05.03.09 The 7th Sign of a Negative-Gossip Conversation
7. Malicious Comments
Conversations where gossipers make malicious comments about a person or entity indicate ‘negative gossip’.
In 3 John 10, the bible presents a story of a how John, the Apostle, complained about a man named Diotrephes; who was deeply involved in malicious gossip. That scripture reads (EXB): 10So if I come, I will ·talk about [call to mind; bring attention to] what Diotrephes [nothing further is known about this man] is doing, about how he ·lies and says evil things about us [slanders us with evil/malicious words]. But ·more than [not satisfied with] that, he refuses to ·accept [welcome; receive] the other brothers and sisters; he even ·stops [prevents] those who do want to ·accept [welcome; receive] them and ·puts them out of [expels them from] the church.
At JuaLink, we see an example of malicious gossip in the responses of Lulu’s prayer partners at JuaLink where, after learning about Faraja’s gynaecological problems at the fellowship, they declared that Faraja should repent if she really wanted to conceive; short of which her prayers would continue to bounce back unanswered. No wonder The Message Translation of Jeremiah 9:3-6 describes such piercing remarks as ‘arrows’.
Malicious comments are common amongst negative gossipers. Hence, when discussing a person’s issues; check if people are hiding under the umbrella of ‘religion’ or any other cover and using ‘verbal mob justice’ to condemn victims rather than being compassionate. Should that be the case, that talk will have crossed from an empathetic discussion to malicious gossip.