Which Is Worse: Gossiping or Listening To It?

Which Is Worse: Gossiping or Listening To It?

According to the Jewish laws found in the Book of Leviticus, which is worse: the person who listens to gossip or the person who tells it?

You might be surprised to know that listening to gossip is even worse than gossiping. Why?

Even though they both are forbidden by the scriptures, no harm could be done by gossip if no one listened to it. Listening to gossip gives it power to continue. If we refuse to listen to gossip, it would die instantly. But to listen to gossip is to help stab a person with a sharp-edged sword.

It is said that gossip kills three:

1.  the person who speaks it

2.  the person who hears it

3.  the person about whom it is told

Let's stop killing people with our mouths and with our ears.

The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts. Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. (Proverbs 26:22-23 NIV).

Much harm can be done through one's speech. The harm is worse than stealing or cheating someone financially because amends can be made for monetary harms, but the harm done by speech can never be repaired. It is like opening a pillow full of feathers on a windy day on the top of a mountain. You can no more make amends for the damage your words have done than you can collect all the feathers and put them back into the pillow.



So, let's watch our language, and let's stop gossip in its tracks by refusing to listen to it!

God Bless to all,