Some sage advice is our Ecclesiastes today, as it relates to gossip. 

Ecc 10:20  Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter. 

This is comparable to that idiomatic expression “the little birdie told me”.  Meaning, just because we think it is a secret, doesn’t mean it is a kept a secret.  

We should don’t trash talk leaders, because even if we think it is in private, the negative things we have said about our leader or even our boss, could somehow get back to them, and that means bad news for us!  

Since they oversee us in one capacity of another, they can make life very difficult for us.  

This is very relevant in today’s realm of social media, a hypothetical scenario is this.  You and your co-worker are having a conversation about your boss after hours on instant messenger, trashing your boss.  

3 months later, you and your co-worker have a falling out, or that co-worker maybe wants to throw you under the bus and get a promotion, and they take a screen-shot of your conversation that you thought was private, and leak it to your supverisor, or worse yet, your whole office…next thing we know, we have been demoted or worse yet, fired!  

what a nightmare that would be!  A nightmare that can be avoided, if we heed Solomon’s advice, don’t talk badly about our superiors, because as Solomon tells us, what we think is private, could later be made public.

Gossip can be very tempting to fall into, lots of people to do it, there are salacious and scandalous details involved and it can be a seemingly juicy way to pass the time, but Gossip is a sin.  As Christians, we are not to Gossip, Jesus Himself specifically warns us against gossip in Matthew 12:37,  I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.

Gossip is a sin, designed by the devil to be very gratifying when we do it, and it appeals to our fleshly appetites, we are drawn to gossip like moths are to a flame, but it can burn us, just as Solomon says…what is told as a secret, is not necessarily kept as a secret, so best to not tell any secrets at all.