I overheard someone make a nasty comment about someone else in our small town a few weeks back. I sat with their words for a few minutes trying to decide if they righteously infuriated me or broke my heart. At the end of the day, it was approximately none of my business; I didn’t know these people from Adam, and they didn’t know me.
Nonetheless, the comment sparked a few sobering thoughts to stumble onto the stage of my mind as if they had been pushed from behind the curtain:
· In light of eternity, what do our feelings of superiority or animosity towards a brother or sister even matter?
· Who are we to feel them in the first place?
· If our eyes are fixed on heaven how do we then even allow them to take up space in our gaze? When the rapture happens, we’re all going to the same heaven.
In an article for Desiring God, Pennsylvania pastor Matt Mitchell put it the best I have ever heard it.
“The book of Proverbs likens the words of a gossip to ‘delicious morsels,’ a tasty treat that promises delight to those who indulge (Proverbs 18:8; 26:22). We get bored and want to entertain ourselves by snacking on the shameful stories of other people’s lives. Or we get proud that we know something that someone else doesn’t and want to show off our inside scoop.”
Being a Southern Belle myself hailing from smack dab in the middle of Bless Your Heart Boulevard, I would be lying through my teeth if I told you I have never taken of the forbidden pleasure. In fact, I have – on many occasions – been guilty of sharing a poisonous bite with my friends.
And for what? Character assassination in the name of needing to curb my sin appetite? To earn my spot in a new friend group? To flex my social status? “Oh, she knows things.”
Fun fact: According to Christian Social Media Influencer, Ryan Miller, gossip is mentioned over 150 times throughout Scripture which is more than it confronts sexual immorality and drunkenness combined.
Let that take root for a moment.
Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; no one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure (Psalm 101:5).
He who conceals hatred has lying lips, and he who spreads slander is a fool (Proverbs 10:18).
If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless (James 1:26).
Gossip, like any addiction, isn’t easy to kick. Who doesn’t want to know the insider info? Who wouldn’t want to be the bearer of this week’s most exclusive whisper? It’s nothing to put someone else down if it means further concealing our own insecurities and flaws. What’s just one more hit of the drug?
When we do indulge ourselves, how then do we bless the name of the Lord with the same mouth we were just cursing His child? Taking it a step further – how do we bear His name while we so flippantly defame His very likeness?
So also, the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh (James 3:5-12).
So, how do we beat it?
1. Don’t leave the house without your armor.
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).
2. Guard your fruit.
“I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not [r]destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:11).
3. Shift your focus.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. As for the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-10).
4. Put down your stones.
“When they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her’” (John 8:7).
At the end of the day, this is everyone’s first time living, so be gentle, and don’t give the Devil a minute of the time you have been gifted.
