One of the main traps of offense the devil likes to use is scandalous gossip. The truth is it's hard to think of anything that works as efficiently as gossip to cause hurt and offense between two people.

Just think about the game "telephone" that you used to play when you were a child. You would whisper a sentence in someone's ear; then that person would whisper whatever he heard into the ear of the next person.

This same process would continue around the circle of people who were playing the game. And by the time the last person heard what had been passed around the circle, it would be something entirely different than the original sentence!

Often it seems that scandal circulates just that way in the body of Christ. Someone shares with another person a piece of information regarding another believer's personal life. Before you know it, what started out as a simple story has escalated into juicy gossip that no longer resembles the original account at all! And the person who is the source of discussion is the one who suffers.

The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about the dangers of gossip and scandal. Let's look at some of those Scriptures:

A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.
(Prov. 11:13 NIV)

A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.
(Prov. 16:28 NIV)

A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.
(Prov. 20:19 NIV)

Without wood a fire goes out, without gossip a quarrel dies down.
(Prov. 26:20 NIV)

God is giving us a very clear message: As Christians, we must be very careful to avoid giving offense by repeating a scandalous gossip.

Source: Get Over It! by Kate McVeigh.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers