Heb 10:24
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”
Maintaining a Gospel culture that stirs up love and good works is often difficult. One of the challenges we face is against our propensity to focus on self. The love of self comes packaged with easily digested bits of destructive attitudes and activities. One of these easy morsels, amazingly, is character assassination.
When we hear the words “character assassination,” we might think we are far from such actions. Unfortunately, we often aren’t. In reality, we might be an elite sniper for the enemy— taking out the character of so many of our friends, family, spouses, and brothers and sisters in Christ.
Like the confused P.E. participant, we often score on the wrong goal. We love in the wrong direction. We get misguided into accepting certain behaviors and viewpoints that the enemy wants us to believe. We observe issues in others and instead of lovingly going to them— to work things out, we tell someone else of our frustrations, issues, and judgments— informing one another about what foolish things others have done. We might camouflage it as “seeking counsel”, “getting support”, “talking about our issues”, or “talking life”, but its real and true name is Gossip.
Our definition of gossip is often skewed and distorted. We might think gossip is only communicating things that aren’t true, to a vast number of people, or not having some concern for the other person. These are a few ingredients of gossip, but only a portion of its vast meal. Gossip is a large banquet of corrupting talk. It’s one of the overlooked sins that we often excuse and unwittingly participate in. In the culture around us, it has become the norm. Ironically, we can even gossip about others gossiping.
Gossip, truly and Biblically defined, is telling anything about someone to anyone else that isn’t stirring them up to love, appreciation, thanksgiving, and good works.
Our intentions might seem good to us. We may even want to help the other person in some capacity. However, in gossip, we avoid keeping the dialogue to the person we should be loving and instead love ourselves, telling others.
When we unlovingly tell others how foolish someone else has acted it is outright sin. It destroys confidence, our Gospel witness, trust, and hope. It places our needs above other’s needs. It doesn’t stir up love but erodes it. The words we use about others can either build and stir up love or destroy and erode it.
Some examples of gossip we might hear or say are, “I can’t believe (insert name) did that,” “I hate it when my spouse does (insert issue),” or “when (insert name) did (insert action) it made me (insert negative emotion).” Gossip is the result of sinful heart motivations to justify our feelings and attitudes of anger, hurt, jealousy, superiority, judgment, selfish desires, or to sway the love of others our way.
When we speak about others in a negative way we avoid our Gospel responsibility, excuse our sin, and grow distrust of someone in others. In reality, gossip multiplies our sin.
What gossip creates is carnage and a devastating wartime landscape that is void of good fruit and work. It creates rotten fruit for all who hear— to be eaten and digested with disastrous results. Those who hear it are not stirred up to love one another and do good works, instead, they now have a rancid taste left on their minds that destroys the sweetness of the Gospel and the love we are to have for all. This should not be so in the body of Christ.
The Gospel should inform us that Jesus could have told all of our deepest, darkest, and putrid, rotten secrets to all and fairly rained judgment upon us. Yet, Jesus loved us, took our place, took our sin, took our punishment, took our gossip, and tells only loving things about us to God, the Father— who has the right to hear all. Our character has been transformed into that of Christ’s. The Gospel improves someone’s character, regardless of their past and present. The Gospel is about personally loving and lifting someone out of sin and condemnation.
Do we get that? Jesus has come to us, personally. He has restored us. Wiped sin from us. And speaks only love about us through his life, death, and resurrection.
If we get this. If we understand the Gospel, then we will begin to end gossip and character assassination. With our own lives transformed we will wish to transform the lives of others. This transformation can only occur by the Gospel and the love we demonstrate towards others, not ourselves.
The opposite of gossip is love. The Apostle Paul speaks to the Church of what love is for all, in 1 Corinthians 13. We may have heard this many times at weddings— so much so that the reality of what it speaks to has often been lost to us. So as you read, hear of what love is pointing to:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
When our hearts are reminded of what love is, what the Gospel is, we can understand its ramifications. When the Holy Spirit is working and transforming our lives, then gossip is revealed as it truly is— unloving and full of evil works.
So, brothers and sisters, let us consider the Gospel and how it stirs us up to love and good works. Let our eyes be opened to the Gospel culture we are to be living in. When you speak about others let your words be full of grace, hope, thankfulness, and love. When you encounter gossip, don’t participate or listen, instead, lovingly point the person back to restoration. When you have an issue with someone, then go to that person, in love and humility. This is the new life and culture we are to be living in.
A Gospel culture isn’t easy. It is often counter to our old identity and what the culture around us is promoting. But true love is never easy, for Christ had to suffer and die for it.
Thanks be to God for his grace!
