GOSSIP
What is gossip?
When God was giving instructions to Moses to pass them to the children of Israel during their wilderness wanderings, one of the things he told them is to guard their mouths, and not to say false things about their neighbors. In the Book of Leviticus, god gave moses these instructions:" You shall not go about as talebearer among your people; nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbors; I am the LORD" Leviticus 19:16- NKJV. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived tells us not to be talebearers in his Book- the Proverbs. He says" Where there in no wood, the fire goes out; And where there is no talebearer; strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, And they go down into innocent body". Proverbs 26:20-22.-NKJV.He also tells us in the same book Chapter 15: 18 that " A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger allays contention".
Now, what is gossip and what is talebearing? Webster's New World College dictionary, Fourth Edition, provides us with the definitions of these two words.
Gossip-" a person who chatters or repeats idle talk and rumors, esp. about the private affairs of others", whereas talebearer is " a person who spreads scandal or tells secrets; gossip". Where can one find most gossipers and talebearers? in the Christian community . Christians are the best gossipers and talebearers . get them assembled outside church service, grouped together, especially our women folk, what are they talking most of the time? Only gossiping . Few will be found talking things of constructive nature, but the majority will be gossiping an talebearing. Gossip is the gasoline of christianity. We who call ourselves christians are the best fault finders. Even when the Jews arrested jesus Christ and took Him to Pirate and accused Him falsely, when Pirate examined him, he came out of the court room and told them that he did not find any fault with Jesus. See how he framed his answer:" You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him: "no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him". Luke 23: 14-15. People whom Christ had fed, healed, and done so many miracles, and yet they found fault with him. We Christians, are fault finders, and unless we change our habits of fault finding, we will not attract people to Christ. Gossip is a very disease among human beings, especially those who call themselves christians. Mahatma Gandhi once said that he really liked the christian religion, but h found one thing which displeased him- christians were bot behaving the way their religion wanted them to.
