Yes, It's Gossip

I was chatting with someone online tonight and they began telling me some things that I quickly realized I not only did not want to hear, but I should not hear (or in this case, read.)

When I told this person that their conversation was turning to gossip and that I really did not want to go there, they then started arguing with me about what gossip was. I told them what I felt about it, and that they could do what they wanted, but I was not going to be a participant in it. After all this, I made the decision to post the following. This is something that I found awhile back on a website called Crosswalk. I hope it helps someone today.

What Is Gossip?

Gossip is sharing private information with those who are not part of the problem or part of the solution. When you speak things about others that you would be ashamed to say in their presence, you are not only disobeying God's Word (Leviticus 19:16), you are also destroying that person's reputation in the mind of your listener.

Scripture states that the sin of gossip is not limited to the spreading of lies alone, but also includes the improper involvement of yourself in another person's personal business (1 Timothy 5:13).

 

Even to participate in the act of gossip as a listener is sin (Proverbs 20:19). By willfully listening to the one who gossips, you sanction the destruction of the other person's reputation.
 

What Scripture Says

"For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults"
(2 Corinthians 12:20).

 

"You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people; nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:16).

"And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not" 
(1 Timothy 5:13).

 

"For I heard many mocking:  'Fear on every side!'  'Report,'  they say, 'and we will report it.'  All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, '...we will take our revenge on him'" (Jeremiah 20:10).

 

"Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying,  'And what shall we do?'  So he said to them,  'Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages'" 
(Luke 3:14).

 

"Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and destroy. Who are you to judge another?" (James 4:11,12).

 

"Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone..." (Matthew 18:15).