two aspects.

(a) The condemnation of all of the wrong things we have done. This is the ashamedness which is described as related to the judgment seat of Christ.

(b) The rewards and blessing for all the things we have done to execute God’s plan.

(4) Resulting principles.

(a) It is the quintessence of human arrogance and the epitome of blasphemy to slander, gossip, malign, and judge other believers. You are assuming the prerogative of our Lord Jesus Christ as the God-man.

(b) It is not our duty to judge other believers. An exception is the evaluation a board of deacons and pastor must make of believers who are violating the privacy of others in a congregation. Under the privacy of the priesthood the principle is: live and let live. Therefore, we must conclude with the Scripture that the Lord doesn’t need our help or council in evaluating the lives of others.

3. The Lord has not called on us to act as judges of our fellow believers. We would have to know all the facts, which is impossible. The Lord knows all the facts, therefore He says, “I’ll do all the judging,” Rom 11:33-34.

E. The Sins of the Tongue as Taught in the Book of James.

1. James emphasizes the fact that verbal sins are always motivated by mental attitude sins in the arrogance or emotional complex of sins.

2. Jam 3:14, “But if you have bitter jealousy and inordinate ambition in your right lobe [and you do], stop being arrogant, and stop lying against the truth.” Gossip or slander, here, is called “lying against the truth.”

3. Jam 3:16, “For where jealousy and inordinate ambition exist, there is dissension and every evil [worthless] deed.” The evil or worthless deeds include the sins of the tongue.

4. Jam 4:5, “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose against jealousy? The Spirit who dwells in us pursues us with love.” Jealousy is a great motivator for lying, slander, maligning, and judging.

5. Jam 4:11, “Brethren, stop slandering each other. He who slanders [maligns] a fellow-believer or judges a fellow-believer, slanders and judges Bible doctrine [the law of God].”

6. Jam 5:9, “Brethren, do not complain against each other that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door.”

a. When you start judging others, the Judge (Jesus Christ) is standing at the door of your life. He does not come in because you are out of fellowship, just as in Rev 2, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”

b. This verse anticipates the function of our Lord in the judgment of those believers who slander, malign, and gossip.

F. There is intensified divine discipline against the sins of the tongue.

1. Except for the maximum discipline of the sin unto death, there is no category of sins which bring such concentrated divine discipline as the believer involved in the sins of the tongue.

2. The sins of the tongue include three categories.

a. The slander category. This is gossip, maligning, judging, complaining against others.

b. The falsehood category. This includes untruth, deception, misrepresentation, perjury, fabrication, pathological lying, distortion, equivocation, ambiguous and unclear expressions designed to mislead, verbal duplicity, hypocrisy.

c. The whining and complaining category. This category is complaining when you are blessed by God and are the beneficiary of His grace. It is disorientation to the grace of God. This is whimpering, grumbling, or complaining by the believer who has his very own portfolio of invisible assets. This is experientially contradictory to the protocol plan of God. However, there is a legitimate expression of pain which is not related to the sins of the tongue. This is the sniveling of arrogance.

3. The sins of the tongue carry liability for triple compound divine discipline.

a. Mt 7:1, “Stop judging, so that you will not be judged.”

(1) Believers are ordered by God to stop slandering, maligning, or judging others.

(2) The sins of the tongue involve two categories of sinfulness related to Christian degeneracy: mental attitude sins which motivate the verbal sinning; and the actual verbal sins which result. No one ever slanders, maligns, judges, or gossips about another without the motivation of some mental attitude sin.

(3) Verbal sins are motivated by an oscillation between self-righteous arrogance and self-pity in emotion.

(4) Verbal sins involve verbal murder, which is character assassination of others, plus the blasphemy of assuming the prerogative of God in judging others.

(5) Mt 7:1 is the first of two laws found in Mt 7:1-2. This is the law of reversal of divine punitive action. The sins of the tongue carry three categories of liability for punitive action from God.

(a) Divine discipline for the mental attitudes that motivate sins of the tongue.

(b) Divine discipline for the verbal sin itself.

(d) You name certain sins real or imagined, which you assign to another believer.

(e) The sins you name have penalties attached to them. If the person is guilty, his discipline is removed, because the judgment didn’t come from heaven, and the punishment is transferred to the one who maligns. If the sins are imagined, then the victim gets blessing comparable to the intensity of the discipline, as long as he puts the matter in the Lord’s hands and does not attempt to vindicate himself.

(f) The victim of your slander doesn’t receive these penalties, but you do. You are mentioning sins which you didn’t commit, but you assign them to your victim by slandering them. You get the punishment for the mental attitude sins which motivated the verbal sins, and for the sins which you named.

(g) While not committing those sins, you get judged for those sins as if you had committed them. This is the perfect justice of God in which he reminds you to mind your own business and live your own life as unto the Lord.

b. Mt 7:2, “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And by what measure you measure, it will be measured against you.”

(1) The first sentence in this verse is the law of liability regarding verbal sins. There is no stronger law in the supreme court of heaven. Two categories of sins are involved in this liability: the mental attitude sins which motivates the verbal sins of judging and the verbal sins which result. But you are also liable for the content of the sins you name.

(2) The royal priesthood demands privacy to live your own life as unto the Lord, Col 3:17. Therefore the believer has no right to destroy this freedom by intruding on the privacy of others. No one ever gets away with anything.

(3) The second sentence is the law of reversal of punitive action restated. The believer who is guilty of verbal sins will always receive the reversal of divine punitive action. You will always receive the discipline for the other person’s sins which you name, for your verbal sins, and for your sinful motivation in committing the verbal sin.

(a) The sins you name carry punitive liability from God.

(b) The victim of your slander and judging does not receive that punitive liability from God. Instead, God transfers it to you, the gossip, the slanderer, the judge.

(d) The victim you judge and slander is not punished for those sins, but you are, since God transfers the punishment from the victim to the believer who slanders.

(e) No believer has the right to destroy the privacy of the priesthood of another believer by the sins of the tongue.

(f) Verbal sins contradict the principle of live and let live.

(g) While you are not committing the sins that you mention in slandering someone else, the punishment of those sins is assigned to you.

(h) There are two categories of sins mentioned in gossip and slander: sins the believer did commit, and sins the believer did not commit. If a believer actually did commit the sins mentioned in slander, then the punishment is removed from him immediately. If a believer did not commit the sins, then there is great blessing given to him as a result of receiving unfair slander.

4. Triple compound discipline includes:

a. Divine discipline for the mental attitude sins that motivate the verbal sins.

b. Divine discipline for the actual verbal sins. There are at least five verbal sins for which there is discipline: gossip, slander, maligning, judging, and dishonest or distorted complaint against another person.

c. The law of the reversal of divine punitive action - divine discipline for the sins which are mentioned.

G. There is great blessing in avoidance of sins of the tongue, Ps 34:12-13. “Who is the person who desires long life, loves length of days that he may see prosperity? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking slander.”

H. The Pattern and Punishment for the Sins of the Tongue. Ps 52: 1-5, “Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The grace of God endures all day long. Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor, O worker of deceit. You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking what is right. You love all words that destroy, O deceitful tongue. Consequently, God will break you down forever. He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent [human body], and uproot you from the land of the living.” I. Concepts of Verbal Sins and their Consequences.

1. Believers have deliverance from the sins of the tongue, Job 5:19ff, “In six troubles He will deliver you. Even in seven, evil will not touch you. In famine He will deliver you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue. Neither will you be afraid of death when it comes.”

2. God protects the pastor from verbal sins, Isa 54:17. “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper, and every tongue that accuses you in judgment, You [Jesus Christ] will condemn. This is the heritage of the servant of the Lord and their vindication is from Me,” decrees the Lord.”

3. Therefore, the importance of recognizing the sins of the tongue and separating yourself from them. Rom 16:17-18, “Now I urge you, fellow Christians, keep your eyes on those who cause dissensions and occasions for stumbling contrary to doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For such types are not servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, but they are slaves to their own emotions. Furthermore, by their smooth and flattering speech, they will deceive the right lobes of the ignorant.”

J. Concluding Principles.

1. The believer guilty of slandering, maligning, or judging others is a visible loser in the Christian way of life.

2. You cannot be occupied with the sins and failure of others and at the same time advance in the protocol plan of God.

3. All believers sin after salvation, but each believer has the right to rebound in the privacy of his own priesthood without interference from slander, maligning, gossiping and judging.

4. All believers sin after salvation, but all punishment related to those sins should be left to divine judgment and punitive action.

5. Judging other believers interferes with the judgment and punitive action from God.

6. When believers are judged by other believers, this becomes a source of discouragement and frustration to the victim. It often results in irritation and loss of motivation for the execution for God’s plan, will, and purpose for their life. You will be judged for putting a stumbling block such as discouragement in the path of another believer.

7. Therefore, in the Church Age, the sins and failures of other believers must be left in the hands of the Lord for judgment.

8. To interfere with the function of Jesus Christ as the supreme court judge in heaven is to invite more disaster for yourself.

9. When one believer condemns another believer, he is in a state of blasphemy for slander, maligning, gossiping, and judging, which is tantamount to superceding the Lord as the supreme court judge in heaven. The exceptions to this principle are the areas in which God has delegated authority, such as: parents over children, teachers over students, coaches over athletes, management over labor, senior officers over lower ranks, law enforcement and the function of juris prudence, pastors and deacons who have the right to evaluate people who come into a congregation and cause trouble or invade the privacy of others.

10. If believers were more concerned about learning Bible doctrine, they would be less concerned about sticking their nose into other people’s lives.

11. 1 Pet 3:8-12, “To sum it all up, let us all [believers] live in harmony, sympathetic, love as fellow Christians, be compassionate, and humble, not returning evil for evil, insult for insult, but blessing; because to this you were called that you might inherit blessing. For `Whoever would love long life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. And let him turn away from evil and produce [divine] good; let him seek prosperity and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears listen to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

K. Reversionism is related to the sins of the tongue. In Ps 5:8-9, the soul of such a person is described as a grave, whereby everyone can smell the rotting corpse. The throat and tongue are the opening of the grace. The rotting corpse is that person’s mental attitude sins. Decomposing flesh cannot vindicate itself.

L. The Congregation and the Sins of the Tongue.

1. Control of the tongue plus avoidance of the sins of the tongue is a sign of spiritual maturity, Jam 3:2.

2. Verbal sins can destroy an entire congregation, Jam 3:5-6.

3. Since the sins of the tongue can destroy a congregation, it is the solemn duty of the pastor to warn and guard against this evil, 2 Tim 2:14-17.

M. What are mischief makers?

1. Job 15:35, “They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, therefore their mind prepares deception.”

2. Mischief is defined as the conduct or action resulting in harm, trouble, or schism, especially against legitimate authority. A mischief maker is anti-legitimate authority.

3. Mischief makers in the local church use attractiveness and personality resources to acquire power and approbation. Then they use this power to attract others, to discriminate, to distract others, and to reject others and Bible doctrine. When good deeds are involved, it results in schism, control, manipulation of others.

4. The result is erosion of authority in three areas of the local church: husbands; parents; and pastors. Mischief makers stand between people who are attracted to them and the teaching of the Word of God from the pulpit.

5. Mischief makers are believers who use their abilities to stir up trouble and discord. They cause peer pressure, heartache, rejection in the local church, which inevitably undermines the authority of the pastor in the teaching of the Word of God.

6. Ps 7:14, 16 “Behold, he [or she] is pregnant with evil, and he [or she] conceives mischief, and gives birth to disillusion. ...The mischief he causes recoils on himself, and his violence comes down on his own head.”

a. The law of volitional responsibility becomes a factor when the performance of this activity occurs.

b. Under the law of volitional responsibility, the believer as a mischief maker inflicts on himself or herself unbearable suffering from bad decisions from a position of weakness.

c. Out of these bad decisions come the sins of the tongue.

7. Mischief makers hallucinate. They use doctrinal vocabulary to hallucinate about their own spiritual status. They believe that they are more spiritually advanced than they really are. By mischief making, they slip into the early stages of mental illness. Blind arrogance hallucinates. Through hallucination about their spiritual status they fail to use rebound, and so compound their problem.

8. The origin of mischief making is generally a believer suffering from environmental handicaps developed in childhood or adolescence.

a. They have a sincere desire to straighten out the world in the spheres in which they have personally been hurt. Mischief makers do not forget those things which are behind, and they want to right the wrongs of the world where they have personally been victims.

b. They start out by helping others, but genuine expressions of gratitude often stimulate their own desire to go farther and farther with straightening out the world.

c. There is a danger in helping others, if it creates in you approbation lust. Are you doing it as unto the Lord, or because of the gratitude of others? The secret to the gift of helps is to create dependency on God’s Word. The gift of helps is never designed to create dependency on people, but on Bible doctrine.

d. The other danger is that people become dependent on you, and that is stimulating to the mischief maker. If dependencies are created, then the believer has to be strong enough from spiritual skills to avoid arrogance, power, and approbation lust.

9. The arrogance of mischief making is to begin telling others how to run their lives, to establish oneself as the authority in matters of spiritual and life-in-general things. In this way, mischief makers are always involved in the sins of the tongue. They are either judging others, or telling others how to run their lives.

10. Mischief making does judge others. One of the serious by-products of mischief making is related to two categories of the sins of the tongue.

a. Judging the life and production of others.

b. Bullying others into producing dead works. This bullying is accomplished through clever phrases which indicate that you are not doing enough for God.

(1) “You are hiding in doctrine.”

(2) “We need less doctrine and more works.”

(3) “Forget doctrine and get involved.”

(4) “We need less preaching and more working.”

c. This causes spiritually immature believers to become distracted from doctrine and involved in dead works.

11. Five categories of mischief making.

a. The sincere but ignorant believer who is both self-righteous and a crusader by nature. They become compulsive and obsessive in their desire to straighten out the lives of others. This is the interfering or bullying mischief maker.

b. Believers who establish themselves as role-models and experts on how others should live and what others should do are classified as control mischief makers. They superimpose their own personal judgment over Bible doctrine. They establish their own authority, while rejecting the authority of the pastor-teacher. They reject the right of self- determination in others. They are quick to chew out other people, but when they are chewed out themselves, they never face the issue, but switch on self-justification.

c. The motivational mischief maker combines self-righteous arrogance with crusader arrogance to promote legalism and dead works.

d. The flawed mischief maker is the one who bypasses the infrastructure of the local church, and forms a control group which erodes the authority of the pastor-teacher. Thus creating a church within a church.

e. The weak conscience mischief maker is inconsistent in exposure to Bible doctrine, or is so out of fellowship that the doctrinal norms and standards are ignored.

12. Hebrew vocabulary for the mischief maker.

a. The word AWWEN means mischief or trouble that moves to evil.

(1) Ps 36:4, “He plans mischief on his bed; he sets himself on a path that is not good, and he does not despise evil.”

(2) Ezek 11:2, “Then He said to me, `Son of man, these are the men who devise mischief and give evil advise in the city.’”

b. The word HAWWAH means mischief related to lust. Ps 52:2, “Your tongue devises mischief like a sharp razor, O worker of deceit.”

c. The word ZIMMAH means mischief in the sense of arrogant thinking or motivation for evil planning. Ps 26:10, “In whose hand is mischief and whose right hand is full of bribes.”

d. The word AMAL means mischief in the sense of causing pain or misery. Ps 10:7, “His mouth is full of curses, deceit, and oppression; under his tongue is mischief and wickedness.”

e. The word RA means mischief in the sense of causing or producing evil. Prov 6:14, “The person who with persistance with what is wrong in his right lobe devises mischief continually, who therefore spreads strife.”

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