My mentor once said, "the fastest way to kill a church is by gossiping." I feel, now more than ever, he was correct. Webster defines gossip as, "rumor or report of intimate nature." Webster defines rumor as, "talk or opinion widely disseminated with no discernible source." So basically, gossip is an opinion of intimate nature. Such as, "so-and-so is such a looser. She never has any friends because no one likes her," or "so-and-so is not someone that you want to hang around. do you know what he did last weekend?" Ephesians 4:29 says, "Let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths, but only for such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear it." Is this how the body of Christ should be acting?
Have you ever heard of the game telephone? A group of people sit in a circle, and one person whispers something into the ear of the person next to them. Then that person whispers what they hear into the ear of the next person, and so on until the message gets to the last person in the circle. The idea is to keep the message as close to the original one as possible; but I have noticed that the more people that are in the circle, the less like the message it gets. That is exactly like gossip. The more people are involved, the more twisted the rumors get.
Just recently, I had heard of some gossip. Let's say that Bob was telling Bill something about Will and how he thought that Will was annoying. Bob told Bill that he spoke to Ben about it and Ben agreed. Once I heard of this from Bill, I told Bill not to continue the subject before it became gossip. I confronted Ben to see if he was agreeing, and he told me that it was not true. It is easy to start a rumor, and easy to continue the rumor; but stopping a rumor is hard work. I thank God that said rumor was not out of manageable standards.
As Christians, it is our duty to keep gossip from our lips, and from the lips of our brothers. As Christians, we are not supposed to lie. Even stretching the truth is a lie, and Proverbs 16:28 says, "a dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends." We are supposed to be a united force, not a wave of destruction and separation. We are suppose to bring truth, not rumors. Exodus 23:1 says it best. "You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness."
If you wonder why there is so much drama and fighting in your life, examine your conversations and see if you are gossiping and starting these things. What you sow you reap; so if you sow slander, you will reap it's fruits. Proverbs 26:20 says, "for lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling stops."
We must look at ourselves and see if we are gossiping. Not by our standards, but by God's. How can we show the love of Christ if we are talking about people behind their backs? It does not matter if everyone else talks behind people's backs. We are not supposed to be conformed to this world. (Romans 12:2) We are supposed to be an example of good. We must stop the gossip at the root. If we want Christ to dwell in us, we must watch out tongues and what we speak about. If gossip is your sin, have someone watch you at all times and call you out when you begin to gossip.
James 1:26 says, "If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless." In other words, if you say that you are a Christian but you gossip and cannot control your words, no one will respect your religion. If you want to give glory to God, control your tongue and what goes out of it. God does not play around with His glory. Gossiping must end now.
-D
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