Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / James 4:11-12 - Secret Meetings and Gossip Sessions Have No Place in the Church
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Life Audio. Well, hello and good morning, friends and faithful listeners.
- 0:12Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning into the Bible Explain
- 0:14Speaker 1: podcasts on this lovely, lovely morning. We are in the
- 0:18Speaker 1: Book of James today, because, as you guys know, on
- 0:20Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays I cover the New Testament, and Mondays
- 0:24Speaker 1: and Wednesdays I cover the Old Testament. So today is
- 0:27Speaker 1: our day in the Book of James. And guess what
- 0:30Speaker 1: We're only going to be talking about two verses today
- 0:35Speaker 1: in James. I was really wondering if I would have
- 0:38Speaker 1: enough content in these two verses to talk about them
- 0:42Speaker 1: the entire episode, and now that I've done my research,
- 0:46Speaker 1: I definitely think that I'm only scratching the surface actually
- 0:49Speaker 1: of some of the stuff we can talk about based
- 0:51Speaker 1: upon these two little verses. So I'm excited to delve
- 0:55Speaker 1: into this. But first, please listen to this quick message
- 0:58Speaker 1: from a sponsor. Okay, hopefully while that sponsored ad played,
- 1:02Speaker 1: you had enough time to grab your delicious cup of
- 1:05Speaker 1: coffee or your cup of tea if that's more your style,
- 1:08Speaker 1: and also your Bible out of whatever version you prefer
- 1:11Speaker 1: to read from. I'll be reading as usual from the web,
- 1:14Speaker 1: and we'll be discussing James four eleven and twelve. Don't
- 1:19Speaker 1: speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a
- 1:23Speaker 1: brother and judges his brother speaks against the law and
- 1:26Speaker 1: judges the law. But if you judge the law, you
- 1:29Speaker 1: are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
- 1:32Speaker 1: Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save
- 1:35Speaker 1: and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?
- 1:40Speaker 1: You know what, I've never hated the chapter breakdowns in
- 1:43Speaker 1: the Bible more than I hate them in the Book
- 1:45Speaker 1: of James. I also don't like the verse numbers in
- 1:49Speaker 1: the Book of James, because, you know, even though the
- 1:52Speaker 1: chapter numbers are there for our benefit so that we
- 1:55Speaker 1: can find the verse that we're looking for easily, in
- 1:58Speaker 1: the Book of James, it's almost a detriment because this
- 2:01Speaker 1: book is so cohesive. James is bringing up points that
- 2:05Speaker 1: he made all the way back in chapter two. So
- 2:08Speaker 1: I really don't like the chapter numbers for James specifically,
- 2:12Speaker 1: I can understand their point, I know why they were
- 2:14Speaker 1: put in there, But for James, it doesn't make any sense.
- 2:19Speaker 1: Starting in verse eleven of James four, here's what it says,
- 2:22Speaker 1: don't speak against one another brothers. He who speaks against
- 2:25Speaker 1: a brother and judges his brother speaks against the law
- 2:28Speaker 1: and judges the law. James is speaking to the believing Jews.
- 2:34Speaker 1: He is speaking to Christians. He is not speaking to
- 2:36Speaker 1: non Christians. So he's telling the Christians. Don't judge a
- 2:41Speaker 1: fellow Christian. It is not for you to do that.
- 2:43Speaker 1: Don't speak ill of a fellow Christian. And on the surface,
- 2:47Speaker 1: you know, somebody could take this verse and not read
- 2:49Speaker 1: the rest of scripture and say, oh, we can't say
- 2:52Speaker 1: anything bad about any Christian whatsoever, no matter what they're doing.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Only God can judge them. But that is one hundred
- 2:59Speaker 1: percent on true, because if you jump up to James
- 3:02Speaker 1: four verse four, here's what James says you adulterers and adulteresses.
- 3:08Speaker 1: Kind of sounds like James is casting some judgments on
- 3:11Speaker 1: the church right there. And then also if you move
- 3:13Speaker 1: to One Corinthians, chapter five, one through three, here's what
- 3:18Speaker 1: Paul says about judging. It is actually reported that there
- 3:22Speaker 1: is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as
- 3:26Speaker 1: is not even named among the gentiles, that one has
- 3:29Speaker 1: his father's wife. You are arrogant and didn't mourn. Instead
- 3:34Speaker 1: that he who had done this deed might be removed
- 3:36Speaker 1: from among you, For I, most certainly, as being absent
- 3:39Speaker 1: in body but present in spirit, have already, as though
- 3:43Speaker 1: I were present, judged him who has done this thing.
- 3:47Speaker 1: And then in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells
- 3:50Speaker 1: us that we are to discern. We are to discern
- 3:53Speaker 1: between the person who is a false teacher and a
- 3:57Speaker 1: true teacher. You aren't supposed to just take every single
- 4:00Speaker 1: Christian at their word. You're also not supposed to let
- 4:03Speaker 1: just any Christian do whatever they want to do and
- 4:05Speaker 1: get away with anything that they want to get away with.
- 4:08Speaker 1: And a lot of times unhealthy pastors and church leaders
- 4:12Speaker 1: will take verses like this one from James chapter four
- 4:15Speaker 1: and say, well, you can't judge us, you can't do this.
- 4:19Speaker 1: It is not for you to judge. You are an
- 4:21Speaker 1: accuser of the brethren, or you are sitting in bitterness.
- 4:26Speaker 1: That's the kind of stuff they'll say if you notice
- 4:29Speaker 1: any kind of glaring sin that they have in their life,
- 4:32Speaker 1: or if you notice people leaving the church because they're
- 4:35Speaker 1: getting hurt. Unfortunately, verses like this get twisted all the time.
- 4:40Speaker 1: In fact, this just happened to me recently. Somebody commented
- 4:43Speaker 1: on the YouTube video I did with my sister and
- 4:46Speaker 1: brother in law where they talk about the extreme manipulation
- 4:49Speaker 1: they experienced in the IFB church and some of the
- 4:52Speaker 1: absolutely damaging and terrible things that the pastor did spiritually
- 4:57Speaker 1: to them and to other people around them. And my
- 4:59Speaker 1: brother in lawn's sister. We're exposing some of these things.
- 5:02Speaker 1: But somebody commented recently saying this is wrong, this is
- 5:06Speaker 1: a sin for you to speak against a brother this way,
- 5:09Speaker 1: And yeah, I did comment on that comment, and I said,
- 5:13Speaker 1: you don't know the definition of sin if you believe
- 5:15Speaker 1: that it's wrong to call out other people's sin, because
- 5:19Speaker 1: Scripture is very clear that you are supposed to do that.
- 5:22Speaker 1: So clearly in James Chapter four, James is not speaking
- 5:26Speaker 1: about calling out sin. He's talking about something else. Because
- 5:30Speaker 1: if you go back to the Greek word for speak
- 5:33Speaker 1: evil against somebody, it translates to kataitalia. Okay, And this
- 5:39Speaker 1: is a definition from Barclay. William Barclay quote, Katatalia is
- 5:44Speaker 1: the sin of those who meet in corners and gather
- 5:48Speaker 1: in little groups and pass on confidential information which to
- 5:52Speaker 1: destroy the good name of those who are not there
- 5:56Speaker 1: to defend themselves. Man, I know so many people who
- 6:02Speaker 1: have had that exact thing happen to them, where they
- 6:06Speaker 1: hear about little gossipings happening behind their back, where maybe
- 6:10Speaker 1: you know, they're starting to present questions to the pastor,
- 6:13Speaker 1: and the pastor in order to silence those questions, brings
- 6:17Speaker 1: his elders into a little elder's meeting without that person
- 6:21Speaker 1: there to talk about some of these little problems that
- 6:24Speaker 1: are being stirred up. And they're doing exactly this thing Catitalia,
- 6:30Speaker 1: where they're gathering in little groups to pass on confidential
- 6:34Speaker 1: information to destroy the good name of those who are
- 6:37Speaker 1: not there to defend themselves. This happened to my sister
- 6:40Speaker 1: and brother in law. This has happened to my husband
- 6:44Speaker 1: and I. This happened to my mom and my dad.
- 6:48Speaker 1: And these were four separate churches that happened to my
- 6:51Speaker 1: mom and dad twice, four separate churches that my family
- 6:56Speaker 1: has been a part of in the forty five years
- 6:58Speaker 1: that my parents have been married. Churches do this all
- 7:03Speaker 1: the time, and if it's happened to my family as
- 7:05Speaker 1: often as it has, I know it has happened to
- 7:09Speaker 1: you faithful listeners as well. I know that many of
- 7:12Speaker 1: you have had that experience at your church as well,
- 7:15Speaker 1: and I feel sorry about that. But just know that
- 7:19Speaker 1: James is calling this a sin. He says in verse eleven,
- 7:23Speaker 1: he who speaks against a brother and judges his brother
- 7:26Speaker 1: speaks against the law and judges the law. So what
- 7:30Speaker 1: is this law that James is speaking of. He's actually
- 7:33Speaker 1: talking about the law mentioned in James two, a couple
- 7:38Speaker 1: chapters ago. Verse eight. However, if you fulfill the Royal
- 7:42Speaker 1: law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor
- 7:45Speaker 1: as yourself. You do well, And then, jumping to verse
- 7:49Speaker 1: twelve of James two, so speak and so do as
- 7:52Speaker 1: men who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
- 7:55Speaker 1: This is the law that James is talking about in
- 7:57Speaker 1: James four. He's talking about about the law of love
- 8:02Speaker 1: and freedom. The Royal law is what it's called, the
- 8:05Speaker 1: law to rule every other law. In fact, Jesus himself
- 8:08Speaker 1: said that the entire Old Testament law can be broken
- 8:11Speaker 1: down to two things, loving God first, and then loving
- 8:14Speaker 1: your neighbor as yourself. The entirety of the law hinges
- 8:19Speaker 1: on those two things, love of God and love of others.
- 8:24Speaker 1: So anybody who is speaking against their brother to manipulate
- 8:28Speaker 1: a situation to try to destroy that person's reputation, even
- 8:33Speaker 1: if it's not necessarily slander, but just telling information in
- 8:36Speaker 1: such a way to misrepresent that person while the person
- 8:41Speaker 1: is not in the room. These people are speaking against
- 8:45Speaker 1: the law of love, and they are judging the law
- 8:48Speaker 1: of love, is what James says. They are saying that
- 8:51Speaker 1: law of love doesn't apply to us, that law of
- 8:54Speaker 1: love is not necessary. They are judging it. But if
- 8:58Speaker 1: you judge the law, he says, not a doer of
- 9:00Speaker 1: the law, but just a judge. And we went into
- 9:03Speaker 1: that in James two about the person who is not
- 9:05Speaker 1: fulfilling the law of love. And also in James Chapter three,
- 9:09Speaker 1: James was talking about the tongue and how the tongue
- 9:12Speaker 1: verse five James three is a little member that boasts
- 9:15Speaker 1: great things. See how a small fire can spread to
- 9:19Speaker 1: a large forest. And the tongue is a fire. The
- 9:21Speaker 1: world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which
- 9:25Speaker 1: defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course
- 9:27Speaker 1: of nature, and is set on fire by Gehennah verse nine.
- 9:31Speaker 1: With it we bless our God and Father, and with
- 9:34Speaker 1: it we curse men who are made in the image
- 9:37Speaker 1: of God. Out of the same mouth comes blessing and
- 9:39Speaker 1: cursing my brothers. These things ought not to be so.
- 9:42Speaker 1: So James has already addressed the law of love and
- 9:45Speaker 1: what it takes to actually be following the law of love.
- 9:49Speaker 1: And it starts by controlling your tongue. And if you
- 9:52Speaker 1: don't control your tongue, what does it say right here?
- 9:54Speaker 1: It defiles your whole body, and it is set on
- 9:57Speaker 1: fire by Gehennah. That means that sometimes our speech is
- 10:02Speaker 1: coming straight from the manipulation of Satan himself. In fact,
- 10:06Speaker 1: throughout the entire Book of James, he keeps mentioning that
- 10:10Speaker 1: that there is a spiritual kind of wisdom that the
- 10:13Speaker 1: church should be walking in, and there's also a demonic
- 10:16Speaker 1: kind of wisdom. And this demonic wisdom is obviously behind
- 10:20Speaker 1: the scenes trying to destroy the church by encouraging people
- 10:24Speaker 1: to gossip and slander and manipulate stories and destroy the
- 10:29Speaker 1: reputation of others, not to mention encouraging partiality in the church,
- 10:34Speaker 1: encouraging divisions, encouraging selfish ambition and bitter jealousy. The entire
- 10:41Speaker 1: Book of James is a warning to the church, and
- 10:45Speaker 1: the church is not listening. That's why James says in
- 10:49Speaker 1: chapter four, verse seven, be subject therefore to God. Resist
- 10:53Speaker 1: the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near
- 10:56Speaker 1: to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse
- 10:58Speaker 1: your hands, you sinners, Purify your hearts, you double minded,
- 11:02Speaker 1: and verse ten says, humble yourselves in the sight of
- 11:05Speaker 1: the Lord, and he will exalt you. God is offering
- 11:08Speaker 1: the church grace, and the Church is consistently rejecting it.
- 11:13Speaker 1: Because all of these things that we have talked about
- 11:15Speaker 1: in the Book of James, I have personally experienced and
- 11:19Speaker 1: continue to personally experience. And it is not just me.
- 11:24Speaker 1: This is the tale as old as time, and you,
- 11:27Speaker 1: faithful listeners, I am sure, have experienced these same things
- 11:31Speaker 1: as well, if you've been going to a church for
- 11:33Speaker 1: any length of time. So what are we supposed to
- 11:36Speaker 1: do here? Are we supposed to just abandon church, stop going? No,
- 11:41Speaker 1: because Hebrews ten twenty five says, let us not forsake
- 11:45Speaker 1: the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some,
- 11:48Speaker 1: but let us exhort one another, especially as you see
- 11:51Speaker 1: the day approaching. We are not supposed to abandon the church.
- 11:55Speaker 1: We are not supposed to abandon the gathering together of believers. Instead,
- 12:01Speaker 1: what we're supposed to do is just follow these things
- 12:04Speaker 1: personally and do our best to not be like the
- 12:09Speaker 1: people James is warning about. We are supposed to be
- 12:12Speaker 1: people who don't slander our brothers and sisters in Christ,
- 12:16Speaker 1: who don't speak ill of them behind their back. And also,
- 12:19Speaker 1: if you happen to be where somebody is telling you
- 12:22Speaker 1: gossip be things about somebody, it is not wrong for
- 12:25Speaker 1: you to say, hey, you know, I don't want to
- 12:26Speaker 1: engage in gossip. Or another thing you could do is
- 12:29Speaker 1: go to that person personally and ask them, hey, you
- 12:33Speaker 1: know I heard this and I really need to know
- 12:35Speaker 1: is this the truth? Are you okay? Do you need help?
- 12:39Speaker 1: In any particular way? That is called exhorting somebody, That
- 12:43Speaker 1: is called encouraging them and not engaging in gossip, but
- 12:47Speaker 1: truly talking to people as human beings, as our fellow
- 12:51Speaker 1: brothers and sisters in Christ. And guess what, it doesn't
- 12:54Speaker 1: matter the source of where this gossip is coming from.
- 12:57Speaker 1: It could be the pastor of your church coming up
- 13:00Speaker 1: to you and being like, oh, I don't know if
- 13:02Speaker 1: you heard that so and so has you know issues
- 13:05Speaker 1: here and there or they're really going through something right now,
- 13:08Speaker 1: and I just want to tell you that, you know,
- 13:10Speaker 1: I love this person very much, but they're going down
- 13:12Speaker 1: the wrong path. Even in that case, if there is
- 13:17Speaker 1: some sort of gossip coming to you, Scripture tells us
- 13:21Speaker 1: to discern every spirit. It doesn't say, oh, discern the
- 13:24Speaker 1: spirits of everybody except the pastor No, it says to
- 13:27Speaker 1: discern every spirit. So it's not wise or discerning to
- 13:32Speaker 1: take the word even of your pastor if you don't
- 13:35Speaker 1: understand or really know what the situation actually is. We
- 13:39Speaker 1: are to treat each other as if we are brothers
- 13:43Speaker 1: and sisters, and we don't want to do that to
- 13:45Speaker 1: our physical brothers and sisters. You know, we love our siblings.
- 13:49Speaker 1: If we have a good relationship with them, we want
- 13:51Speaker 1: to talk with them and you know, be friends with
- 13:53Speaker 1: them and get to the bottom of the story. We
- 13:56Speaker 1: don't want to hear other people gossiping about them and
- 13:58Speaker 1: saying nasty things. We don't want to hear these things
- 14:02Speaker 1: because we love our brothers and sisters in Christ. And
- 14:05Speaker 1: that's what it comes down to love. When we love
- 14:09Speaker 1: our brothers and sisters in Christ, we're not going to
- 14:12Speaker 1: be engaging in gossip about them. We won't be speaking
- 14:15Speaker 1: ill of them, especially if we don't know the situation
- 14:18Speaker 1: or the story. We won't be judging them without them
- 14:22Speaker 1: presenting their side of the story. Instead, we will be
- 14:26Speaker 1: following the law of love. And here's what James says
- 14:28Speaker 1: in verse twelve. Only one is the lawgiver, who is
- 14:32Speaker 1: able to save and to destroy. But who are you
- 14:35Speaker 1: to judge another? Basically, God truly is the judge. And
- 14:39Speaker 1: when we start judging our brothers and sisters in Christ
- 14:43Speaker 1: in the way that James is talking about here unfairly,
- 14:47Speaker 1: then we make ourselves out to be like God. And
- 14:51Speaker 1: who are we to do that? That's what James says,
- 14:54Speaker 1: Who are you to judge another? When there is only
- 14:57Speaker 1: one law maker? When there is only one judge. All
- 15:01Speaker 1: of this connects perfectly with Romans fourteen. Starting in verse one,
- 15:05Speaker 1: it says, now accept the one who is weak in
- 15:08Speaker 1: the faith, but not for disputes over opinions. One man
- 15:12Speaker 1: has faith to eat all things, but he who is
- 15:14Speaker 1: weak only eats vegetables. Don't let him who eats despise
- 15:18Speaker 1: him who doesn't eat. Don't let him who doesn't eat
- 15:21Speaker 1: judge him who eats. For God has accepted him. Who
- 15:24Speaker 1: are you who judge another man's servant to his own lord?
- 15:28Speaker 1: He stands or falls, yes, he will be made to stand,
- 15:32Speaker 1: for God has power to make him stand and then
- 15:35Speaker 1: jumping down. In the same chapter to verse ten, But you,
- 15:38Speaker 1: why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why
- 15:41Speaker 1: do you despise your brother? For we will all stand
- 15:44Speaker 1: before the judgment. See to Christ. For as it is written,
- 15:47Speaker 1: as I live, says the Lord to me, every knee
- 15:49Speaker 1: will bow, every tongue will confess to God. So then
- 15:52Speaker 1: each one of us will give an account of himself
- 15:55Speaker 1: to God. Therefore, let's not judge one another anymore, but
- 15:59Speaker 1: judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block
- 16:02Speaker 1: in his brother's way or an occasion for falling. That
- 16:07Speaker 1: is like the perfect summary of what we just read
- 16:09Speaker 1: in James four In Romans fourteen, Paul says there are
- 16:13Speaker 1: certain Christians who do certain things that aren't necessarily a sin.
- 16:18Speaker 1: Even though we don't do those things. We should not
- 16:20Speaker 1: be judging those Christians because they choose to live a
- 16:24Speaker 1: different life, because they choose to do things differently in
- 16:27Speaker 1: their walk with Christ. For example, one Christian decides it
- 16:31Speaker 1: is not right to eat meat on Fridays, I will
- 16:34Speaker 1: eat fish, But another Christian thinks it is totally fine
- 16:38Speaker 1: to eat meat any day of the week, and they
- 16:40Speaker 1: are going to eat meat. That Christian should not be
- 16:43Speaker 1: judging the Christian who doesn't eat meat on Fridays, and
- 16:46Speaker 1: the Christian who doesn't eat meat on Fridays shouldn't be
- 16:48Speaker 1: judging the other Christian who decides to eat meat every
- 16:51Speaker 1: single day of the week, because they both have their
- 16:54Speaker 1: own personal convictions. As long as there is no blaring sin,
- 16:58Speaker 1: we don't ostracize other Christians because they don't do life
- 17:02Speaker 1: exactly the same way that we do. Instead, here's what
- 17:06Speaker 1: we are supposed to judge Verse thirteen of Romans fourteen. Therefore,
- 17:11Speaker 1: let's not judge one another anymore, but judge this rather,
- 17:15Speaker 1: that no man put a stumbling block in his brother's
- 17:19Speaker 1: way or an occasion for falling. That is the key.
- 17:25Speaker 1: That is what we are allowed to judge and what
- 17:28Speaker 1: we should be judging. Just like in First Corinthians five,
- 17:33Speaker 1: where Paul was judging the man who was a member
- 17:36Speaker 1: of the church sleeping with his stepmother, in fact, in
- 17:38Speaker 1: a relationship with his stepmother. Paul was judging that because
- 17:42Speaker 1: that was a sin, that was an occasion for stumbling,
- 17:45Speaker 1: that was an occasion for falling. That's the kind of
- 17:48Speaker 1: stuff that we judge. That's the kind of stuff we
- 17:50Speaker 1: are required to judge in scripture, not silly and unnecessary things,
- 17:55Speaker 1: but true problems and even occasions for stumbling, something that
- 17:59Speaker 1: might might not necessarily even be a sin, but could
- 18:03Speaker 1: be an occasion for sin. So that is what James
- 18:07Speaker 1: chapter four, eleven through twelve is talking about, the wrong
- 18:10Speaker 1: kind of judging, the nitpicky, critical kind of judgment that
- 18:15Speaker 1: the church is so incredibly guilty of. As usual, you
- 18:21Speaker 1: guys know that I try to end the episodes, a
- 18:23Speaker 1: lot of them with a call to action, and that
- 18:26Speaker 1: is exactly what I'm going to do. Right after this
- 18:28Speaker 1: quick message from one of my sponsors. To finish out
- 18:32Speaker 1: this episode, I'd like to move back to James three
- 18:36Speaker 1: and talk about the tongue. It says in verse five
- 18:39Speaker 1: that the tongue is a little member that boasts great things.
- 18:42Speaker 1: See how a small fire can spread to a large forest,
- 18:46Speaker 1: and the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity
- 18:49Speaker 1: among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole
- 18:52Speaker 1: body and sets on fire the course of nature and
- 18:54Speaker 1: is set on fire by Gehenna. Unfortunately, many of us,
- 18:58Speaker 1: myself included, have a very hard time with the tongue.
- 19:03Speaker 1: We like to gossip, we like to hear gossip. We
- 19:06Speaker 1: like to hold secrets and think that you know, people
- 19:09Speaker 1: are coming to us because you know, we're great secret keepers.
- 19:14Speaker 1: But something that has been interesting for me is there
- 19:17Speaker 1: are probably more proverbs about controlling the tongue than any
- 19:22Speaker 1: other topic in the Book of Proverbs other than potentially money.
- 19:28Speaker 1: There's a verse that I read recently that gossip is
- 19:31Speaker 1: like a dainty little mor soul that sinks deep into
- 19:34Speaker 1: your soul. That really connected with me, because have you
- 19:39Speaker 1: ever had somebody come up and tell you something like
- 19:41Speaker 1: really juicy and you're just like grabbing your popcorn and
- 19:45Speaker 1: rubbing your hands together, and you're like, yeah, tell me more.
- 19:47Speaker 1: I want to hear about this person. What did they do?
- 19:49Speaker 1: Spill the tea? You know, you get really excited about
- 19:51Speaker 1: this gossip that somebody is saying. It sinks deep into
- 19:56Speaker 1: our souls and what ends up happening after that We're
- 19:59Speaker 1: never really happy because the person we hear the story about,
- 20:03Speaker 1: our minds are changed about them, even if the story
- 20:08Speaker 1: isn't necessarily true, and that's typically what happens with gossip,
- 20:12Speaker 1: and the person that's being gossiped about doesn't have any
- 20:16Speaker 1: defense because they probably don't even know that the gossip
- 20:19Speaker 1: is taking place. And ninety nine times out of one hundred,
- 20:23Speaker 1: people don't go to the person being gossiped about. They
- 20:27Speaker 1: just agree with whatever gossip that they heard and never
- 20:31Speaker 1: mention it ever. Again, it's a dainty morsel that sunk
- 20:35Speaker 1: deep into their soul instead of going to the person
- 20:38Speaker 1: and talking it through with them. So that is my
- 20:41Speaker 1: call to action for all of you. If you've heard
- 20:43Speaker 1: gossip about somebody recently, even if you think it might
- 20:47Speaker 1: be true, maybe go try to talk to that person
- 20:50Speaker 1: and just see what's on their mind. Try to strike
- 20:52Speaker 1: up a friendship with them, if that's possible, or take
- 20:56Speaker 1: them out to coffee and just say like, hey, I
- 20:59Speaker 1: heard you might be struggling recently, and I just want
- 21:02Speaker 1: to offer a listening ear if you want to do that.
- 21:04Speaker 1: If not, we can talk about something completely different. Or
- 21:07Speaker 1: if something is really bothering you about what you heard,
- 21:11Speaker 1: you can go to them and say, yeah, you know
- 21:13Speaker 1: I heard this or that, and I do have questions
- 21:16Speaker 1: about what I've heard, and I want to talk to
- 21:18Speaker 1: you about it. It is so important to get both
- 21:21Speaker 1: sides of the story. There's that old saying, there's your
- 21:25Speaker 1: side of the story, there's my side of the story,
- 21:27Speaker 1: and there's the truth. There's only one truth. There's no
- 21:31Speaker 1: such thing as multiple truths. People don't have their truth.
- 21:34Speaker 1: There is one truth, and it's important as Christians to
- 21:38Speaker 1: find out what the truth actually is, especially if nasty
- 21:43Speaker 1: things are being said about our fellow brothers and sisters
- 21:47Speaker 1: in Christ. So that's my encouragement for you. Don't engage
- 21:50Speaker 1: in gossip. But if you do hear gossip and you
- 21:53Speaker 1: hear little murmurings about somebody, go and talk to that
- 21:56Speaker 1: person personally. Faith I hope you all have a fantastic
- 22:02Speaker 1: and wonderful rest of your day. I will see you
- 22:04Speaker 1: guys hopefully tomorrow. On the member side of stuff, if
- 22:07Speaker 1: you would like to upgrade from being a Faithful listener
- 22:09Speaker 1: to a Faithful member and gain access to the Friday
- 22:12Speaker 1: podcast and also this podcast completely add free, then go
- 22:16Speaker 1: to my coffee page which is linked in the description
- 22:18Speaker 1: of this episode, Click on the one that says Coffee Tier,
- 22:21Speaker 1: and you will gain access to the Friday podcast. That's
- 22:24Speaker 1: if you become a Coffee Tier member. Now, if you
- 22:26Speaker 1: become a Tee Tier member, you only gain access to
- 22:29Speaker 1: this podcast, The Bible Explained, completely ad free, so check
- 22:33Speaker 1: out those two membership tears. I will see you guys
- 22:36Speaker 1: tomorrow on the Bible Explained on Fridays, or I will
- 22:38Speaker 1: see you guys on Monday for the normal scheduled episode.
- 22:42Speaker 1: Faithful listeners, have a wonderful rest of your day, happy listening,
- 22:45Speaker 1: and God bless you all. I just want to take
- 22:53Speaker 1: a second to thank the team at Life Audio for
- 22:55Speaker 1: their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact,
- 22:58Speaker 1: if you go to life audio dot com you'll find
- 23:00Speaker 1: dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've
- 23:03Speaker 1: got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.