Now the chief priests and the elders and all the council sought false witnesses against Jesus, to put him to death, but found none; yea though many false witnesses came, they found none. At last came two false witnesses and said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. Matthew 26:59-61

Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! James 2:5

One of my favorite shows many years ago was Hee Haw! I didn't much care for the music, but I liked the cornball humor and, especially, the pretty girls. One of the bits the ladies on the show did was a running gag in which they sang scandalous gossip. The song's hook was a line that said, "You'll never hear one of us repeating gossip, so you'd be sure and listen close the first time."

In an earlier time, we played a silly children's game called "Gossip." The idea was to whisper something to a person, who passed it on to the next one, and so on until the last person received the message. That person then repeated what she or he heard, to see how it compared to the original. Invariably the original message was distorted. That's one of the chief characteristics of gossip; the farther it goes from the source, the less it resembles the truth. That's particularly the case if it was never true to begin with.

The lips are the gate for the tongue; open the gate, and all manner of things come out. People who are otherwise sensible, decent human beings (by the world's standards) eagerly absorb the latest stories, and pass them on as if they undisputed facts. There are some famous examples of the extent gossip strays from the truth. One of the stories making the rounds in my college days was that Paul McCartney of Beatles' fame was dead, and that he had been replaced by a double. Those who pushed the story professed to find specific references in lyrics to some the group's songs. Paul recently remarried.

Jesus was often the target of gossip. The Pharisees called him a drunkard, who spent his time partying with publicans and other sinners (Luke 7:34). They also clearly implied that he was born out of wedlock (John 8:41). At his trial, they found no shortage of people willing to tell tales about him, but, as is so often the case with gossips, these couldn't get their stories straight. The two that finally did agree on something, that he had said he would tear down the temple in three days, took what Jesus said out of context (john 2:18-22). That is another characteristic of much gossip; it takes the trees, but loses the forest. Before Pilate, the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of being a rebel, who wanted to make himself king in place of Caesar (Luke 23:2). Gossip often proceeds from, or develops into, slander and the ultimate intent and goal is to damage or destroy the object of the tale telling.

The Jews who brought Paul before Felix also repeated gossip; Paul, they said, had been inciting riots all through the Empire, and taught things contrary to Jewish belief (Acts 24:5-6). Never mind that the Jews were usually the ones who started the riots, unless some of the locals found some reason to raise a ruckus. Never mind either that Paul always tried to reach the local Jews first when he went into a community, instead if trying to tear them down. Paul's arrest, trial, and imprisonment all resulted from malicious gossip, a deliberate attempt to twist the truth.

Simply defined, gossip is the passing on of a story without real knowledge of its truth or accuracy, or without concern for its consequences. The alleged facts presented may, in fact, be true, at least in the beginning. Even then, though, the words or actions the gossip passes on are often lifted out of context. More often, still, the story may be a half-truth, and sometimes an out and out lie. Believing an unsubstantiated story is bad enough; passing it on is even worse. Whether its slander or truth or somewhere in between, gossip can destroy the person, or people, who are the objects. Even if it is later determined that there was nothing to a story that destroys someone's reputation, some people will remain convinced that it was true, or that the person must have been guilty of something just as bad.

We can't help overhearing gossip, but we can control what we do with it. First of all, we shouldn't pass it on to anyone else. If it's something minor, we should make every effort to just forget it. If it's more serious, we should go back to the source, or the person involved, to try to verify it. Failing that, we should pursue other reasonable methods of trying to get to the truth, including talking to other people involved or in a position to know. Smoke does not always mean a fire; finding no real evidence supporting a story probably means there is no story there. If we find something, we should still use common sense and discretion about sharing our knowledge with others. The object of the gossip may be the last to know; we might want to go directly to them, and either confront them or let them know what's going on.

We believe gossip because we're ready to believe the worst about people. That's not a Christ-like attitude, and not one we should be proud of. As Christians, we should seek God's help to deliver from any unloving attitudes. Few things are more valuable to anyone than a good name (Proverbs 22:1). Just ask the multitude of identity thieves around. We don't want others to spread lies and rumors about us; we certainly shouldn't spread gossip about others. Let sleeping dogs lie, not us!

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Beneath His Wings Devotionals - Vol. 2