Guard Your Mouth

Guard Your Mouth

"Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord keep watch over the door of my lips."
Psalm 141:3

A couple of years ago, I discovered some minutes from a church in North Carolina dating back to the early 1800's. This is a church that my great, great, great grandfather was the pastor of, and I was wanted to find out their religious beliefs. After reading almost a year of their meeting minutes, I discovered that the church took a much more active role in policing the activities of their members than churches do today. There were many recorded minutes where church members were caught spreading gossip about other members, and when the church leadership discovered this, they took immediate action to stop it. Their first step in dealing with what they called "sinful speech" was to get the people spreading the rumors to confess this in front of the entire church body. Their belief was that a gossiping Christian dishonors God's name and also his own name. If the person spreading the rumors was unwilling to repent they were even asked to leave the Church. They said that if left unchecked, that idle gossip could destroy the church, and ruin the reputations and lives of innocent people. In our culture today it is almost common practice for Christians to talk about other Christians, and spread rumors they may or may not be true. Be on guard against spreading any kind of gossip, as you have a responsibility to set yourself apart in order to keep your thoughts and words pleasing to God. Don't allow yourself to be in the presence of someone spreading gossip, but speak out against it and leave, as this can tempt you to participate.