Slander and Single-Hearted Giving

He said to me: Be single-hearted and innocent, and you will be like small children, who do not know the wickedness that destroys people’s lives. First of all, slander no one, and do not enjoy listening to anyone who slanders. Otherwise you too, the one listening, will be guilty of the slanderer’s sin, if you believe the slander you hear; for once you have believed it, you yourself will have something against your brother. That is how you will end up guilty of the slanderer’s sin. [a]

Slander is evil. It is a restless demon: it is never at peace, and it makes its home wherever people are divided. Keep away from it, then, and you will always do well with everyone. Put on dignity instead. In it there is nothing evil to trip anyone up; everything about it is even and cheerful.

Do what is good, and out of the earnings of your work, which God gives you, give with a single heart to everyone in need, without hesitating over whom to give to and whom not. Give to everyone, for God wants everyone to be given to out of his own gifts.

Those who receive will give an account to God for why they received and for what. Those who receive because they are in distress will not be brought to judgment, but those who receive by pretending will pay the penalty. The giver, though, is not guilty. He received a service from the Lord to carry out, and he carried it out with a single heart, making no distinction about whom to give to and whom not. So this service, carried out with a single heart, turned out glorious in God’s sight. The one who serves in this way, with a single heart, will live to God.

So keep this command, just as I have spoken it to you, so that your repentance and your household’s may be found single-hearted, and your innocence pure and undefiled.