Stop Giving a Fault a Complimentary Name

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.

Isaiah 5:20

Read Isaiah 3 through 5. Focus on 5:1 through 7 and 20 through 23. Isaiah sings of a carefully tended vineyard. Its owner has cleared the ground, planted choice vines, and provided what the vineyard needs. The expected fruit does not come. God looks for justice and finds bloodshed, for righteousness and hears a cry. The problem is not a lack of religious vocabulary. Later in the chapter, people are condemned for reversing moral names. Evil is called good. Darkness is presented as light. A community can become practiced at describing its conduct favorably while the people harmed by it know another reality. Chapter 3 has already confronted leaders who consume the vineyard and crush the poor. Chapter 4 offers cleansing and the Lord's protective presence. The hope of renewal does not require calling the corruption acceptable. It includes its removal. Our ordinary language can perform smaller reversals. We call cruelty honesty, controlling behavior high standards, or refusal to listen confidence. The favorable name makes the conduct harder to examine. Good qualities can genuinely be misunderstood. Firmness is not always unkind, and a necessary truth may be unwelcome. The question is whether the name fits the actual behavior or mainly protects us from hearing its effect. If honesty is the claim, was the statement accurate and necessary? If high standards are the claim, are they clear, fair, and applied consistently? If confidence is the claim, can another person ask a reasonable question without punishment? These questions move us from a flattering label to something observable. They also protect against careless accusation. We should not rename another person's good conduct merely because it inconveniences us. Think of the phrase you use most quickly when someone raises a concern about you. “I am just direct.” “I care too much.” “I only want things done properly.” Each may contain truth. None should end the examination. Ask what happened in the particular instance. A person may have needed correction, and you may also have humiliated them. Wanting a good result does not give every method the name of goodness. Isaiah's vineyard is evaluated by what grows there. Let that image bring your preferred descriptions into contact with the life others actually experience. The Lord is not confused by the name we give an action. We become more truthful when we are willing to let the action be named accurately too. Put It into Practice Set the label aside and describe the action without it. Evaluate its accuracy, necessity, and effect, then correct what needs correction rather than defending the flattering name.

Which favorable description of yourself becomes your quickest defense when someone raises a concrete concern?

God of light, correct the names I use to protect my faults. Help me distinguish genuine virtue from conduct dressed in its language. Make my words about myself and others answerable to what actually happened. Amen.