“The right word spoken at the right time is as beautiful as gold apples in a silver bowl."
-Proverbs 25:11
Is there such a thing as good gossip? Saying good gossip is an oxymoron itself because what good comes from gossip?
You probably have been on both sides of the gossip chain. Think back to high school especially, either you were the center of gossip or you were part of the gossip going around about someone. Maybe now, today you still are that way. You might say, well I never was the one who gossiped I just stood around and listened while the others talked. Wouldn’t that make you part of the gossip then? (Exodus 23:1 “You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.”) Or maybe you have said, “I don’t gossip, I just inform others of what I know.” Unless you’ve talked directly to the person the story is about do you really know what you’re talking about or are you just sharing what you’ve heard through the grapevine.
The thing with gossip is that it can be hurtful. It can be used to tear down a person or their reputation. (And I am just as guilty as the next person). Even if the gossip is not used in a hurtful way, without knowing the full truth you also could be starting a rumor chain that will get changed a dozen times about a person that isn’t true to begin with. Or if it is true why do you feel you are the one that needs to share their story (unless they have said it’s okay to).
Let’s look at the meaning of gossip: casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true.
Talking about other people in any way is a form of gossip and we all are guilty of doing it. I am guilty because I have used the excuse that I am just keeping others up to date and informed about someone else and it has been something I have had to overcome over the years as I have gotten older. It has taken God’s grace to help me stop and pause before I speak to keep my words from joining the others in gossip. I was once told and it has stuck in my mind, “If someone can easily talk to you about someone else that is not necessarily nice or a form of gossip, what is to keep them from talking about you to other people too?”
The Bible verse, ‘Do to others what you would want them to do to you.’ Luke 6:31, goes a long way when you stop and think about the gossip that floats around your life.
So how can there be good gossip? Let’s look at the word GOSSIP and see:
G.O.S.S.I.P = God’s Offer So Salvation is Provided
The Bible is full of God’s words, God’s promises, God’s goodness. He has shown us how to live, how to have hope, how to find salvation. Jesus walked this earth performing miracles, teaching us how to be His disciples to help further the promise of salvation, how to follow Him and be like Him. From creation to the cross to the promise of heaven we can see God, we can share the good news, we can show others who our Savior is. With the Lord in your life you have seen miracles, been blessed and can tell how God has been in your daily walk in good times and bad. In your life you have had faith, hope, felt God’s presence.
So, if you feel the need to gossip, shouldn’t it be telling others of God’s offer for salvation? Shouldn’t it be sharing the good news of a home promised in heaven and a new earth? Shouldn’t it be what has happened in your life not others?
The only good we can get when we gossip is when we are talking about the one person, we should always be talking about, Jesus and what He has done in our lives and what He means to us. Let your words show Him to those around you and what He can do for them.
And when you feel the need to talk about others remember what the Bible tells us in Ephesians 4:29 “ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
Be part of the solution today not the problem and lift those up around you that they may see Christ living in you.
Proverbs 11:13 “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret."
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