Silencing Rebuke In The Name Of Gossip

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

James 1:22-23

Gossip by definition refers to idle or irrelevant talk that is, by nature, based on rumors and sensationalized speech. Whereas rumors are described as talk or opinion that is widely disseminated with no discernible source or simply a statement or report without known authority for its truth.

It is therefore not unreasonable to define gossip as irrelevant talk not based on truth and likewise, any statement made truthfully based on facts also cannot be called as gossip.

In the typical false church, when its members are confronted with allegations of sin or wrongdoings among them, the natural response would be this – do not gossip. It is bad to discuss negative things about others. And the false preachers leading these bogus houses, would join in the narrative to call for action against those they claim are the gossipers of evil.

Despite the fact that the Bible teaches us that a church is also a place for believers to settle disputes without involving the heathens (Matthew 5:25-26 & Matthew 18:15-20), the absence of critical mechanisms within the church to facilitate dispute resolution, often result in unmet justice, not seen to be done among believers.

To make matters worse, the lack of understanding among church leaders and their failure to recognize that they have the biblical authority to arbitrate and to set wrongs right before God, exposes these false institutions to more damning implications; putting their reputation as a church at stake, in failing to honor godly righteousness and justice, as commanded in the Bible.

In most cases, preachers would simply take the easy way out; demand for an end to gossiping, and then follow up by sweeping all transgressions under the carpet. And on Sundays, they’ll keep their narrative machines running, by relentlessly preaching about loving one another, loving our neighbors and therefore believers should indiscriminately forgive without questioning, even though if it means doing it without any biblical aforethought or without godly considerations.

So, instead of becoming the pillar to uphold God’s rules for all (Exodus 23:1-13), and to avoid surrendering judicial autonomy into the hands of unbelievers, the church became a lame duck, powerless in itself to administer any justice and or equity even among its own flock or community. In such cases, when dispute arise among believers, they could no longer depend on the church for impartial dispensation as commanded by God, but rather they became inadvertent tools to further the unwritten practice of tolerating sin in the church, that sin should be allowed to quietly exist and no one should be complaining about it.

Stop The Talking & Sin Will Go Away

The habit of not desiring to discuss sin is not uncommon. To man, confronting sin is like a type of thing that is very difficult to do. And historically, it is often the hands of pastors and preachers themselves, who play the active role to asseverate this scheme of not confronting sin, as opposed to Biblical teachings commanding us to let all sin be exposed (Ephesians 5:11-12).

In Titus 1:10-13, “For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith …”

Not only believers have been told to speak up against liars, evil and lazy gluttons, but also to rebuke them sharply so that their faith may remain on solid ground.

But instead, we often hear this from the pulpit; do not pay attention to everything that others say, some people just keep on complaining about someone or something, or we don’t realize that sometimes the devil can use them to divert us from our faith. In saying so, these preachers themselves became the source of idle talk and gossip, spreading unfounded methods or teachings, constructed with words and phrases nowhere taught in the Bible.

These preachers claim when someone says something, we are prone to react to what they say. We allow them to influence us. Whatever people say we will believe, we take it to heart, take it to spirit, we react according to them. If we pay attention to man, we will lose our blessings. It is not only the evil spirits that can influence man, man also can influence another man. The spirit of man is dangerous.

That is the way the false preachers solve disputes in false churches; by keeping things in the dark, not allowing honesty to come into the light and telling believers to refrain from assimilating the truth.

If we examine closer, what these preachers are practically doing is rebuking not what is wrong but rather they are encouraging cover ups and silencing the truth under the disguise of speaking up against gossiping. For instance, I would pay big money to watch these wolves walk into a courtroom that is conducting a defamation trial, and then see them tell the people there not to gossip. How would you think the judge will react to this suggestion?

And also, you will always find the following conspicuous excuse, never being missed out in any argument against doing what is right; that those who speak against wickedness are influenced by evil spirits, said and done in the same, exact fashion when the pharisees claimed Jesus drove out demons with the help of demons (Matthew 12:24).

The Bible Commands Us To Rebuke Evil

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for DOCTRINE, for REPROOF, for CORRECTION, for instruction in RIGHTEOUSNESS, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Jesus said, for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God (John 3:19-20).

By this, regardless whether the people are ordinary believers or pastors or any church leaders, if anyone makes any suggestion that ultimately prevents the truth from surfacing, it is more likely that the person has the intention to keep the matter hidden or suppressed and in doing so, the Bible said there shall be no true love among its people (1 John 3:18).

One preacher even advocated that as people in the body of Christ, we are suppose to love one another by not expecting others to perform difficult tasks. Unfortunately the bad news is that, being a preacher is not an easy job and therefore as shepherds leading the flock, it would be ridiculous to even suggest that the flock should not make life difficult for him. In such an event, he is like a lazy ruler wanting no responsibility and all he does well is to delegate his role and function to the “Jezebels” around him, eventually leading to the fall and destruction of his own kingdom, as in what happened to King Ahab.

Another preacher screamed on social media, “God will not move a miracle in your life if your mouth keep telling your problems to others. God will only move a miracle when you start to pray about your problems instead of sharing it to others,”

However, Jesus warned us in Matthew 12:39, that this evil and adulterous generation seeking after signs, wonders and miracles, no sign will be given to it except the sign of the Jonah. The sign of Jonah refers to what was declared by the prophet to the inhabitants in the city of Nineveh, that in forty days, Nineveh shall be overthrown (Jonah 3:4) unless they repent. Likewise, what Jesus stated clearly is; this wicked generation need not expect any more miracles, until it repents and prior to its destruction, only 40 days advance notice shall soon be given to warn them. Keep watching the news, we’re not likely far from this public announcement.

Covering up sin is not the traits of a righteous ruler. It only exposes his own wickedness and evil, for by the people’s groaning, the true nature of these church pastors and who they really are, can be seen from afar (Proverbs 29:2). Covering up sin does not produce repentance but worse, it eventually leads to the destruction of the community.