The Accused

Posted on by korgrocker

“You gave me victory over my accusers. You appointed me ruler over nations; people I don’t even know now serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they submit; foreign nations cringe before me. They all lose their courage and come trembling from their strongholds.”
Psalm 18:43-45 NLT

David was accused of something. We don’t know what it was but some Bible commentators assume it was a political matter, possibly even the incident with his son, Absalom, that we can read in 2 Samuel 15. David continues to write about how God appointed him to as the “ruler over nations”, a role that inevitably didn’t please everyone and accusations over something would have been commonplace. In those days, as in the Middle East and other places in the world today, a dictatorial leader was commonplace – democracy was a concept that was unheard of. But David’s leadership was different because God had installed him on the Israelite throne, incidentally, it became a throne of prophecy about the coming Messiah, as we read in Isaiah 9:7, “His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” 

As modern politicians know, with the prevalence of social media, being accused of something comes with the territory. Our civil leaders, at whatever level, end up having to make decisions about the lives and welfare of their fellow citizens, and such decisions can be unpopular, leading to an army of keyboard warriors dispensing a torrent of criticisms, abuse, and accusations, often unrelated to the issue in question. A leader’s personal life and even appearance is dissected and commented on, with accusations, mostly false, following not far behind. And in this vitriolic environment, women are especially vulnerable to the nastiness that abounds. But it is not only politicians who are the focus of accusations. Anyone can find themselves being accused of something. For example, something gets mislaid in the office or classroom but, even with no evidence, accusations and suspicions emerge. Of particular note is the precarious situation for teachers, foster carers,  or anyone who works with children because juvenile accusations can be levelled falsely against someone just trying to do their best for a young person. Some accusation though are right and proper. A driver caught with too much alcohol in their bloodstream is accused of drink driving. A burglar caught with incriminating evidence will have to face accusations of theft in a court of law. 

However, the most devastating accusations are those that are false and have no truth or substance, and Christians are particularly vulnerable, because they portray a life of holiness. Wicked and worldly people will level all sorts of accusations against our fellow believers, because the evil and sinful people in the world around us are exposed for what they are and represent when the come into the presence of God is exposed as an evil person. The darkness preferred by the world is destroyed by the light of God. Jesus was very popular initially in Israel, because He healed the sick, fed large numbers of people, and even raised the dead. But as a sinless man, He would have made the worldly people of His day uncomfortable when they were in His company. The Pharisees in particular hated Him with a passion because He exposed their sinful natures in front of the ordinary people. And in the end a sinful and evil people crucified the sinless Son of God. As the thief on the cross said to his fellow felon, “We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong” (Luke 23:41). His words have confronted all those who made false accusations ever since, because, by doing so, they once again crucify Jesus with their sin. In 1 Peter 3:16b we read, “…  Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ“.

The ninth commandment, found in Exodus 20:16, reads, “You must not testify falsely against your neighbour”. David wrote again about being falsely accused of something in Psalm 35:11-13, “Malicious witnesses testify against me. They accuse me of crimes I know nothing about. They repay me evil for good. I am sick with despair. Yet when they were ill, I grieved for them. I denied myself by fasting for them, but my prayers returned unanswered“. 

In the end, though, what matters in society’s sea of falseness is God. He knows our hearts. He knows what is right and wrong, and those who pursue a life of righteousness, holiness and truth will be vindicated. False accusations will burn up in the fires of hell to be no more, forgotten for all eternity.

Dear Father God. You are the Truth and we stay close to You, because we are saved through Jesus. False accusations may be levelled against us but You know the truth and You will vindicate us one day. Thank You. Amen.

Groundless Accusations

Posted on by korgrocker

“How long will you people ruin my reputation? How long will you make groundless accusations? How long will you continue your lies?”
Psalm 4:2 NLT

How do we rate our personal reputations? Important or not? We live in a world where what people think of us matters. Our reputation is coupled with character traits such as integrity and honesty. So if someone trashes our reputations it can do us a lot of harm. Sadly, today in the UK, if someone goes up to a policeman and makes an accusation against another person, whether it is true or not, then the accused person will often be investigated. Such accusations can be trivial, like the recent real-life situation where a person of one type of skin colour accused another of a different colour, of racism, purely because the second person picked up the last bunch of daffodils in the supermarket. Really? But this actually happened and was recorded as a NCHI (Non Crime Hate Incident) by the police. Today, teachers and social workers, foster carers and many others in professions that interface with children and the public in general have to be very careful to avoid “groundless accusations” and “lies” levelled against them. 

But it was no different in David’s day. As David wrote Psalms 3 and 4 he was dealing with his son Absalom’s rebellion, and false stories fuelled by lies abounded against him, purely to bolster his son’s position. But we shouldn’t be surprised by such events. Jesus Himself was convicted and executed through an illegal court believing lies. The Son of God, sinless and innocent of any crime, suffered the ultimate penalty because of “groundless accusations” and “lies”.

In the end, what really matters to us pilgrims is what God thinks of us, and if we become the focus of false allegations, or lies spread about us, we can of course enter God’s presence and claim that we are innocent (if we are of course!) through God’s grace and mercy. Sadly, many Christians have become the focus of “groundless accusations” because of a lack of wisdom. They have managed to put themselves in situations where they were vulnerable to all sorts of abuse from unscrupulous individuals out to cause trouble to God’s people. But wisdom is ours for the asking (James 1:5) and the Holy Spirit will lead and guide us in the right paths. However, should the unthinkable happen, we can pray as the Psalmist did in Psalm 43:1, “Vindicate me, O God, And plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!” Deliverance will come, as surely as night follows day.

Dear Father God. You know what is within us, and You will deliver us from evil people. Please help us live lives of honesty and integrity and grant us the wisdom we need every day of our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Honourable Lives

Posted on by korgrocker

“It is God’s will that your honourable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.”
1 Peter 2:15 NLT

Society is full of people who make accusations. It seems that the minute someone behaves in a way that doesn’t fit with someone else’s opinion, then an accusation follows, whether to the police, or the council or the tax authorities or whoever. The great majority of accusations and allegations are of course totally groundless, but they are made all the same. Neighbours fall out because one accuses the other of failing to remove their weeds, or playing their music too loud. Accusations and complaints, one against another abound.

We have in the current times another insidious source of accusations. Certain ideologies are supported by people who think that everyone else should agree and support the way they feel or think, and if they don’t, then accusations of bias, hate or causing offence are made to whoever will listen. We can see that with the current fixations around sexuality and gender. For example, if a woman dares to put her head above the parapet and claim that toilet spaces should only be designated and used in accordance with a person’s biological sex then a storm of abuse and accusations erupt through social media and beyond, driven by the “keyboard warriors” who blight our society today.

But none of this was the focus of this verse in Peter’s first letter. The first century believers were accused of all sorts of things because they followed a faith different to everyone else. For example, there were accusations of cannibalism made against Christians because they shared the body and blood of Jesus in their communion services. A lack of understanding became inflated to a terrible result. There were also accusations of gross immorality made against believers because they were instructed to love one another. Again, misunderstandings were blown up out of all proportion. And then we have accusations around issues such as poverty, self-righteousness and so on. The list was seemingly endless.

Jesus Himself had accusations levelled against Him. We read in Luke 6:7, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath”. To His listeners, Jesus said, “The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results” (Matthew 11:19). But the greatest miscarriage of justice ever was carried out on Jesus even though He was not guilty of any crime, let alone one that deserved a capital punishment. We read in John 18:29, 38, “So Pilate, the governor, went out to them and asked, “What is your charge against this man?” …  “What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime”. 

Accusations against the early Christians were commonplace. It was, and still is today, easy to make accusations based on half-truths and innuendo, assumptions and bigotry. Conspiracy theories were just as prevalent then as they are today. But Peter encouraged his readers with the truth that their “honourable lives” would silence the accusers. It would be difficult, he wrote, to make accusations against someone whose life was above reproach. We pilgrims today should also take heed and be careful that we live in a way that will silence any accusations by “ignorant people”. It’s a high bar to achieve, but one possible as we depend on the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and guidance.

Dear Lord Jesus. You know at first hand the pain of false accusations. Please help us to respond in a way that shows the complainants a better way. In Your precious name. Amen.

No Accusers

Posted on by korgrocker

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”
Romans 8:31-34 NLT

We live in a sad time when accusations against another person can cause inordinate suffering and misery. For example, children make false accusations against teachers, foster parents, or anyone else in authority, that can lead to consequences that are out of all proportion to what was intended. The ultimate false accusation, of course, was against Jesus. When He stood before Pilate, the Jewish leaders called for His death. We read in John 19:7, “The Jewish leaders replied, “By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God””. By calling Himself the Son of God, Jesus was elevating Himself to the same level as God, and this was considered to be blasphemous by the Jewish leaders. We read in John 10:33, “They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God””. Jesus was of course speaking the truth when He claimed His Messiahship, but that was not accepted by the Jewish leaders. So they falsely accused Him of blasphemy. One day they will find out just how wrong they had been.

Paul wrote, “Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?” Accuse us of what? One thing the devil is good at is accusing Christians. We read in Revelation 12:10 about what happened to him. “Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has come at last— salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth— the one who accuses them before our God day and night.” The prophet Zechariah, in a vision, and as recorded in Zechariah 3:1-2a, wrote, “Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord . The Accuser, Satan, was there at the angel’s right hand, making accusations against Jeshua. And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. … “

The accuser, the devil, was very good at introducing doubts in people’s minds about sin, their salvation and anything to do with their relationship with God. His tactics in the Garden of Eden, when he deceived Eve, are well known. But Paul refutes all of this, because he points out to his readers that we are justified through our faith in Jesus. Before God we have nothing to be accused of. And similarly, we cannot be condemned either, again by our faith in Jesus. He died for us and is now with God, “pleading for us”. 

We pilgrims are in a strong position because of our relationship with God. The devil is a defeated foe. We have read the last page in the Book. But we must be aware of his ploys. We read in 1 Peter 5:8, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are”. In Zechariah’s vision, the devil made accusations against Jeshua, the High Priest. The devil is no respecter of persons – even the Jewish High Priest is not immune from accusations. But as we read in the Zechariah Scripture, God was having none of it. The devil’s accusations were rejected.

And so it is with us – the devil has nothing to pin on us because we are blood-bought children of God. We constantly keep short accounts with God, assured that He is always accessible, and then the devil cannot accuse us of anything. As we do with any loved one, we keep in regular contact. And we thank Him for His grace and love. Where would we be without God?

Dear Heavenly Father. We have no need to be anxious about the devil’s lies and false accusations. Before You, we are justified and redeemed. That’s all that matters. Amen.

False Accusations

Posted on by korgrocker

“Malicious witnesses testify against me. They accuse me of crimes I know nothing about.” Psalms‬ ‭35:11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Throughout the Bible much is written about “bearing false witness”. It means telling lies about someone. Or accusing them of something that they haven’t done. Or gossiping about them, particularly on social media. But not to bear false witness against your neighbour was the ninth commandment that Moses delivered to the Israelites. God gave this commandment to the Israelite nation for a reason – “bearing false witness” strikes at the very fabric of society because it destroys relationships. And here we have David in Psalm 35 complaining that he was being accused of crimes he didn’t commit, caught up in the middle of a storm of rebellion in the society he was trying to lead. But this wasn’t just an Old Testament problem. It was prevalent in New Testament times as well – Jesus Himself was similarly accused (Matthew 26:60) and also Stephen, one of the early church leaders, in Acts 6:13.

And the problem hasn’t gone away today, with a constant stream of false accusations and comments about sports people and others being posted on social media. People’s reputations are easily destroyed by careless words in the workplace, or in conversations with others. The problem is all about the evil thoughts that people have within their hearts and Jesus thought this problem was important enough to teach about – we read what He said in Matthew 15:19. And the Apostle James wrote about the dangers of the spoken word in the third chapter of his epistle.

So what is to be done about this perennial problem? The bottom line is that each one of us must be careful about what we say and how we say it. We must think carefully before hitting the “return” key. We must ask ourselves the question, “is what I am about to say or write true, helpful, necessary and encouraging?” And we must strive to apply the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:18, “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.”