I could not take………………………………………

Communion. I believe people that in some cases, the words of the bible need to be taken literally and communion is one of those instances. I believe that when Jesus said we should take communion regularly in remembrance of him, that’s exactly what we should do. I believe that there is a lot more power in communion than a lot of us realise. Therefore, knowing the relevance of communion, it is something I do quite regularly that is, until recently. The reason is simply because of gossip.

For a few months now, I have an acquaintance (that I cannot escape from) who indulges in the habit of gossip. In fact, I had jokingly told a friend of mine how I needed to watch myself so I don’t fall into the habit. I remember my friend sharing some tactics with me at the time so I could escape this ‘sin’. Fast forward to a few months later, I was not just being the listener to gossip but also perpetrating it.

The incident: Someone had undermined me and in feeling unhappy with the person’s treatment, I started to gossip. I justified the gossip after all I was the offended party. However, I started to feel uneasy and decided to study what the bible had to say about gossip. There are a few things that I    learnt and perhaps shocked me and I hope that in sharing my story, you would be encouraged.

The most shocking thing I learnt was that whenever gossip is mentioned in the New Testament, it is mentioned alongside other ‘sins’ particularly murder and adultery. Now I don’t know whether God has various grades of sin but even from a human point of view, murder has to be one of the most hideous sins we have come across. From a scriptural point of view, gossip is as sinful as murder.

Another lesson I learnt is that gossip does not have anything to do with the factualness of the matter. The key consideration is whether it causes hurt to others and whether we are talking about people behind their backs. Gossip can injure someone’s character in the eyes of others even when what has been said is true.

So yes, this person had offended me. They had not treated me right, but as a Christian I had no right to gossip and slanderous. The scriptures state that we ‘should not let any unwholesome words come out of our mouths, only what is useful for building others up’ ( Ephesians 4:29).  We cannot use the same mouth to praise God and the same mouth to gossip. They are not compatible.

For me, I thank God for the revelation about gossip. I am reminded of one of my previous posts: Lord, keep me from sinning against you’.

Now you understand why I could not take communion for a while and I thank God for restoration. I hope that you would have learnt something from my experience. So until next time when I appear in your inbox with more insight from the scriptures, stay blessed

Ola

Last update : Tuesday 05/24/11

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