Gossip is verbal homicide.
It slays people, relationships, and reputations.
Its destructiveness, like a nuclear disaster, can’t really be measured for years.
It tears down individuals, marriages, churches, and families.
The Apostle James tells believers in James 3, “Consider how large a forest a small fire ignites. And the tongue is a fire.”
We who have believed in Jesus are called to suffer with a smile, to be silent before our persecutors as our Savior was, and to pray for even the wicked as He did. Not to maim and destroy with our words.
I used to love gossip. I ate it up. It made me feel good and big and “in” and better. In other words, it was a deceitful little drug that impersonated the love of Christ. Like all idols, gossip was a stand-in for what my soul really thirsted for: fellowship with my Creator. So I would only gossip to the degree that I was not treasuring and enjoying the love of my Christ.
And Christians, to gossip about an unbeliever is horrible, crushing, and mean. But to gossip about a Christian? A blood-bought believer who is part of Jesus’spotless bride? Satan applauds! Because at that point we are doing his job for him. “Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies” (Romans 8:33). Unless we’re talking about church discipline or counseling or some other rare instance, it is helping Satan’s cause to say negative things about someone to anyone other than that person.
In all my past gossiping, I was absolutely sinful. And so I exhort anyone who is doing this now, in the Name (and for the cause) of Jesus Christ, to stop.
All of us who have been saved by the blood of Christ must preach and speak the grace and patience Jesus Christ showed us, and let Satan, quite literally, be damned.
A Promised Hope 
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