“Bless her heart; who would’ve ever thought she’d do such a thing?” the office worker whispered under her breath. “And can you believe he was involved?” the chatty friend replied. The two gossiping coworkers stood behind the water cooler fervently discussing the latest office news.

In my humble opinion, some of the deepest injuries we can inflict don’t occur from weapons, but from words. And when it comes to gossiping, we not only inflict pain on the victims of our cutting conversations, but through the sins of our actions, we harm ourselves.

One of my favorite Bible verses is found in Psalm, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock, my Redeemer.” How many of us can honestly say that the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts are pleasing to God? I guess we just don’t think of gossip as anything more than a slight indiscretion. I know I’m sometimes guilty of denying its wrongdoing. I think most will agree that breaking one of the Ten Commandments is an out-and-out sin, but how can chatting with a best friend about another acquaintance or sharing the latest gossip be a transgression? Or how can whispering behind a co-worker’s back be an offense?

Jesus’ own brother, James wrote, “The tongue…corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” I don’t know about you, but when I read James’ writings on gossip, it sends cold chills right up my spine, and hopefully, straight through my tongue to stop its wagging.