Questions & Answers

All of God’s commandments are simply elaborations on two themes: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5) and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Jesus explains the latter in the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12): “Do to others what you would have them to do to you.” Keeping this in mind will usually clear things up fairly quickly.

Sometimes legal considerations are involved in decisions about whether or not to share certain kinds of information. But apart from these, it is not “gossip” when colleagues in the teaching ministry, motivated by love for the student and for one another, share information about a student that both really need to have in order to serve him or her. It’s also highly commendable to seek advice from a respected colleague on how to deal with a problem. Always do this with discretion, however, and in the spirit of Matthew 18:15. This means asking yourself, “Who really needs to know about this?” Having these conversations in private is often a good idea.

It is not “love” at all, however, when colleagues share information simply to vent their frustrations about someone. Notice how gossip also frequently becomes a power-game. A person who engages in it is saying in effect, “I have the inside track on certain information. See what an important person I am?” That’s pure selfishness, the exact opposite of Christian love.

Before sharing information about someone else, stop and ask yourself two questions: “Is it truly love—a selfless desire to serve the best interests of everybody concerned—that is making me want to do this?” and “How would I feel if I knew somebody else were talking about me this way?”

When you look back on things you’ve said that won’t meet these tests—and we’ve all said them!—be sure to take those sins to the cross. There you’ll find God’s full and free forgiveness.