Hey, need to get up to speed on this one?
Click here for part 1.
Ok, so now you know that some people live their lives according to an internal ‘list’ of do’s and don’ts and some people live by a completely different way. I call it, living according to the great commandment. Here it is incase you don’t already know:
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’c]’>[c] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36–40
What do you suppose that last part means?
“All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
It means, quite simply, that this commandment is all the list you need. If we really lived by this commandment all the other do’s and don’t would be no sweat. Peice of cake.
Seriously. If you really loved the Lord with everything you got, how hard would it be for you to resist the urge to murder? How hard would it be to walk away from adultery?
What about stealing?
coveting?
enverying?
hating?
fighting?
gossiping?
Oops, actually, that last one might still be a problem for some folks. You see, as a pastor of 9 years, I have witnessed more damage done by this one sin and the hold it can have on people than many of the most horryfying sins comboned!
And what makes it worse, people don;t seem to think it’s that bad! We actually glorify gossip with shows like the gossip channel and gossip girl. We sell millions of magazines when the front cover has juicey gossip on it. And we…
use prayer to gossip
gossip at small groups
gossip over starbucks coffee
gossip on the phone
gossip through email
text our gossip
send inbox gossip through Facebook
and on and on we go. But who cares? It’s only harmeless gossip.
So we trivialize it.
Then we become addicted to it.
Soon it has a hold so strong I question whether some people could even stop without some sort of spiritual intervention. It’s gone that far! They are a…
Gossip-aholic.
Never fear. There is a 12 step recovery program taylor made by God.
We’ll talk about it Monday.
Try not to gossip about it till then!