The Ninth Commandment

Exodus 20.16; Deuteronomy 5.20
“And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Read Exodus 23.1
“You shall not spread a false report.”

Be careful what you pass along about other people. We all, as children, played the “telephone game” where you spoke a phrase in your neighbor’s ear, which was then passed around the circle until it came back to you, but in a vastly different from than what you first spoke. Gossip takes on a life of its own. Gossipers feel free to embellish the reports they’ve heard by spicing it up, adding an adjective or adverb, and sending the repackaged report off to the next in line to do more of the same. God has made us His children; we are children and servants of truth, not lies. Before we pass anything along about someone else, we’d better make sure that it’s the truth, and we’d better have a very good reason for passing it along. Gossipers like to regard themselves as “in the know” and brokers of the latest news. They are instead dishonest, deceitful, abominations, to God and to their community. Don’t fall in with such people.

Why do you suppose we are so easily given to gossip? Can you suggest some ways to make sure that gossip coming to you will stop with you?

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