Beware of Gossipers!

        “There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us”. 

        Whether what you are repeating is true or not, it remains a witness against someone. Most gossiping has one purpose in mind: to put down someone else and put ourselves up. It’s actually a form of slander and hatred (Pro 10:12). It’s simply speaking evil of someone. But the bible says that love does no evil to his neighbor (Rom 13:10). 

        Beware of gossipers, they’ll come to you and talk about me, and they’ll come to me, and talk about you. “Who chatters to you will chatter of you”.

        Jesus said, “before criticizing someone else in regards to a spec in his eye, we ought to take out the beam out of your own eye” (Mt7:5). Before criticizing someone else and pointing a finger at them, just remember that they are three fingers pointing back at yourself.

        Lies will go around the world while truth is still getting its boots on. It is a critical spirit that shows dissension, disunity, discord amongst the brethren–One of the seven abominations to God. 

        Words are real things; they bless or they curse, they lift up or they knock down, they save or they dam.

        “None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them”. Nothing much happens in small churches, but what you hear makes up for it.

        There’s only one way to change the unruly tongue, and that is to transform the spirit that controls it. If you should be a wise man, be the Lord of your own tongue and the master of your own ears.

        It’s hypocrisy to destroy someone through slander (Pro 11:9). Actually gossip will often be the first thing that will separate true friends (Pro 16:28). But the one who walks in integrity would rather conceal the matter (Pro 11:13). The bible clearly forbids gossiping (Lev 19:16). 

        Jesus was adamant about it when He said that “it’s not what goes into a man that defiles a man but rather those things with which proceed out of the mouth which come from the heart. Those are the things that defile the man… out of the heart proceed evil thoughts… false witness and slander”. (Matthew 15: 18, 19). 

        Paul exhorted the first Christians to “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice”. (Eph 4:31). Peter also said “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander (1Pet2:1).

        If you have a problem with controlling your own tongue, you must read the following verses…. those will help CURE you. 

Pr 24:28 Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, for would you deceive with your lips?

Pr 10:18 Whoever hides hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

Pr 25:9 Debate your case with your neighbor, and do not disclose the secret to another;

Pr 26:20 Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; And where there is no talebearer, strife ceases.

Pr 29:11 A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back.

Pr 30:32 If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth.

Pr 12:22  Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.

Pr 16:28b  A whisperer separates the best of friends.

Pr 25:18 A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow.

Ecc 10:20 Do not curse the king, even in your thought; Do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom; For a bird of the air may carry your voice, and a bird in flight may tell the matter.

Jam 3:5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 

For additional information about how to handle gossipers, go Here