What Does Gossip Sound Like?

Thursday June 4, 2015

Gossip shows up in our lives in many forms. God hates them all because He knows how harmful destructive words are to our dignity and our relationships.

Here are some types of gossip and what God's word in the Bible has to say about it. In which of the following areas do we notice ourselves being tempted to gossip?

1. Slander spreads rumors or lies about a person in order to damage them. The written form of this is called libel. The Bible mentions slander many times. Hiding hatred makes you a liar; slandering others makes you a fool. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. (Proverbs 10:18, Ephesians 4:31 NLT)

2. Rumors abound. We hear something and even though it's not confirmed we pass it along and gossip spreads. Harm is done to the person and often to ourselves. Careful words make for a careful life; careless talk may ruin everything. (Proverbs 13:3 MSG)

3. Speaking with innuendo and planting seeds of doubt which question a person's character or actions is another destructive form of gossip that the Bible warns us against. It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. (James 3:5-6 MSG)

4. It so easy to complain when gossiping about things which are not perfect or aren't going our way. This “behind the scenes complaining” can cause great harm. Complain if you must, but don’t lash out. Keep your mouth shut, and let your heart do the talking. Build your case before God and wait for his verdict. (Psalm 4:4-5 MSG)

5. Bad-mouthing, back-stabbing, back-biting. These words seek to describe the harmful practice of speaking negative and harmful words about someone who isn't there to defend themselves. The Bible says: Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor? (James 4:11-12 NLT)

God hates gossip. God wants to use the kind words that come out of our mouths as an example of how a Christian should behave towards others. He also wants us to encourage others to think about what they are saying when they tend to gossip.

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