Title
Bittersweet
Scripture
The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body.
(Proverbs 18:8)
Devotional
Gossip may appear tantalizing and tasty to the sin nature of man, but to the regenerated it ought to be disgusting and tasteless. “Augustine encouraged conversation at meals-but with a strictly enforced rule that the character of an absent person should never be negatively discussed. He had a warning to this effect carved on a plaque attached to his table.”(1) For some, if it were not for gossip, there would be no conversation at all. Gossip has a way of making us feel better about our own sins and shortcomings. We mistakenly think that by pulling others down we in some perverted way are pulling ourselves up-we’re not. Gossip, like profanity, is a small mind’s way of expressing itself forcefully. Whether speaking it or hearing it, there is no difference. The one dining on a meal of gossip is as guilty as the one serving at the table. It may be tantalizing and tasty, but in the end it is bitter and deadly.
(1) Citation: "St. Augustine," Christian History.