Gossip

"Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies." Psalm 34:13

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Luke 6:37

I overheard a conversation at work this week where two people were taking about a third in a not very favorable way. The things they were saying may have been partially true but were unkind and unnecessary. I was offended, because the person they were talking about was a friend of mine.

Why do we do this? I can’t claim that I have never been guilty of it, but I really try not to. There is no need to put another person down when it is not going to accomplish anything positive.

"Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down." Proverbs 26:20

It is so easy to "add fuel to the fire" of someone who is criticizing someone else behind their back, but the best strategy I have found when someone tries to do this around me is to defend that person or say something nice about them. This usually gets the message across that you don’t want to gossip and ends the conversation or sometimes even turns it around so that the first person adds something nice as well.

I think it may help us in our sinfulness to feel better about ourselves when we put others down, but it in the end it really doesn’t help anyone. My friends, if you catch me doing this, feel free to straighten me out.