Gossip=Death

Gossip=Death

Leviticus 19:16 “Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people. “Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is threatened. I am the LORD.

If you watch the news headlines today, it can get very confusing.

The headlines blare, “All (insert political party here) eat babies and sacrifice to idols.”

Did you see what scandalous thing (insert movie star or politician here) did? Police are investigating.”

The stories brings lot of attention, they spread across social media like wildfire. Then, when the accusations turn out to be untrue,  the retractions, if there are any, are barely whispered.

When I came across today’s verse in my reading, I was initially puzzled. What do slander and standing by while someone is threatened have to do with each other? And then it hit me.

When we stand idly by and watch our friends or loved ones slandered and do nothing, we stand by and watch their very lives be threatened. Gossip is so easy to spread, and so deadly to the lives of those we slander.

As humans, and especially as Christians, we should have no part in tearing down the lives of those around us. If you truly hear something or see something wrong in another person’s, life, we are to pray for that person, not perpetuate the harm being done to them.

Sometimes we pass those slanderous stories around as “prayer requests,” but they are really just sanctimonious gossip we have tried to “church up.”

Pray for the people who are hurting, don’t hurt them even more…

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