Resisting GossipНамуна

What, Exactly, Is Gossip?

The first rule of war is to know your enemy.

Before we can resist gossip, we must recognize it. That’s not as easy to do as it may sound. It is not always easy to recognize the moment when our “small talk” becomes sinful talk. In fact, if you’re like me, then you regularly ask yourself during conversations, “Should I be saying this?” or, “Should I be listening to this?”

The hardest part about recognizing gossip is that it does not come with a warning label. There we are, just talking with someone, and seemingly out of nowhere this juicy piece of news about someone else presents itself and asks us to swallow it.

The Bible says, “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts” (Prov. 18:8, 26:22). This proverb is so important that the Lord made sure it was in the book of Proverbs twice!

“Choice morsels” are tasty things that we want to devour quickly. They are the best, most attractive, most addictive things to eat. They are like a bowl of potato chips left on the kitchen counter. But just like too many potato chips, gossip may taste great going down, but it has lasting and poisonous effects on our hearts.

But again, what is sinful gossip?

I’m glad you asked.

Here is a one-sentence summary of the Bible’s teaching on gossip: Sinful gossip is bearing bad news behind someone’s back out of a bad heart.