There’s nothing so delicious as the taste of gossip! It melts in your mouth. Proverbs 18:8 (CEV)
The term gossip monger is an interesting word for participants of gossip. Gossip is generally "rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature" causing damage or irreparable harm to a person's reputation. It is also used of someone who promotes something undesirable. A monger is a person who deals in a specific commodity--such as a fish monger. The root for the term monger comes from the Latin for a dealer in slaves. A gossip monger could be defined as a person dealing in gossip who enslaves a person by words which can never be silenced. Gossip tends to spread like a fire growing in size and intensity and eventually exceeds the original bit of rumor. What may have been truth now becomes even more sensational and like the Internet, once it is out there, it is out there. So if someone trades in gossip, what are the costs?
A Transgression to the Law of Love. Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan and the lengths he went to help an injured Jew. This parable offended the religious leaders because Samaritans were half-breed Jews who only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament and did not worship in Jerusalem. They were such a nice subject of gossip but Jesus used this man to show his disciples everyone is a neighbor and the Law of Love extends to all. In a transgression of the law the person has crossed beyond the boundaries established by God. How can we say we love our neighbor when by our words or participation we enslave them!
A Damage Reputation: Theirs and Yours. Gossip strikes at the image of the person and its destructiveness relates to the idea of condemnation. Those who have pronounced judgment upon the victim have tried, convicted and sentenced a person to humiliation, shame, guilt, and sorrow. Sounds like a heavy judicial pronouncement to me. However, the damage to your reputation is equally damaging. God's word in Romans 1 links a gossip to such evil behaviors as evil, greed, strife, malice, slanderers, and they have no mercy or love. The saying, "if they gossip to you they will gossip about you" makes you an untrustworthy person and even God's word says this. In Proverbs 11 says a "gossip betrays a confidence but a trustworthy person keeps a secret."
So the next time someone tries to offer you a tasty morsel of gossip, try this:
"No thanks. I am trying to live a better life for Jesus." And they may say something like this: "What, are you trying to be holier-than-thou!" (By saying no you are making them aware of their failings.) You can calmly says, "No, I am not trying to be a holier-than-thou. I am trying to as holy as HIM!" "Would you like to join me?"
