Gossip and a Slanderer
Gossip is ugly. It is wrong, it is damaging and there is no good reason for doing it. It is murder by the use of words. Instead of using a weapon, a gossiper destroys with words.
Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines gossip as a person who reveals personal or sensational facts about others; or report of an intimate nature, chatty talk about another.
A gossiper is a person who slanders another secretly (the definition of the Greek word gossip). After all, gossip is nothing more than discussing another person with the intent to cast a bad light on their character. Slander, on the other hand, is a defamer, an evil speaker. Gossips and slanderers are in the same sentence as haters of God, inventors of evil, haughty and boastful.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Romans 1:28-32 (ESV)
This is a nasty description that many Christians are guilty of. Christians have accepted this sin as not quite as bad as other sin. A Christian would not go out and murder or steal but Christians gossip. They do it at the workplace, with their friends and even at church.
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But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 1 Peter 4:15 (ESV)
In 1 Peter 4:15, Peter is using a thief or a murderer in comparison to another sin that is under-rated, a meddler. A meddler is a close relative to a gossip. It is man that under-rates gossip.
Here is what God has to say about gossip:
- The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body. Proverbs 26:22 (ESV)
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13 Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. 1 Timothy 5:13 (ESV)
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9 With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered. Proverbs 11:9 (ESV)
28 A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. Proverbs 16:28 (ESV)
Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered. Proverbs 11:13 (ESV)
Gossip is an ugly and insidious sin for it is practiced by many, not recognized as the sin that it is and is damaging to the character of the person being gossiped about.
If there is a subject to be spoken about against another, it should be taken up with that person. Gossip accomplishes nothing but evil.
Gossip is nasty, repulsive and the gossiper is displaying an attitude of self-righteousness for they are pointing out a defect in another for no purpose except to harm another.
If what we have to say about another is unkind, we guard the mouth with a muzzle.
- I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue;
I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.” Psalm 39:1 (ESV)
A gossip is not to be trusted. We can be sure that if they are gossiping about another person, they are gossiping about us as well.
