- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Messages
- 18,404
THE TOLERATED SIN
'Let the words of my mouth ... be acceptable in Your sight' Psalm 19:14
What would happen if you stood up during the Sunday morning preach and swore like a trooper? Or beat down the vicar during communion? Presumably, it wouldn't be tolerated. A church would hopefully take something of a hard line on this sort of behaviour. Now, what would happen if you casually slipped this into conversation over coffee: 'We really need to pray for such-and-such, I hear that he's cheating on her...'? Would our helpfully hypothetical church take the same line on this sort of behaviour?
Maybe not. Gossip can be a tolerated sin in churches. Sin is sin though - and "any sin against God is a fall from the highest height in the universe" (C.S. Lewis. He's a Legend.) Jesus doesn't tiptoe around careless words, He says they 'come from an evil heart' (Matthew 15:18 [1]TLB). And there'll be no gain from brushing them under the carpet either: 'I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak' (Matthew 12:36 NLT). Gossip can seem like a good thing.
After all, when we are chatting, we are getting closer to the other person, aren't we? We're laughing, we're sharing something, we're taking the same side on something, aren't we? So, ask yourself how you can get that same sort of connection without resorting to gossip.
What now? Think of a tactful way to respond to someone wanting to draw you into gossip. How can you turn a negative into a positive?
written by Bob Gass
'Let the words of my mouth ... be acceptable in Your sight' Psalm 19:14
What would happen if you stood up during the Sunday morning preach and swore like a trooper? Or beat down the vicar during communion? Presumably, it wouldn't be tolerated. A church would hopefully take something of a hard line on this sort of behaviour. Now, what would happen if you casually slipped this into conversation over coffee: 'We really need to pray for such-and-such, I hear that he's cheating on her...'? Would our helpfully hypothetical church take the same line on this sort of behaviour?
Maybe not. Gossip can be a tolerated sin in churches. Sin is sin though - and "any sin against God is a fall from the highest height in the universe" (C.S. Lewis. He's a Legend.) Jesus doesn't tiptoe around careless words, He says they 'come from an evil heart' (Matthew 15:18 [1]TLB). And there'll be no gain from brushing them under the carpet either: 'I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak' (Matthew 12:36 NLT). Gossip can seem like a good thing.
After all, when we are chatting, we are getting closer to the other person, aren't we? We're laughing, we're sharing something, we're taking the same side on something, aren't we? So, ask yourself how you can get that same sort of connection without resorting to gossip.
What now? Think of a tactful way to respond to someone wanting to draw you into gossip. How can you turn a negative into a positive?
written by Bob Gass
