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 minds way of expressing itself forcefully. Whether speaking it or hearing it, there is not difference. The one dinning on a meal of gossip is as guilty as the one serving the table. It may be tantalizing and tasty, but in the end it is bitter and deadly.
[1] Citation: "St. Augustine,"
Christian History