When the lowest score wins…

While baseball’s hall of fame hitter Hank Aaron was exaggerating, he expressed the frustration of many golfers by saying, “It took me 17 years to get 3000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.”

There is more than one “G” activity where a low score is the best score. It is GOSSIP. I can imagine how coming up to bat or to hit a golf ball is like gossip being observed by the Holy Spirit to see whether or not I will score.

This is because with gossip, scoring is about doing nothing, saying nothing, and being positive to the ‘crowd’ around me. Actually, gossip is usually not about keeping score, but more about getting even, trying to make myself look better than someone else, or smarter, or more knowledgeable about the sins of others. Yikes, even a ‘hole in one’ is not low enough to escape the judgment of God on telling tales that should not be told.

The OT says this:

Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered. (Proverbs 11:13)
A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. (Proverbs 16:28)
For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. (Proverbs 26:20)

Betraying a confidence ruins relationships, adds to conflict and ruins lives. The NT lists it with other sins that are much easier to look down my nose at, yet God isn’t overlooking this one at all. He even points to those the most apt to do it — people who have better things to do but spend their time gossiping: “Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.” (1 Timothy 5:13) These NT lists clarify the seriousness of idle chatter aimed at those who are not present to defend themselves:

For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. (2 Corinthians 12:20)
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:29–32)

My beautifully transparent sister once told me her method for stopping those who gossiped. She said, “I start gossiping about myself.” 

Actually, gossip is a form of being judgmental. Jesus had much to say about that. In a nutshell, He tosses this evil talk back at those who do it:

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1–2)

Jesus does not have to judge me to make Himself look better than I am. He does not expose my follies to others so they are impressed with His insights. He judges me to show me where I need to repent and confess — and that would not happen if He did it behind my back. He also does it to enable me to become more like Him. Instead of gossip, love either gently confronts the object of such talk or prays for that person and keeps my mouth shut.

PRAY: Jesus, too many times my gossip score rises above zero and I need You to hit me with my own imperfections and swat me with my need to treat others with that same loving care as You treat me. You are gracious and so quickly forgive me. May I be more like You and score nothing in that sinful G game by not playing at all, or perhaps learning to ‘gossip’ about myself, or better yet, tell people about the virtues of others.