Choosing Sins 

by Michael Horton

     "Gossip and slander make it into Paul's Top Ten sins, right along with sexual immorality, idolatry and murder. Paul warns about 'works of the flesh...gossip, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, sorcery, impurity, drunkenness, orgies' etc. (That's more than 10.)   

     "Liberals and Conservatives like to pick out the real sins in this list, but Scripture treats them as a package. Gossip and slander are increasingly comfortable to us in a digital age. Reputations have been ruined, relationships fractured, and tempers fanned into the flame of mutual acrimony. 

     "Terrible harm has come from reckless social media posts. This serious problem is worsened by our fear-driven social and political tribalism. No one gets a fair hearing, much less a fair trial on social media. 

     "Today, it is acceptable to gossip about others so long as it's about those other sins on the list. We deflect sin to Them to confirm Us in our 'righteousness.' We might be telling the truth, but a conceited heart is revealed in relishing other people's failures. 

     "This behavior is tolerated even in the name of defending the truth, but in reality, it is an 'appearance of godliness but denying its power' (2 Timothy 3:5).

     "The remedy is love grounded in the forgiveness of sins, of those committed by others as well as by us."

Next: Love covers many sins