Proverbs 30:10

 The book of Proverbs gives us a lot of instruction on a lot of different subjects. One subject that can keep us in God’s wisdom is Godly Follower-ship. Who we follow; where we follow; how we follow are all spoken about in Proverbs. Here is one of them about respect:

Proverbs 30:10

Do not slander a slave to his master,

Or he will curse you and you will be found guilty.

What a difficult proverb for us in this day and age.   We don't own slaves and find the thought of it, repulsive.   We might chalk this proverb up to "historically specific" and let it go.   That would be a shame.   If, however, we understand the proverb right, there is some great truth for us.  The principle Solomon is teaching is that of respect for what belongs to others and our ability to show that respect in any area of life.   In the immediate context we have a man who would see his friends slave and make a crude comment about that slave.  Here you have a person, already in poor status and now, you, a stranger, "slanders" their very personhood.   Any good "master" will take that as an insult to "his possession" or "his ability" to train the slave.   We then find that (in the second line) we are liable to the master and have destroyed our own reputation.   If we take it out of the context of slavery and use the word "children" what would it mean?  It would say, "do not slander a child to his parent, or he (the parent) will curse you and your reputation will be destroyed."  We are to use our tongue wisely ... to build up and not to tear down.   We are not to slander what others take pride in (whether that be their children, their homes, their possessions, or, in this case, their slaves) ... it would do nothing more than separate your friendship with them and cause a bad reputation to yourself.   Be careful how you use your tongue.  Use it to compliment not condemn.

Solomon is not teaching slavery, however.  In his day the term, thought and concept had many connotations.  Some of them were good, some bad.   What Solomon is teaching is to make sure we use our tongues in a way that shows respect, not slander, or contempt.  Language matters to God. How we use our tongues is paramount to God, because our tongues reveal our hearts.  The irony here is that having a slave for the purpose of a possession is disrespectful.   So, too, disrespecting with the tongue.  It is interesting how in our society we see groups of people upset about how others disrespect their “identified” group of people by being disrespectful to the other group.   You can’t disrespect one group to rescue the other group.  That is the truth from this proverb.