A prominent minister once said, “I have heard people confess to breaking every one of the Ten Commandments except the ninth: ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’ Yet this is the one we all break most often.” What irreparable damage has been done to innocent people by thoughtless indulgence in this vice!
Here is some good advice to follow when you are tempted to gossip.
1. Remember that you are not perfect. Christ’s classic rebuke to self-appointed judges was, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone.” Methodist preacher Hazen Warner told of a woman who was forever complaining about the untidiness of her neighbor. One day she gleefully drew a friend to her windo...