Have you heard? It’s a shocker! Here is some really juicy inside information on someone you know really, really well. This will rock your boat. It is so terrible that they may even get fired for it. You will be surprised to hear they actually got caught. The person I’m talking about is…
How many times have we heard these types of statements that grab our attention. We can’t wait to hear that hot news, exposing tit-bit, that juicy bit of gossip. Oh, now it’s gossip – drats! That’s not good…we know we shouldn’t gossip. But the person is an important person and knowing this may change the view I have of that person. Is it really gossip? I need to know it.
Why? What is your motivation behind hearing this information?
The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts.
Proverbs 18:8
Sometimes we get caught out. The information comes at you so fast that there is no time to stop it. No time to, “Whoa! I don’t want to hear that!” You have heard it. Now what?
Well, you might be tempted to quickly find another to let them in on the hot news. You could try and justify sharing with another who ‘is in the know’ on the basis that they may know a bit more and can add to your facts or at least fill you in on some more detail.
But when you come to your senses, you recall that it is said:
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1
You. You who are spiritual. You should restore him. Restore him? The word ‘restore’ here is a Greek verb, a doing word, and is used elsewhere in Scripture for setting bones, mending nets, or bringing factions together. So, how do you restore the one you are hearing about?
“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Matthew 18:15-17
It is clear then, that you need to determine your role and where you fit in this process. You will either be the one who was affected directly by the sin, in which case you would go directly to the one who sinned against you. Or, you are being asked to be a witness who will go with the one telling you of this. Or, you, as part of the church, will respond as the situation dictates.
Or, you will realise that the person who is telling you this news is actually the one who has been caught in a sin – gossip. In which case,
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1