Jerry Bridges on Gossip

When he explained to inquiring people that he was writing a book on Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges was repeatedly told then that he must be writing about gossip. “Apparently, this is the first of the Christian sins that come to mind, so it must be prevalent among us and is something we continue to tolerate in our lives.”¹ Just pointing out how acceptable gossip is to contemporary Christians is Bridges’ chief contribution, but he also includes a good application of both Matthew 12:34 and Ephesians 4:29 to the subject.

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¹Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2007), 159.

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Note: We are in the middle of a long blog series working through my doctoral research into the problem of gossip. We have listened to many voices along the way--proponents of gossip, those who have exacerbated or exploited the problem, those who are ambiguous or ambivalent, and now opponents of gossip both secular and religious.

Three weeks ago, we surveyed the contributions of business leaders, social workers, educators, and Jewish moral teaching against gossip.

This week, we are continuing to interact with Christian teachers throughout church history.