The Power of Gossip

 

By Andrea Merrell

The words of a talebearer are as wounds,

and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

Proverbs 18:8 KJV

“Did you hear about that new girl at church?” the woman asked the group. “I got an earful from someone she used to be friends with.”

Someone in the group moaned and walked away. A couple of others followed. Only one stayed behind, anxious to hear the latest dirt.

Gossip: reports about other people that are generally not true. Some folks make it a part of their everyday life, thinking no harm can come from sharing everything they know—and a lot they don’t know for sure—about others. Many even try to disguise it in the form of a “prayer request.” We need to pray for so and so because …

If you’re of the opinion that gossip has no power to harm anyone, listen to this from The Word for You Today:

I maim without killing. I break hearts and ruin lives. I am cunning and malicious, and I gather strength with age. The more I’m quoted, the more I’m believed. I flourish at every level of society. My victims are helpless; they can’t protect themselves against me because I have no name and no face. To track me down is impossible. The harder you try, the more elusive I become. I’m nobody’s friend. Once I tarnish a reputation, it’s never the same. I topple governments, wreck marriages, and make innocent people cry. Who an I? My name is gossip.

The Bible clearly tells us in Proverbs that the words of a talebearer are like wounds. But what does it say about those who anxiously listen to those slanderous words? The Message puts it like this: “Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy. Do you really want junk like that in your belly?”

Sounds like a good place to apply the Golden Rule—treating others as we want to be treated and letting our words be uplifting and encouraging. If we have a tendency to say things we shouldn’t, let’s pray as the psalmist David did: “Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips” (Psalm 141:3 NLT). But let’s not forget that our ears are not trash cans to collect all the garbage others might want to throw in there.

Let’s do everything we can to diminish the power of gossip.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash