Thousand Foot Krutch

Thousand Foot Krutch
I love this band. I listen to them daily. Even though we are looking at another camera, we all look like we're alert for it being a fan signing and it's 11:30 p.m. on a Friday.

11 December 2011

Gossip

My favorite topic, probably because girls are so bad about knowing what is gossip and what is not gossip.

I do believe that gossips stems from insecurity. After all, if you're saying something about someone's clothes or body, things that cannot be changed and reflect who a person is, then you have deep issues that you need to confront and work through.

So, let's look at gossip from the Bible's standpoint.

1.) Gossip can stem from a lack of self-confidence that other people pick up on. After picking up on the lack of self-confidence of someone, others then discuss it in circles. God, however, punishes people who do humiliate and pick on other people who are already down, if you examine the rest of Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 36:3

English Standard Version -- "Therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Precisely because they made you desolate and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people..." And so on.

MSG 1-7 -- "And now, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say, 'Mountains of Israel, listen to God's Message. God, the Master, says, Because the enemy crowed over you, "Good! Those old hills are now ours!" now here is a prophecy in the name of God, the Master: Because nations came at you from all sides, ripping and plundering, hauling pieces of you off every which way, and you've become the butt of cheap gossip and jokes, therefore, Mountains of Israel, listen to the Message of God, the Master. My Message to mountains and hills, to ditches and valleys, to the heaps of rubble and the emptied towns that are looted for plunder and turned into jokes by all the surrounding nations: Therefore, says God, the Master, now I'm speaking in a fiery rage against the rest of the nations, but especially against Edom, who in an orgy of violence and shameless insolence robbed me of my land, grabbed it for themselves. "Therefore prophesy over the land of Israel, preach to the mountains and hills, to every ditch and valley: 'The Message of God, the Master: Look! Listen! I'm angry—and I care. I'm speaking to you because you've been humiliated among the nations. Therefore I, God, the Master, am telling you that I've solemnly sworn that the nations around you are next. It's their turn to be humiliated."

Evil gossip. Here gossip gets an adjective - evil, as in, malicious, awful, horrible. Cheap is also used in some translations. So this is gossip at one of its worst points, where people are trying to humiliate someone else. As you can see, the object of the gossip then falls under God's protection.

2.) Gossip can stem just from evil hearts living in a fallen world. They are making it worse for others, but that is our world, sometimes.
Romans 1:29
English Standard Version -- "They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips..."
Romans 1:28-32
MSG: Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

3) Gossip can stem from lacking discipline, guidance and respect. A gossip may refuse to turn from their old way of life into the new way of life. Jealousy, quarreling, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder are all grouped together.

2 Corinthians 12:20
English Standard Version (ESV)
20For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.

The Message (MSG)
12: 20-21 I do admit that I have fears that when I come you'll disappoint me and I'll disappoint you, and in frustration with each other everything will fall to pieces—quarrels, jealousy, flaring tempers, taking sides, angry words, vicious rumors, swelled heads, and general bedlam. I don't look forward to a second humiliation by God among you, compounded by hot tears over that crowd that keeps sinning over and over in the same old ways, who refuse to turn away from the pigsty of evil, sexual disorder, and indecency in which they wallow.

4) Gossip can stem from not having enough to do, and having a "we're just hanging out" mentality. It can stem from restlessness.

1 Timothy 5:13
English Standard Version (ESV)
13Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.

The Message (MSG)
5: 11-15 Don't put young widows on this list. No sooner will they get on than they'll want to get off, obsessed with wanting to get a husband rather than serving Christ in this way. By breaking their word, they're liable to go from bad to worse, frittering away their days on empty talk, gossip, and trivialities. No, I'd rather the young widows go ahead and get married in the first place, have children, manage their homes, and not give critics any foothold for finding fault. Some of them have already left and gone after Satan.

A clarification. Slander is malicious lies that people tell about others, with the intent of destroying another's reputation or life. Gossip may or may not be lies, but it is idle talk, may or may not be malicious, and is about people's personal lives. Some people don't realize that gossip most closely resembles "just talking about others," and mistake it for slander. Some gossip is stronger and comes extremely close to slander.

So we need to avoid it, watch what we say, and who we hang with. Sometimes we need to directly confront the person partcipating or pertuating gossip.

And remember.

If you wouldn't say it to the person you're talking about, don't say it to anyone else.

Praying you have faith, hope, and love always,

Rachel

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