| “Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.” |
| —Proverbs 26:20 |
In my lifetime of work as a fire protection engineer, one of the most important principles I learned very early in my career was how fire actually burns. Fire takes a combustible fuel, sufficient heat to raise that fuel to the temperature where it will begin to give off burnable vapor, enough oxygen to allow the rapid oxidation process to take place, and it takes a chemical chain reaction to sustain the burning.
Fire scientists call these elements—fuel, heat, oxygen, and chain reaction—the Fire Tetrahedron. A tetrahedron is a four-sided figure that looks like a pyramid. If you remove any of the four sides, the entire figure collapses. So it is with the process we call fire. If you remove any of the those four elements—fuel, heat, oxygen, or chain reaction—the fire stops burning.
Fire is one of the most devastating of the phenomena in our world. In a similar manner, gossip is also one of the most devastating of the phenomena in our world. Gossip can destroy reputations, cause heartache, promote ill will, ruin families, damage churches, tear down communities, and cause enormous harm. Notice what King Solomon writes about gossip, as found in Proverbs 26:20:
Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.
One of the quickest ways to eliminate the source of quarrelling within any social group is to refuse to allow gossip. When someone begins to share a rumor, a wise person can stop the spread of harmful words by demanding factual information solely from first sources and accepting no other reporting of the supposed facts. Furthermore, that wise person can refuse to participate in the spreading of unsubstantiated information.
In dealing with gossip, we should trust no one. Even our closest friends can tell us something about another person that has not been vetted with first sources. If we spread that information without insisting that the veracity of the story be checked against first sources, we fall into the trap of feeding the “fire” of gossip that will sustain a conflict.
Let’s determine this day to lay aside the desire to appear “in the know” by refusing to share information that we have not verified with first sources. And, let’s make certain those “first sources” are truly those who have honest, first-hand information about a situation.
I am sad to report that one of the biggest besetting sins of pastors is the tendency to share false information in order to support their agendas, or to promote their own power within a church. While not all pastors are guilty of this sin, far too many do fall prey to its snare. So, even when the source of information appears to come from someone you would normally deem reliable, be certain that you check with genuine first sources before you make that information your own.
Based on a blog originally posted on Friday, October 27, 2017
