What does the Bible say about backstabbing?

"He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him. When he speakethfair believe him not:for there areseven abominations in his heart."If one's character is formed by hypocrisy, we may be certain that actual hatred is behind this. "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him" (1 John 3:15). To think of a man of this kind having any place among Christians is dreadful: he can be there with no other purpose than to scatter the sheep. True, his own immediate object may be to get personal gain, but behind this is the Satanic intention of mining what is of God. He may speak fair, his voice gentle and gracious, but in this is the most danger: "believe him not." The "seven abominations in his heart" indicate that he is completely given over to idolatry, seven being the number of completeness, and abominations a term for idols.

No believer actually has the character of the dissembler, no more than of the fool. Yet again, it is all too possible for a believer to be guilty of dissembling, as we see in Galatians 2:13, when "even Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation." Peter's influence in this was grievously wrong, not because of hatred, but because of fear. The believer must take care to act true to his character, and not as does the wicked enemy of God. But the wicked "layeth up deceit within him." That is, he feeds on it, conceives it, stores it up for use at his pleasure. But let every believer be able to say with the Psalmist, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart" (Psalm 119:11).

"Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation."Hatred cannot indefinitely cover itself: there comes a point where hypocrisy is laid bare. "For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known" (Luke 12:2). Would one not recoil bothfrom the disgusting sin of hypocrisy, and from the humiliation of being exposed? But there is no doubt of such exposure.

So the hatred (v. 24) which is eminently dangerous is not what explodes in violent words, but would work out unawares, and therefore dissembles with the lips. The benevolent words only conceal the deceit within the man.

Next, we hear the yet more solemn warning against hypocritical ill will, its character and natural issue, and God's judgment of it, whatever men say. "He that covers hatred has lying lips; and he that utters slander is a fool." So He says who searches reins and hearts, which we cannot do and so need to profit by His word. Malevolent lies, when laid bare, thus prove hatred that was covered up, and the sending forth of slander evinces the fool. The divine oracle does not stoop to the deceiving politeness of society, but speaks out that all saints may hear, whether for comfort or for admonition.

It is the property of real love, to prove its activity; if it abide hidden when called to speak or work according to the heart, it betrays self rather than true affection. Even if there is a faultiness, love is bound to give "open rebuke." Indifference passes for much in this world, but it is the reverse of love, and cares for self, when it hides to spare danger and yet pretends affection.

A friend's wounds, on the contrary, are faithful, for God's will is thus done, even though misunderstood and resented for a while. An enemy betrays himself by the very profuseness of his kisses. God is not in such a display, but too often no more than partisanship in a human cause.

Mark this, Orpah showed more outward affection for Naomi than Ruth did, but Ruth's affection was deeper and more sincere. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her. Judas kissed the Saviour and betrayed Him. Proverbs 27:6 says, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." It is not the outward profession of Christianity that counts, but practical affection for the Person of Christ. How do we stand in this connection?

Paul is not deterred by man; and in this his conduct here shines by contrast with Peter's. But the way Paul acts is charming. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful" (Prov. 27:6). Judas has illustrated the last clause of this verse, in his betrayal of Jesus; Paul illustrates the former, in his treatment of Peter. He goes frankly to him, while he publicly exposes the glaring inconsistency of which, equally publicly, he had been guilty. He knew that Peter really believed in his heart that which he himself did. He was certain that Peter's convictions were the same as his own. He was equally certain that Peter had been betrayed into his inconsistent course — which in faithfulness he cannot describe as anything less than dissimulation — by the pressure brought to bear on him from without. He was equally convinced that Peter, at bottom, loved the Lord, the Gentiles, and himself; and this explains the faithfulness of his public address, which is a model of frankness coupled with delicacy, and of logical argument combined with persuasiveness. Let us give earnest heed to it.

It was not that the Lord was unconscious of his character, conduct, or coming catastrophe, but that the Scripture might be fulfilled, He that eateth bread hath lifted up his heel against Me. (Ps. 41:9) "Jeshurun grew fat and kicked" of old; "he gave up God Who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation." (Deut. 32:15) Judas went incomparably farther in his guilty indifference to the Son of God come down in love and humiliation, and in his eagerness to serve himself at all cost, betraying his gracious Master for the merest trifle. Never was such love, never such slight and abuse of it, and this in one of those specially responsible to be faithful. Doubtless it would be through Satan's power; but to this flesh exposes, and so much the more because of nearness outwardly to the Lord Who is not believed on to salvation. Thereby comes out, most palpably and fatally, the hard baseness of the unrenewed heart, and this against the grace of the Lord above all. Thus, if the disciples were in danger of being stumbled by such a one's defection, the evident fulfilment of Scripture was meant to strengthen their faith in every written word of God. By this man lives Godward: bread, money, anything here below, may be the occasion of his ruin. How wondrous the patience which, knowing all from the beginning, bore all to the end, without a frown or sign of shrinking from the traitor! But so much the more withering must be the sentence of judgment when it comes from His lips, the Lord of glory, the hated and despised of man.

In the next verse the hypocrisy that links itself with this real enmity is manifest: "And if he come to see me, he speaketh deceit: his heart gathereth falsehood to itself; when he goeth without, he speaketh it." Thus he finds just what he looks for; his heart is a magnet that, by a terrible principle of natural selection, attracts wickedness to itself; — wickedness which it has forged first. Then he goes out and proclaims his acquisition; but indeed to show himself out for what he is.

Then come plots and treacherous whisperings, and they persuade themselves that God is against the One they would make their victim. "A thing of Belial," they say, "cleaveth fast to him; and now that he lieth, he shall rise up no more." How readily the cry upon the cross would be for such an implication of guilt! God Himself confessedly against the holy Sufferer; and this was but the last, doubtless, in their eyes, of many similar things. The betrayal of Judas closes the story of man's uttermost wickedness with the spurning heel of a false friend. The sop dipped in the dish was the sign of friendship: he receives it, and goes out; love's last witness finding no response, — "after the sop, Satan entered into him" (John 13:27).

Am I weary? He knew weariness. Am I sorrowful? He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’ (Isa. 53:3). Do I feel the treachery of a friend? Could our Lord’s sorrow be more graphically described than in Psalm 41:9, “Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me”? Tempted He was, tried in all points like as we are, “sin apart”! How fitted to be our sympathizing High Priest; not only understanding our feelings as One who in His Godhead is omniscient; but doing so as One who was a true Man down here in lowly grace in all the ordinary circumstances of life, but “sin apart.”

This is what men do between each other now-a-days, to reach some end they have in view. I dare say they may not perhaps think so: but the largest portion of the sorrows between men, or even between brethren, are caused by some hint, behind backs; or some whispered story, to which the heart of others is ready to lend an ear; which causes distrust to spring up between souls. Distrust engendered, dislike follows, but more especially in the one who has wronged the other. It is exceedingly hard to trust a heart you have wronged. “A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it”; and “He that repeateth a matter, separateth very friends”; and “He that did his neighbor wrong, thrust him away,” etc. These passages (kindred in their character) are but the workings of this principle of evil. Hence the true saying, “The injured may forget; the injurer, never!”