Thursday 20 July - Gossip in the Church: Keeping Confidences Builds Incredible Trust

Gossip in the Church: Summary

When it comes to gossip in the church, keeping confidences helps develop healthy relationships and provides a safe space.

Introduction

Read Philippians 2:1-11. Keeping a confidence allows people to grow to trust you. On the other hand, if you’re known as someone who talks about other people behind their backs, they’re unlikely to ever trust you.

Gossip in the Church: It's Not That Bad, Is It?

Gossip is often seen as one of those “lesser sins”. After all, it’s not really as bad as murder or sexual immorality, is it? God says it is. And he’s very wise. He can see how gossip can destroy relationships. I’ve seen it break relationships between Christians and even threaten to break apart churches or Salvation Army corps.

Gossip makes us feel better or more important than the person we’re talking about. If you talk about someone’s difficulties or problems we can forget about our own. We try to impress others or think of ourselves as better than others. That’s not the way of Jesus.

How To Deal with Gossip in the Church

When it comes to gossip in the church, keeping confidences, keeping what you know to yourself helps develop healthy and genuine relationships and provides a safe space for people to open up and be vulnerable about the hurts and problems they are facing. Will you help deepen relationships in this way?

Think It Over

Think about the following:

Has anyone ever gossiped about you? How did it make you feel?