Gossip
Prov 20:19
A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.
(NIV)
Prov 16:28
A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.
(NIV)
Rom 1:29-30
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They
are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters,
insolent, arrogant and boastful
(NIV)
2 Cor 12:20
For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not
find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger,
factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.
(NIV)
There is good teaching on gossip, but no one is listening. I hear it around many Christians, in church or in people's homes. Gossip along with slander is a sin that no Christian should be doing. If your words are not edifying or lifting up someone, then it is probably tearing them down. Many times we do or say things out of years of habit. Tell yourself (and PRAY) that you will recognize when you are saying anything negative, and then repent. After some time, you will find that you are only saying positive things, but you will also realize just how much negative things people around you say, when in the past you never realized just how bad they were.