Zip It!

The Bible says gossip is nothing less than meddling in other people’s business. Jon Zens says: ‘I have watched friends and families suffer untold pain because of gossip…the information someone dumps on you without your consent or the consent of the person involved. It can be true, partially true, or completely false. It can be motivated by good intentions, but it always contains negative information and colours people’s perceptions of someone unjustly. The person being torn down is out of the loop because talebearers usually avoid speaking directly to the one they are demeaning.’

Fred Gage said, ‘The Christian army is the only one that shoots and buries its wounded.’ We must set the standard for our life by evaluating people based on our experience with them, not on what somebody else says. Second–hand information is known for being unreliable and misleading, and it violates Christ’s command to ‘treat people the same way you want them to treat you.’ (Matthew 7:12 NASB) When you have been hurt by tittle–tattle gossip, you can relate to the wisdom of those words.

Rumours and innuendos [spreading negative comments] may seem innocent and come to you subtly, but our job is to stop gossip dead! Spreading gossip is not walking in love and looking for the best in others. AW Tozer said, ‘Never pass anything on that will hurt somebody. “Love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8 NIV), and the talebearer [gossip spreader] has no place in God’s favour. If you know something that would hurt one of God’s children, take it out, bury it and say, “Here lies in peace the story about my brother.” God will take care of it.’