Gossip: The Unrighteous STD

People who listen to rumors have promiscuous ears: They'll Hear Anything

People who entertain rumors have promiscuous minds: They'll Believe Anything

People who spread rumors have promiscuous tongues: They'll Say EVERYTHING

Gossip: The Unrighteous STD

Gossiping is the worst Sinfully Transmitted Disease (STD) you can ever have, spread, or receive. Yet it's spreading like wild fire, running rampant, and is affecting your entire family! Yes even your children can contract the promiscuous disease of the Gossip! No one is safe from the danger of gossip, rumors, and slander! But you can prevent yourself and your loved ones from ever having to suffer from the results of GOSSIP!

What is Gossip?

The Hebrew word translated “gossip” in the Old Testament is defined as “one who reveals secrets, one who goes about as a talebearer or scandal-monger.” A gossiper is a person who has privileged information about people and proceeds to reveal that information to those who have no business knowing it. Gossip is distinguished from sharing information in two ways:

1. Intent. Gossipers often have the goal of building themselves up by making others look bad and exalting themselves as some kind of repositories of knowledge.

2. The type of information shared. Gossipers speak of the faults and failings of others, or reveal potentially embarrassing or shameful details regarding the lives of others without their knowledge or approval. Even if they mean no harm, it is still gossip. [ref. The Quest Bible]


How do you know if you've contracted the Gossip disease?

The symptoms of a Gossiper include:

1. Itching Ears:
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

2. Difficulty paying attention:
A wicked person listens to deceitful lips; a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.(Pr. 17:4)

3. You have problems keeping your mouth shut:
You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. (Ps. 50:19 NIV)

4. You can’t keep a secret:
A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret (Pr. 11:13 NIV)

5. People avoid you:
A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid anyone who talks too much (Pr. 20:19 NIV)

What happens if you do not treat or get rid of the Gossip disease?

Gossiping has disastrous results if it is not properly removed from the body, mind, heart, spirit, and most of all, the mouth.

Proverbs 18:7–8

7 A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.

8 The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.

Gossipers are listed among the sinful, unrighteous, unclean, and put themselves in danger of receiving the wrath of God.

Romans 1:28-32

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 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, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

How do you avoid contracting or spreading Gossip?

Proverbs 21:23 NIV

Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.

We must be careful with what we say and refrain from the sinful act of gossiping. We should avoid speaking unless it is necessary and appropriate for us to speak, especially when it is of others. When we speak of our brothers and sisters, we should be vigilant to only speak positively about them or not at all. As the saying goes, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it all.”