gossip

everyone has done this. families and friends do it all the time. i don't know one individual that hasn't, or that still doesn't do it. we talk about people all the time. look at what our world does to celebrities. we justify it by saying "well their the ones that wanted to live in the limelight." does that make it right? nope.

as i got older i thought maybe that i would just grow out of this, but now it just takes a different form; judgement. i still gossip. i know i shouldn't ever. we all have our baggage. we all make mistakes. where is the sense of compassion? where is the understanding? when do we stop being hypocrites?

one of pastors last week talked about the gossip and rumors that were spread about him and his ex-wife. they were going through a very difficult time in their lives and people played the guessing game as to why they got a divorce. they are the only individuals that know reason why they divorced. what is shameful about it is, that it was the congregation that was spreading the rumors. i heard all sorts of stuff as to why it happened. my response should have been "let's not talk about it."

for most of us the action that a person commits tells us whom we think that individual is. if they make a bad choice, or they are pushed to limits and make a bad decision under stress then that defines who they are. that isn't always true and we know that. there's usually a bigger issue in the background going on than what we know about.

in my opinion there are 3 groups of individuals that are terrible about this; women, christians and families. all 3 love to gossip and make judgements about others. i have no idea why women do it, but they can become cruel when they do it. christians do it because they become too prideful in their journey and they can't see their own sin anymore. families do it because they are usually close, so they think that they can. all of us have fallen into this trap. if you can name one individual that doesn't do it - commend them.

as i get older the command to live a quiet life becomes more appealing. the taming of the tongue becomes more appealing (i need to work on this one; always have). usually when we do it we are trying to make ourselves feel better about ourselves, because in the grand scheme of things we probably have done the exact same thing that we are gossiping about. we should stop being hypocrites and just keep our mouths shut, because we will be held accountable for it by GOD.

"do not go about spreading slander among your people. do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the LORD." leviticus 19:16

"your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit." psalm 52:2

"a gossip betrays a confidence, so avoid a man who talks too much." proverbs 20:19

"the words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts." proverbs 18:8

"how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." luke 6:42

"He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." matthew 24:51