Staying Away from Gossip and Pride

In dealing with other people around him, David vowed to God that he would stay away from gossip and pride. These are very destructive forces in life and they can destroy relationships and bring us far away from God.

David makes it clear that for us to be victorious in our public life, we need to always stay humble and conduct ourselves in a manner that builds other people up instead of tearing them down.

In Philippians 2:3, Paul even goes further and tells us that we need to "consider others better than ourselves."

The way we treat others and how we show regard toward them reflect our lives immensely and for Christians, we need to follow the example that Jesus has set for us in His own life.

In Psalm 101:5, David says:

"Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure."

According to one of my professors, she regarded gossip to be a national pastime in the Philippines because we seem to have a natural attraction and an itching sense to look for gossip and to find out what personal conflicts and events that have been going on in our neighbors' lives or maybe our friends' lives.

It seems that social media also plays a big role in developing this habit in Filipinos. But David recounts that whoever tries to defame or slander someone without their knowledge, he will shut them up because it simply is not right to talk against someone without knowing the truth of the matter behind whatever story you heard about them.

It is wrong to talk about someone in a way that deprecates them and disparages their character even if they did something wrong against you. Gossip cannot make anything right and should not be used as a weapon of revenge on someone.

As Christians, we need to exhort our fellow men and help to build them up rather than bringing them down. The article "Slander, Gossip, and Evil Speaking About Others" (source: http://www.gospelway.com/morality/slander.php) sums up what you need to know about gossip and what constitutes as sinful slander because there are certain situations in the Bible when Jesus took His disciples aside and taught them to refrain from the sinful ways of the Pharisees.

Jesus knew the truth in the hearts of these people so He informed His disciples and us that the Pharisees exhibit certain habits or characteristics that we should be wary of and be cautious not to imitate.

When we know that somebody did something wrong or sinned, we need to correct them but only in private so that they would not be humiliated in public.

If we truly care about our fellow men then we would talk to them in private and help them to see the errors or sins they have committed and pray for them so that God will forgive them and change them to become more like Jesus and help them to repent and turn away from their sins.

Just as we correct them for their mistakes in private, let us also praise them for the good deeds they have done in public so that they would truly be encouraged and continue to grow in the right path.

With regard to pride, David says that he will not endure anyone who is prideful and arrogant. There are certain people who think that they are better than everyone else and would point out every mistake that you commit. I would refer to these people as fault-finders.

The Pharisees in the time of Jesus were like this, thinking too highly of themselves since they follow the law strictly to the letter and so they think of themselves better than the rest.

But why do you think Jesus went to the sinners and the hurting people instead of the Pharisees in the first place? And why does Jesus often rebuke the Pharisees?

The reason is the Pharisees were self-righteous people and thought that they were pure and clean from all kinds of sin but they fail to realize that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

These Pharisees thought they did not need a Savior and that they can enter heaven because they followed the law and prayed a lot but Jesus often called them hypocrites due to this very pretentious nature.

This is why Paul said that we must consider others better than ourselves. This is also why the first beatitude tells us that blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Basically, the phrase 'poor in spirit' talks about humility and not thinking highly of yourself or someone with high status. Peter also addressed this issue of pride when he said in 1 Peter 5:5 that "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

It actually says that God prepares to do battle against those who are proud and too arrogant. So Peter says that we must humble ourselves so that God may lift us up in due time.

Truly, we need to realize the grave implications that being gossipy and prideful can lead to destruction and bring ruin to our lives and other people's lives.

We need to be able to control our tongue and our mind so that we do not stumble and involve ourselves in gossip or become too self-centered and prideful to the extent that you fail to recognize the importance of God in your life because it is through Him that we have the ability to achieve great things in life.

It is God who brings success and blessings in abundance to our lives, not because of our own merits, abilities, skills, or knowledge but because God, out of His love and grace and because of His wonderful plan in our lives, He makes all things possible for us so that we may bring glory to Him.

So I pray that you will be able to break these habits and ask God to forgive you for the sins that you have committed and to change you. Let us humble ourselves before God and recognize His mighty work in our lives. God Bless!