There may be no more prevalent sin in the church today that this unholy triad... We speak hatred through lying lips that profess love… we gossip slanderously under the guise of "sharing prayer needs"… we prattle on about things that should be kept away from our hearts and souls and sin takes hold of us through our tongues which are hinged in the middle and flap at both ends! Dear ones, let us rather consider the counsel of wisdom and restrain our lips! Nothing pleases the enemy more than when the church devours itself, and no manner of destruction is more difficult to eradicate than this pattern of destructive words! In part, this is because we deceive ourselves and believe the lies we tell others about who we are inside... In part it is because the scripture also warns us that "the words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body" Proverbs 18:8. This behavior is actually addictive, both to the hearer and to the speaker! We create our own bondages with the things that we do, but there is something else that makes this pattern even more terrifyingly insidious - it is the most subtle of things. This sin creeps up on us, it opens wide the lips and closes the discernment of the mind. It makes us think that the tiny little details that we are sure to salt our speech with are needful… "of course it's important to make sure that my hearers know that little piece of dirt" … "of course it matters that they know all the dirty secrets that I know"… "I am only telling the truth"… these patterns are pure folly, they are SIN, and they are absolutely destructive to the body of Christ. Rather than indulging a natural penchant for gossip, restrain your lips and let wisdom be the mark of who you are, and more, how you speak!!