Wait Until You Hear This!

“And withal (also) they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house: and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.”  I Timothy 5:13

The Apostle Paul is specifically addressing situations where young women were left as widows with nothing constructive with which to keep them busy and thus would spend their time in gossip.  He urged older widows to refrain from re-marriage so that they could devote their lives to serving the Lord, but he was O.K. with the younger widows remarrying and having families.  Even if the younger widows vowed to serve the Lord, Paul knew that more than likely they would eventually break that vow because of their desire for a husband and children.  And, of course, scripture tells us that it is better to not make a vow than to make one and break it (Ecclesiastes 5:5).

Since Paul mentioned the proclivity for these women to spend time in gossip, let’s focus on this worthless pastime.  Let’s be blunt: gossip is bad.  No one likes to be the subject of gossip, but many folks sure do like to tell something about someone whether it’s true or not.  So what if it is true?  It’s still gossip.  Have you ever heard someone say or said yourself, “I don’t know if this is true or not, but…..”  I am ashamed to say that I have in the past, but I try to be more conscientious about not spreading gossip nor even listening to it as I get older and hopefully wiser.

If we don’t know if something is true or not, then as far as we know we could be spreading a lie about a fellow human being whom God loves just as much as He does us.  People get hurt by gossip.  And then there is the rationalization of gossip:  “I’m just telling you this so you will know how to pray for so and so.”  There may be some necessary facts that are pertinent to give some insight into how to pray for the situation, but we can pray for someone without knowing all the gory details.  It is true that we are to be specific in our prayers, but, for example, we don’t have to know the details about a couple’s marriage problems in order to pray for healing in that relationship.  God already knows every intimate detail of the situation.

The older that I get, the more I regret saying things that I should not have said.  These politicians drive me crazy.  They say something, and then when they are criticized, they try and “walk it back” or say that they “misspoke”.  The thing is, once the words are out in the public domain, it is impossible to completely retrieve them.  Apologies are good, but many times it would have been better to have kept one’s mouth shut.  I was thinking about how cool it would be if, upon being born again, we could instantly become “pillars of virtue”, but, because we are still in this sinful flesh, we must be on guard daily, moment by moment, striving to become more like Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit.  A few years ago there was a fad called WWJD, What Would Jesus Do?  I know one thing that He wouldn’t do–He wouldn’t gossip.