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HELEN SANDERS
7-7-2026
GOSSIP
The word gossip is defined as “casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true.”
Did you know that God hates gossip. Proverbs 6:16-19 lists the seven things that God hates and one is gossip. It says, “…a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
If God hates it, we should hate it also. The simplest way to stop it is to not listen to it. Often people will say, “And did you hear….” Then they go on to say something about someone that does bring edification, and more than likely isn’t completely true.
Do you listen to gossip? Then you need to repent. Ask God to forgive you for listening and then judging the person talked about without knowing the real facts.
Are you one that spreads gossip? Then you need to stop now. You need to repent and determine that you will never do it again. You may have destroyed someone’s life by spreading gossip.
There is a difference between gossip and discipline. When someone is in sin and you know it, you go to them one on one as it says in Matthew 18:15 and talk to them to bring them to repentance. You don’t go armed with the intention of destroying them. You go to them to bring them back to God. You don’t talk to others about it. If you are not received, then take one or two people with you and go to the person to speak with them again. If they don’t receive you, then you take it before the church to bring them back to God.
If they don’t repent when confronted by leadership in the church, then they are to be put out of the local church. Even with this, you don’t talk about what they have done behind their back, because that is gossip.
We are to be ambassadors of reconciliation [2 Corinthians 5:20]. If what comes out of our mouths isn’t edifying, then we need to keep our mouths shut. It is not our job to destroy a person.
Remember, God hates gossip and we should too. Don’t be the one to start gossip. Be the one that ends it.
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