Introduction: Ever known a gossip? Ever known someone who has to share his/her opinion about seemingly everything and everyone? Ever known someone who seemed incapable of just being quiet? Ever known someone who assumes his/her view is so important that we’d all do well to just pull up a seat and imbibe his/her take on things?

I would wager we all know that guy and that gal. Some folks just don’t seem to have a mute button. They’re babblers. They just talk and talk and talk. They seem incapable of just doing something quietly. Sometimes when such people are around I’ll afterwards tell my wife, “She needs to get a hobby–something besides gossip.”

Scripture: “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler” (Pr 20:19). The Bible has a great deal to say about the tongue. God warns his people what not to be like.

• “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered” (Pr 11:13).
• “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits” (Pr 18:21).
• James 3:5-8 is crystal-clear: So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (Jas 3:5-8)

Scripture instructs God’s people to not be babblers and idle talkers. We’re not to be gossips or busybodies. When Paul wrote to Timothy, for example, he told him that women in the church were not to be “gossips and busybodies” (1 Tim 5:13).

Why was that so important that God inspired it in the canon? Because restless talk, gossip, nosiness, and busybodies destroy unity. They undermine the team. They sabotage the mission.

Encouragement: Does this mean we’re to always be reticent and uncommunicative? No, of course not. But we’re to use our speech wisely. The Bible instructs us in what not to be like but also what to inculcate as a habit of godliness. In the imperative section of the Book of Ephesians, Paul wrote, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Yes and amen.