Proverbs 18-20

July 12

Proverbs 18-20

"The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts." (Proverbs 18:8, NIV)

We try to play it off as sharing our concerns about another person, but gossip continues to live in and out of the church. There are television shows and newspapers whose primary objective is to spread the gossip about television and movie stars. In church, we are more discrete, we couch the gossip in prayer concerns. Webster’s defines a gossip as; “a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others.”

Our curiosity makes us want more when we hear about another person. We are not content with our own lives, we want to know about the lives of others. Perhaps we are trying to experience their lives through the stories. Gossip is like a choice morsel, but it brings out evil.

The apostle Paul put gossip with a list of pretty strong sins in his letter to the church in Rome.

"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless." (Romans 1:29-31, NIV)

Paul realized gossip was a destroyer of the Church. Gossip is like a wildfire. It may begin with a spark, just a few words, but it spreads and destroys much territory. Once we hear gossip, it is hard to kill it. We want to share what we heard with someone else. But the best policy is to keep our mouths shut so the gossip can die.

"A fool’s mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snare to his soul." (Proverbs 18:7, NIV)