Key Verse: Verse 8 - “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.”
Key Words: words of a talebearer
We find the words of Proverbs 18:8 found again in Proverbs 26:22.
The word talebearer means a blabbermouth or a gossip.
I know what I’m about to say is not a very good pastoral analogy, but I call gossipers people who are sick…they have diarrhea of the mouth. A gossip loves to talk about others. They love to talk about the sins of others, never realizing that by gossiping about others’ sins, they are sinning themselves.
A talebearer also is a faultfinder, finding faults in others while excusing their own.
Before we are too harsh in judging those scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day, let us stop and look at ourselves. All too many Christians today go to church to find fault, to gossip, and to criticize. Warren Wiersbe, in his book Angry People, wrote, “An incident in the life of Joseph Parker, the great British preacher, illustrates this tragic truth. He was preaching at the City Temple in London. After the service one of the listeners came up to him and said, ‘Dr. Parker, you made a grammatical error in your sermon.’ He then proceeded to point out the error to the pastor. Joseph Parker looked at the man and said, ’And what else did you get out of the message?’ What a fitting rebuke!”
Dr. Mike Rouse
What to do:
✞ Remember, talebearers are a dime a dozen so don’t lower your value by joining their gossip club.
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