Pride and Destruction
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. – James 3:5-6
Idle talk feels like gossip when it is about us, but it often feels like useful information, or even entertainment, when it is about someone else! Gossip always hurts people and it is only the unwise who participate in gossip.
- Gossip is prideful.
- Gossip is cowardly.
- Gossip divides.
- Gossip damages relationships.
If we hear gossip we are to stop it immediately and speak the truth in love.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. – Ephesians 4:15-16