Back in college, I recall two friends of mine — both Christians — and these friends had a very interesting arrangement between themselves. They purposed to only gossip with each other. They didn’t have loose tongues with their other friends — they thought that would be a bad witness (and they were right). But when those two got together and went off for lunch or whatever, they let down the guard with each other — like I said, it was a kind of agreement they had — and, oh, did they give each other earfuls. My college friends thought they had housebroken their gossip. Because of this agreement, this arrangement between them, they assumed they had made their gossip rather respectable. They had domesticated that particular sin, they kept it under control.
But now, many years later, those two friends aren’t friends anymore. I suppose they were hit with Proverbs 16:28 where it says that, “... gossip separates close friends.”
Hmmm. Isn’t it unfortunate how some of us Christians try to housebreak certain sins as though we can get control over them, never believing that in so doing, the sin gets control over us? Take gossip for instance. Seems small, rather private, somewhat harmless if done discreetly... but listen to the class that Romans 1:30 puts gossip in: “They [that is, those God gave over to their own ways]... they are gossips, slanderers, God‑haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil.” Yikes! The Lord puts gossips and God-haters in the same sentence. I wouldn’t call that harmless.
When it comes to sin, we’ve just got to call a spade a spade. It’s what Bishop J. C. Ryle did in his book Holiness when he wrote... now this is back in the 1800s, but it sure is contemporary for this day and age. He wrote...
“We are too apt to forget that temptation to sin will rarely present itself in its true colors. Never when we are tempted will we hear sin say to us, 'I am your deadly enemy... I want to ruin your life.' That's not how it works. Sin, instead, comes to us like Judas with a kiss. It comes to us like Joab with outstretched hands and flattering words. Sin, in its beginnings, seems harmless enough -- like David walking idly on his palace roof which happened to overlook the bedroom of a woman. You and I may give wickedness smooth-sounding names, but we cannot alter its nature and character in the sight of God.”
Don’t be like those college buddies of mine. Don’t try to tame sin... it’ll tear you apart.
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