“Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down. As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. 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. A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart. His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.” Proverbs 26:20-26 NIV
I was struck by this verse in my readings this morning. Imagine lobbing wood onto a fire that is burning real people? None of us have been “telios” as James describes it - someone who is “never at fault in what he says”. But I believe a first sign of revival is the fear of God falling onto our tongues.
To be true, in recent times of change I was sore tempted many times to defend myself. But isn't this where outright gossip starts? With an overdeveloped sense of inner violation fuelled by self-awareness and the perceived need to defend one’s own virtue. But that fire kills people.
The devil himself started his ministry to humans by gossiping to Eve about God. Gossip mixes truth with facts, and facts with fiction. It is like the wicked banking system – the fronts and facades all look so pristine and pure, but they only amount to a smiling mask of the global Highwayman. Maybe that’s a further point – too often in our carnality we feel the right to criticize or slander those who are somehow “less righteous” than we, in our own eyes.
A church can only experience habitual gossip because the sword has not finished its work in certain quarters of our hearts or congregation. Like clay, some parts are more hardy and stubborn than others. But when the core culture swings to fair speech, open rebuke and brotherly love (i.e. plain-sighted relationships - nothing hidden; no minefields left), then the stubborn parts cling more firmly together, but eventually either are broken or removed by the hand of God. The call of God is at stake for proud people, so now is a fine time to walk humbly, love God, honor all and speak the truth plainly and in love.
May we, a sort of first-fruits of the new breeze, bring life not death with our tongues. May our speech “be seasoned with salt”, the salt of grace. Grace opens our eyes to the depths of our own plight and then the heights of God’s love and mercy. We cannot go easily from that place into a blitzkrieg of prickliness.
I also feel that gossip erupts through times of fear. Some have did not like the church of old, but somehow they had their identities shaped in their own Underground Resistance movement. When the war is over, soldiers who fought struggle to normalize to civvy street. But we must take a firm and prayerful stance so that “war talk” dies before resistors become transistors broadcasting propaganda that alienates the weak and erodes the presence of God in their lives and within their friendship spheres.
The sanity factor is that those hungry for God, for holiness and for nobility will beat their swords into plowshares (Isa 2:4) and begin farm-work in team. The truth is that God is also teaching us to beat our plowshares into swords (Joel 3:10), for the weak to say, “I am strong”; for us to stand and fight shoulder to shoulder against the real enemy and for the multitudes in captivity to his will. Now that is a noble purpose.
Beating plowshares into swords implies that somewhere beforehand, weapons of warfare were turned into tools for personal benefit. God is reversing this. I refuse to spend my remaining years being an arbiter of the petty and a doctor to the self-afflicted. Let’s agree on this. Let’s set a standard of holiness “by accident” as we consider the opposition suffered by the Lord Himself. Let’s refuse to be a party to any camp of mice and men. Let us rather go outside the camp and suffer with Jesus, for righteousness’, not unrighteousness’, sake.
I believe a new wind is blowing. I believe God has not grounded the fleet of warplanes simply because one man’s volcanic emotions and heated memories try to spew ash over our airspace. We are not wimps. I would rather risk some air accidents than back away from the noble mission of the gospel. I would rather die flying than wither away on the ground, overshadowed by the ashy insecurities of small people. We are called to love all, but God-love is robust, masculine, directional and un-manipulatable. We are called to serve all, but as servants of God not men. We are called to be kind to all, but kindness must flow from the fount of the fear of God, not the fear of consequences.
Amen to that. May God seal our tongues today, with salty grace and sweet explosiveness.
Nick
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