When someone accuses you, they want you to defend yourself. Don’t follow the debate agenda they set for you. Concede some of their points, explain yourself, but focus on the agenda you know is most responsible for you to push. Sometimes that means not defending yourself and admitting a fault, even when you must pay a punishment for it.
It happens when a power monger feels threatened in his fiefdom or a lazy farmer’s cash cow wants to leave the farm. No one accuses people without it affecting the accuser personally. People mind their own worries and chase their own dreamy ambitions until someone disturbs them; then they start searching for faults that they really don’t care about one lick, just to try to get rid of the “trouble maker”.
Accusers rarely care about what they accuse others of. Accusation either a weapon against competition, retribution for being outworked, or a way to distract from one’s own misery.
On occasion, someone will be genuinely injured and will thus seek justice. But, even then your responsibility must stay the same: Pursue the path of doing the right thing.
If you have wronged someone, don’t contend or defend. Confess, own up, make it right, tell the truth, and do the work of restitution to fix as much damage you caused as you can. In fact, take up the cause of the victim you victimized. Have your own “come to Jesus” moment—we all need those from time to time. That’s easy to figure out.
In the face of gossip, slander, and people who just want to stir up trouble, Paul had a lot to say about hate mongering. There’s a difference between seeking justice and smearing everyone for every little mistake ever made. Justice involves restoration toward hope and a future; that’s much more difficult when a gossiper has been out and about as a negative busy body.
When you confront accusers, your first question should be about “standing”—has the person been injured by you, otherwise it’s gossip, even in the name of “journalism”. Accusations are often an attempt to put people on defense, redirect them, then destroy them. Stay your course of fair, worthy pursuits.