Backbiting is Cannibalism!
Roger Forster
Backbiting tempts us all. It is sweet to climb higher in our own estimation as we broadcast the failures of others, but we who are destined for the marriage supper of the Lamb must practice now the enjoyment of heavenly feasting, not Christian cannibalism!
Surprisingly, Christians were once charged with practicing cannibalism. During the first 300 years of the Christian age, they seemed to say they were eating the body and blood of their Lord when they took communion with bread and wine. The Roman authorities mistakenly accused them of this same revolting crime.
However wrong they were to misinterpret the Lord's Supper, the apostle Paul, nevertheless, thought it right to warn Christians in the first century - and so indeed, Christians of all times - against another form of cannibalism and its concomitant practice of detaching the head. For the more discerning anthropologist (student of mankind) these two conditions will appear hand in-hand whenever backbiting, criticism, slander and character assassination occur in the Church, the body of Christ. The body is consumed, having first been decapitated.
Paul writes in Galatians 5:15, 'If you bite and devour one another, be careful you are not consumed of one another.' When we indulge in the common and persistent Church crime of backbiting we cannibalise the body and despise and defame the Head.
The Asmat are a New Guinea tribe who, even in recent times, detached their victims' skulls for trophies and ate their flesh. The Gospel is removing such horrible practices today. While such practices revolt us, how much more should feasting off our brothers' backs send a nauseating revulsion through our being, stimulating a desire for renewal! We dare not lose our Head by betraying and despising Him before His enemies, but should rather honour and hold Him in glory, praise and blessing (Colossians 2:19).
Backbiting tempts us all. It is sweet to climb higher in our own estimation and (we hope) in our hearer's, as we broadcast the failures of others. That someone is less Christlike, and I can see it, means surely I must be more. The seat of being the judge is attractive, a form of 'playing at God'. When I retell the failures and foul deeds of others, deeds which, perhaps, I have been too much of a coward to practise myself, but sowed nonetheless in my fantasy life, then I experience the vicarious stolen thrill Paul warns about in Romans 1:32, 'We have pleasure in those that do such things.' Then I gorge behind, and on, my brother's back - a Christian, headhunting cannibal.
The circumstances to which Paul wrote in the Galatian churches help us to check out three subtleties of backbiting that often are found in ourselves:
- Paul's Christian liberty had been misunderstood by some and they had turned to Jewish legality. They criticised Paul and fellow believers because they did not adhere to so many religious restrictions and practices as they were now doing. So these critics attempted to find fulness in Christ by feeding on others' failures to conform to certain moral and ethical taboos and religious practices. This form of backbiting feels very religious!
- Others had interpreted Paul's liberty as licence. They indulged the flesh, despising their legalistic brothers and reckoning themselves something far more Paul-like and mature than their undeveloped fellow believers. No doubt they were clearly saying so, running down 'legalistic ignorance'. This kind of back-biting feels higher and better - it must be good!
- There was almost certainly a third group. They maintained, rightly, that Paul's way was the way of love, but in doing so they would make it quite clear that the legalists and libertines didn't follow this pattem. These other two groups were to be judged for their unloving spirit! Our third party back-bites because it wants more love - can that possibly be wrong?
All three ways destroyed the body of Christ and hurried it on to its total disintegration. When we backbite we stimulate others to bite back and devour. What can be done to remove this unnatural lust and perennial temptation of the Church?
Firstly, it must be recognised that backbiting is the work of the devil. In fact, it is so much his work that his name Diabolos (Devil), means slanderer and is used not only as a name, but for false accusation (1 Timothy 3:11, 2 Timothy 3:3; Titus 2:3). To backbite is to assume the role and character of God's great enemy who slandered Him to Eve in Eden and accuses the brothers day and night (Revelation 12:10). The word 'devil' itself comes from two Greek words: 'thrust' and 'through'. The seriousness of his destructive words in the fight against God may be symbolised by the spear that was thrust through Christ's side on the Cross - the enemy's last great slander against the Almighty, saying He was defeated and finished. How can we continue to draw munitions from his arsenal and help him in his insurrection against God? This, indeed, is what we do when we slander and bite our brother's back. No wonder three sevenths of what is abominable to God is revealed in Proverbs 6:16-19 as 'the lying tongue, false witness and he that sows discord among brothers'.
Secondly, if we think there is something that must be said about our brother in his character and practice it must never be said behind his back. That is the coward's way, anyway. The Christian's way is to confront him face to face. The back is faceless, anonymous. If we have sought God to be filled with goodness and wisdom then it is our loving duty to admonish our brother (Matthew 18:15; Romans 15:14). As I speak to him face to face I see one for whom Christ died. I see an image of God who is as valuable to the Father as indeed His own Son, for this man was valued as worth His blood. I also see a face, which unlike a back, might be able to explain to me that I have misunderstood what he said, did or stands for.
During my ministry I have been accused of practices, teachings, words and actions, which were the very reverse of that for which I passionately and sincerely stood. Of course this is always the devil's way: he loves to hurt us in the things which we prize most. I would, however, have appreciated someone talking to me first. Paul implies that we should be pleased when a brother is brave enough to admonish us lovingly, full of wisdom and goodness. Then we have the opportunity to adjust our lives and become more Christ-like - which is what we are in the business for.
Thirdly, as I speak with my brother face to face it gives me the opportunity to feed upon my true food - not his sin and flesh, but Christ's bread and wine, for he, too, has received from the Lord and Christ lives in him. I find Christ in him and there are good things I can say about him even if at first it's only about the blood that has covered his sin. It will not be long, however, before I find the bread has nourished his life and causes Christ to be seen in various ways. In speaking of our mutual true nourishment, I speak well of him and my consequent communion with my Lord helps me see my brother as He does. I discover that Christ the Head is very much attached to His body.
The antichrist and his men are cannibals (Revelation 17:16), but we who are destined for the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7) must practice now the enjoyment of heavenly feasting (Revelation 3:20). Heaven would be hell if we were able to go around telling each other how we got there by being better than someone else! So now we are to get used to our eternal home by filling our mouths with Christ, and having no room left to use them for any other kind of feasting! |
Roger Forster, 03/11/2008 |
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