Love Banishes Gossip 10 All of us owe others something, but we do not owe hatred that prompts hurtful gossip. “Do not you people be owing anybody a single thing, except to love one another,” wrote Paul. (Romans 13:8) We should be paying on that debt daily instead of speaking against others and damaging their reputation. If we claim to love Jehovah, we cannot be slandering a fellow worshiper, “for he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot be loving God, whom he has not seen.”—1 John 4:20. 11 Consider Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats. Goatlike ones were told that what they did to Christ’s brothers was counted as done to him. Would you gossip about Christ? If you would not speak against your Lord and Master, do not treat his anointed brothers that way. Do not commit error as did the goats, who “will depart into everlasting cutting-off.” If you love Jesus’ brothers, show it by what you say about them.—Matthew 25:31-46. 12 Since all of us are sinners and in need of Jesus’ ransom sacrifice, if someone wanted to make unfavorable remarks about us, he could find plenty to say. (1 John 2:1, 2) Of course, we may think that we are doing quite well. “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but Jehovah is making an estimate of spirits.” God’s scales are not tilted by favoritism or partiality. (Proverbs 16:2; Acts 10:34, 35) He weighs our spirit, noting our disposition and the impulses that motivate us to think, act, and talk. Surely, then, we would not want God to find that we wrongly consider ourselves clean and others soiled and worthy of hurtful remarks. Like Jehovah, we must be impartial, merciful, and loving. 13 Applying what Paul said at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 can help us to crush harmful gossip. He wrote: “Love is long-suffering and kind.” A sister who is suffering persecution in a divided household may not greet us cheerfully. Or some may be slower physically, perhaps because of poor health. Should not love move us to be patient and kind toward such individuals instead of making them victims of critical gossip? ‘Love is not jealous, does not brag, does not get puffed up.’ Thus, if another Christian receives a privilege of service we do not have, love will prevent us from speaking against him and suggesting that he is unfit for the work. Love will also keep us from boasting about our attainments, talk that could depress those less privileged. 14 Paul also said that ‘love does not behave indecently, look for its own interests, become provoked, or keep account of injury.’ Instead of indecently saying unchristian things, we should let love move us to speak well of others and to consider their interests. It keeps us from becoming provoked and speaking against people for real or imagined injuries. Since ‘love rejoices not over unrighteousness but with the truth,’ it keeps us from engaging in harmful gossip even about opposers who experience injustice. 15 Love ‘believes and hopes all things’ found in God’s Word and moves us to appreciate the spiritual food provided by the ‘faithful slave’ class, instead of listening to the slanderous statements of lying apostates. (Matthew 24:45-47; 1 John 2:18-21) Since ‘love endures all things and never fails,’ it also helps us to remain loyal to God’s organization even if “false brothers” or others speak against it or its members.—Galatians 2:4.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 12:37:45 +0000
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