Resisting GossipSample

Types of Bad News

The content of sinful gossip is never neutral. It is always “bad news” of at least one of three kinds.

Bad information. Sharing bad information—lies—about someone behind their back is sinful gossip. Worse, if you know that a story is false, then it is not just gossip, it is also slander! Have you ever had your reputation hurt by bad information that someone had spread about you?

The Lord promises us that “a false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will not go free” (Prov. 19:5).

Of course, the “bad” information might be something that you think is true but really is not. You think that your neighbor got a DUI, but you got the story wrong. Or it might be something unverifiable such as rumor or hearsay. Either way, it’s gossip.

Bad news about someone. On the other hand, the story being shared might actually be true and only about something bad that someone has done. This is what I call a shameful truth. Some of us have been taught that if something is true, then it’s not gossip. Not so. Gossip is also foolishly spreading that awful truth about someone. Proverbs tells us that “a gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret” (11:13). The secrets revealed by gossip are often the skeletons in someone’s closet that do not really need to get out.

A biblical phrase for this is “a bad report” (Hebrew dibbah). Proverbs says, “Whoever spreads slander [dibbah] is a fool” (10:18).

Let’s say one of your friends recently did something bad, and you heard about it. Maybe it was even your friend who told you about how they had done some shameful thing.

Catch this: you don’t have to talk about any of it with your other friends!

I know it’s hard to refrain. As the Scripture says, “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels.” They are incredibly difficult to resist. Bad news is attractive but not good for us. There is something really wrong within us that makes us want to know and to talk about the shameful things that other people do.

Bad news for someone. A third kind of bad news is neither false nor true but is a projection of something bad happening to someone. That is gossip too. Have you ever had this happen to you? People say, “He’s going to lose his job” or, “He’s not going to make the team.” They project, “She’s going to get kicked out of school” or, “Her husband is going to leave her.” They whisper, “They’re going to lose their house.” Gossip is bad news wickedly projected for someone else.