Walking with the Wise #493: Repulsed by Rumors

“The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;

they go down into the inner parts of the body.”
—Proverbs 26:22

We love good gossip. Whenever we hear a good rumor, the whiff of a scandal, or a juicy tidbit of information we eat it up like it’s a forbidden delicacy. Our sinful flesh is just as active in our tongue as it is in our ears, and for us to avoid such talk is going to take an act of the will under the authority of God’s Spirit. Gossip, rumors and slander are poisonous to the child of God, but also one of the more attractive sins. Other sins are more overt and obvious—drunkenness, adultery, drug addiction, murder—these are sins that can be seen by the blindest of saints. But the matters of the heart—those are all the more imperceptible and prone to being overlooked or excused—but just as destructive.

Living the Christ-life means turning a deaf ear to that which is untrue or unsubstantiated, which is in direct opposition to the fleshly life. The fleshly life revels in gossip, but the Christ-life hates it. Taking up one’s cross means dying to the fleshly life—spitting out the repulsive morsels of gossip as soon as they are tasted. May we learn to turn a deaf ear to godless gossip, still our tongues from slander, and instead use them to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us—Jesus Christ—the Savior of the world. Amen.