Non Homini

  An Ad hominem attack is one that rather than dealing with the

situation or issue, you attack the person making the argument.  Some people by their character and conduct make this an simple job. It’s easy to state their flaws and let that ruin their words.  It might be easy but it's not always right.  Those whose arguments are only about tearing others down will themselves be easy to tear down.

  Over the years, I have noticed the men that have had great success in long term ministry are not “brother bashers”.  It can be easy to pick out the flaws we see in others but that attack eventually will turn sour.  To last, you have to lift people up not tear them down.  Some of the preachers I think most highly of are ones that I can barely ever remember having a negative word to say about anyone.  These men are completely sound and will reprove error but they don't attack people.  They preach to problems not persons.  They seek to edify not eradicate.  They want to see sinner turn not to see sinners burn.

  I think that is what James was getting at in James 4:11, when he says, “Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.”   Some want to show you how wrong you are, and in turn how right they are, thus elevating themselves to a judge of the law.  Rather than that attitude, we must be one that says “What does Jesus tells us?” or “Are we following the Bible?”

  Paul warned Timothy in 1^st Timothy 6:20-21, “ O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called "knowledge" which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.”  I wonder today how many brethren have gone astray from the faith because they have gone down the easy road of name calling, personal attacks, and arguing.  I’ll be honest, I've see myself eyeing that road at times.  I hope someday to be as wise as those ministers I admire; a person that can stand for the truth without stepping on others to do it.