If you wouldn't throw a rock at someone, then you shouldn't gossip about them.

You’re chatting with a friend, and someone else’s name comes up.  You’re not really being mean, you’re just making conversation, right?  I mean…all of the things you are saying about this other person are true, so it probably doesn’t even count as gossip.  Perhaps I can help change your mind…

Proverbs 26:20 & 22 “(20)Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth….(22)The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.”

Because we cannot see, physically, the damage done by words, we erroneously assume that words don’t do any harm…especially when the person we are speaking of is not present.  If we wouldn’t throw a rock at someone, then we shouldn’t gossip about them.  When we gossip, one thing we forget to consider is that—unlike throwing a rock at someone—gossiping about someone not only hurts the person you are talking about, but you, also.  If the person you are speaking with is hearing you gossip about someone else, are they going to be inclined to share something heavy on their heart with you?  Not if they think the way I do.  In order to be true followers of Christ, we need to be the kind of trustworthy, sympathetic friend our Savior was and is…and that kind of person doesn’t gossip.