Chrysostom
Beloved of All
We have heard your request and we have brought it before the Lord with you, asking for His mercy and deliverance in this long season of distress.
What you describe is a heavy burden. A neighbor given to idleness and meddling, watching another house, spreading stories and disrespectful images, creating gossip and discord, destroying reputation, provoking strife, and adding financial and physical suffering even to the point of hospitalization is an evil that wounds the whole community. Scripture names these works plainly. As you quoted, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, dissensions, factions, envy and things like these are works of the flesh, and those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God. We too were once foolish and enslaved by passions, living in malice and envy, hating and being hated, but God in His mercy calls us to a new life.
The Lord shows us how seriously He takes the sin of the tongue. One who spoke the truth about himself, and spoke it to no one else, was still condemned because he spoke with pride and contempt for his neighbor. How much more serious is it when people, like gossiping women, carry about everywhere lies which they do not even believe themselves. When a person wants to undermine a neighbor he says, such a one said this, God forgive me, do not hold me to account for what I heard. If you do not believe it, why do you speak it at all. Why do you make it seem credible by repeating it. Do not say it then, but keep silence and free yourself from fear. Every word spoken against a neighbor, even if spoken as if true, will be judged not by what the other person has done but by what we have spoken, for by our words we will be condemned. The reviler mars the beauty of love, tears apart the members of Christ, drives away the peace which God so desires, and gives advantage to the enemy.
God is not a God of war and fighting. He calls us to make war and fighting cease, both that which is against Him and that which is against our neighbor. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Such people imitate the Son of God. Even when a brother wars against you, the greater will be your reward if you remain peaceful. To remember no evil, to let go of enmity, delights God, sets us free from sin, and looses the charges against us. But when we bite and devour one another, when we are vexed by the standing of our neighbors and tear at their reputation through wronging, accusing and slandering, we become far from God, for conflict produces enmity and enmity produces remembrance of evil.
Therefore we pray with you in this way. We ask the Lord Jesus Christ to rebuke every spirit of gossip, slander, idleness, envy, discord and sorcery at work in this situation, and to bring that work to nothing. We ask Him to silence lying lips and mocking images, to expose false information, false meetings, false accusations about lists and ranks and sponsors, and every form of deceit and voyeurism that pries into another house. We ask Him to protect your household, your reputation, your health and your provision, to guard you from unjust extra bills and financial ruin, to heal what has been broken by hospitalization and prolonged suffering, and to keep you from further tragedy. We ask Him to bring order where there is disorder, truth where there is confusion, and peace where there has been a war of distraction.
We also pray for the neighbor who does these things, that God would grant repentance. The foundation of all good is love, for on love hang all the law and the prophets, and love is the fulfilling of the law. Where love is present, covetousness, robbery, envy, slander, arrogance and falsehood are driven out. No one would rob or slander the one he truly loves, but would rather give his own possessions. Where there is genuine love, we do not slander our friends but we stop the mouth of slanderers, and everything breathes peace. May God soften that heart, bring conviction for laziness and meddling, and lead that person to honest work and quiet faithfulness rather than to spying and destruction.
For your part, seek to walk in the way of peace and mercy. Prayer is a great and saving good when we also do things worthy of it. When you seek mercy from God, first show mercy to your neighbor. The merciful shall obtain mercy, but judgment without mercy will be shown to those who have shown no mercy. Do not carry the gossip further, even to deny it. Keep silence concerning what you have not seen to be true. Do not return mockery for mockery. Set boundaries with wisdom where you must, but do not repay evil for evil. Commit your reputation and your household to the Lord, who sees in secret and judges righteously. Be diligent in what God has given you to do, so that idleness has no place, and let your speech be gentle and truthful.
We are not God, and we are not able to carry the burden of defending and protecting all things ourselves. That anxiety belongs to the Lord. Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. He is able to preserve you through delay, missing items, provocation and disorder, and to give you rest from this long suffering.
May the Lord grant you peace in your home, quietness from the strife around you, provision for your needs, healing for your body and mind, and a heart kept free from hatred. May He make you a peacemaker in the midst of conflict, and keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceit, that you may live in love toward God and toward neighbor, which together fulfill all His commandments.
What you describe is a heavy burden. A neighbor given to idleness and meddling, watching another house, spreading stories and disrespectful images, creating gossip and discord, destroying reputation, provoking strife, and adding financial and physical suffering even to the point of hospitalization is an evil that wounds the whole community. Scripture names these works plainly. As you quoted, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, dissensions, factions, envy and things like these are works of the flesh, and those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God. We too were once foolish and enslaved by passions, living in malice and envy, hating and being hated, but God in His mercy calls us to a new life.
The Lord shows us how seriously He takes the sin of the tongue. One who spoke the truth about himself, and spoke it to no one else, was still condemned because he spoke with pride and contempt for his neighbor. How much more serious is it when people, like gossiping women, carry about everywhere lies which they do not even believe themselves. When a person wants to undermine a neighbor he says, such a one said this, God forgive me, do not hold me to account for what I heard. If you do not believe it, why do you speak it at all. Why do you make it seem credible by repeating it. Do not say it then, but keep silence and free yourself from fear. Every word spoken against a neighbor, even if spoken as if true, will be judged not by what the other person has done but by what we have spoken, for by our words we will be condemned. The reviler mars the beauty of love, tears apart the members of Christ, drives away the peace which God so desires, and gives advantage to the enemy.
God is not a God of war and fighting. He calls us to make war and fighting cease, both that which is against Him and that which is against our neighbor. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Such people imitate the Son of God. Even when a brother wars against you, the greater will be your reward if you remain peaceful. To remember no evil, to let go of enmity, delights God, sets us free from sin, and looses the charges against us. But when we bite and devour one another, when we are vexed by the standing of our neighbors and tear at their reputation through wronging, accusing and slandering, we become far from God, for conflict produces enmity and enmity produces remembrance of evil.
Therefore we pray with you in this way. We ask the Lord Jesus Christ to rebuke every spirit of gossip, slander, idleness, envy, discord and sorcery at work in this situation, and to bring that work to nothing. We ask Him to silence lying lips and mocking images, to expose false information, false meetings, false accusations about lists and ranks and sponsors, and every form of deceit and voyeurism that pries into another house. We ask Him to protect your household, your reputation, your health and your provision, to guard you from unjust extra bills and financial ruin, to heal what has been broken by hospitalization and prolonged suffering, and to keep you from further tragedy. We ask Him to bring order where there is disorder, truth where there is confusion, and peace where there has been a war of distraction.
We also pray for the neighbor who does these things, that God would grant repentance. The foundation of all good is love, for on love hang all the law and the prophets, and love is the fulfilling of the law. Where love is present, covetousness, robbery, envy, slander, arrogance and falsehood are driven out. No one would rob or slander the one he truly loves, but would rather give his own possessions. Where there is genuine love, we do not slander our friends but we stop the mouth of slanderers, and everything breathes peace. May God soften that heart, bring conviction for laziness and meddling, and lead that person to honest work and quiet faithfulness rather than to spying and destruction.
For your part, seek to walk in the way of peace and mercy. Prayer is a great and saving good when we also do things worthy of it. When you seek mercy from God, first show mercy to your neighbor. The merciful shall obtain mercy, but judgment without mercy will be shown to those who have shown no mercy. Do not carry the gossip further, even to deny it. Keep silence concerning what you have not seen to be true. Do not return mockery for mockery. Set boundaries with wisdom where you must, but do not repay evil for evil. Commit your reputation and your household to the Lord, who sees in secret and judges righteously. Be diligent in what God has given you to do, so that idleness has no place, and let your speech be gentle and truthful.
We are not God, and we are not able to carry the burden of defending and protecting all things ourselves. That anxiety belongs to the Lord. Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. He is able to preserve you through delay, missing items, provocation and disorder, and to give you rest from this long suffering.
May the Lord grant you peace in your home, quietness from the strife around you, provision for your needs, healing for your body and mind, and a heart kept free from hatred. May He make you a peacemaker in the midst of conflict, and keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceit, that you may live in love toward God and toward neighbor, which together fulfill all His commandments.
