Gossip is saying something behind someone else’s back that you wouldn’t say to their face, but flattery is saying something to their face that you would never say behind their back. Flattery typically comes with an agenda — whether to people-please, get a certain response or result, or appear a certain way to someone else. Empty words not only bring down one person and relationship, but they “work ruin” and cultivate a shallow community.
In contrast, truthfulness is in God’s character. Not only truth about who we are, our value, and His purpose for us, but also in our shortcomings and sin areas where we need correction. Gossip, slander, and flattery not only hurt relationships but also create a barrier to the necessary role of confrontation in community. Maybe the next step in this area is actually sharing an uncomfortable truth with someone in your life?
The honest truth is that we all have a growth area somewhere within the commandment to “not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16) As we wrap up the week, I wonder what God may be highlighting in your life. Are your words serving to build trust with others rather than tearing them down?
When we live out God’s commands, we are not only strengthened individually, but we also protect and build each other up and our community! May this be true of this family of imperfect people at Cypress Creek Church.
If our words point to our hearts, it only feels fitting to double down on practicing forgiveness. Thankfully, God’s kind of forgiveness doesn’t weigh whether it’s deserved, or if it’s been earned, or whether the same hurt will happen again. Instead, He lavishes us with forgiveness because of what Christ has already done for us. Maintaining a distant, hard heart toward someone sets us up for failure in this area. From experience, that heart posture is always scanning for opportunities to overshare, build a team, or taint someone else’s reputation.
Being tender-hearted toward someone requires that we choose to remove the scales around our hearts through forgiveness — even when we have been the ones gossiped about. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean the circumstances have changed or that they will change, or that what broke the trust in the first place is now acceptable. It means we can trust God with it, not hold onto our pain, and not try to enact justice on our own. Refusing to forgive blinds and restrains us in all areas of our lives. Instead, choosing to forgive sets us free and builds our trust with God. As we do so, we also get a reset in how we view our relationships.
On the other hand, instead of accusations, division, and tainted reputations, we can build up, encourage, and give dignity to others. Are there truthful words that you could share this week that would strengthen a relationship and/or give dignity to someone? Not only can God help us hold back our words, but He can give us words for others that would not only encourage someone individually, but also build up the church and our community. How could God want to use you this week?
When I served as a CASA Volunteer (“Court Appointed Special Advocate”) on a foster care case, I ended up needing to testify in a couple of court hearings. Writing reports and testifying in court taught me how natural it can be to interject feeling or bias into what are supposed to be simple descriptions or observations. Isn’t that true in how we share about others? Maybe giving “false testimony” sounds way out there for anything you (or I) would ever do. But what about exaggerating to prove a point? Leaving out certain details that would make someone seem less wrong? Or painting ourselves in a better light? Attempting to manipulate or change someone’s view of another person or damage their reputation?
It can happen through “small” decisions about our words, but it’s always rippling out beyond just ourselves; this commandment doesn’t exist in private. False testimony always brings division, always breaks people apart, always breeds doubt and confusion, and always wears on the strength of a community. This is exactly what the enemy wants for the church — a fragmented, distracted people, caught up too much in anger towards each other to be God’s vehicle for redemption in our world.
God, we repent before You today and admit all the ways we’ve gone wrong and become distracted by things that don’t have eternal consequences. Help us see others the way that You do. We lay down our own agendas for Yours and trust Your ways more than our own. We pray in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
I love what Pastor Chris shared in the message on Sunday morning: “Gossip is hearing something you like about someone you don’t like.” There’s something so exposing about that statement. It makes me wonder: What comments about others am I tempted to hear more about? What stories feel satisfying to hear or repeat? Gossip can feel like taking a piece of justice into our own hands, reinforcing a case we have built against someone else. It becomes even more damaging when the information being shared was entrusted to us directly and in confidence.
In contrast, I think of our Prayer Ministry Team who takes this seriously. To protect trust and confidentiality in Community Groups as well, prayer requests are often shared only with those who were present at the group meeting when they were discussed. This kind of protective caution against oversharing and/or gossip is a great model for all of us. What if, instead of asking, “How much can I share before it becomes gossip?“ we asked, “How far can I go to protect trust in my relationships?”
One practice that God has used to filter and shape my heart in this area is being quick to pray for the person or situation that keeps circling in my mind. It’s much harder to reduce someone to a story when you’re bringing them before God. As we pray, we’re reminded of their value and invited to see them through God’s eyes.
Is there someone that keeps coming to mind — someone you’re tempted to talk about, criticize, or hold resentment toward? What would it look like to genuinely pray for them today and ask God to bless them? That kind of response ends up not only freeing us from the resentment and desire to gossip, but it protects the people and community around us as well!
Out of all the things that I think of in the mornings, I have to say I don’t usually wonder what my words should be like. And yet God gave us an incredible opportunity and responsibility to steward our words with intention and in obedience to Him.
When is the last time you spoke carelessly? Said something in frustration, twisted a comment in your favor, or overshared about someone else? Even writing it out is convicting. Jesus reminds us in Luke 6:45 that our words aren’t just random mistakes. They reveal something deeper. What comes out of our mouths often exposes what is happening in our hearts.
If we were to take a review of the words we’ve used from the last week, what kind of themes would you notice? Are there certain topics, people, complaints that you recognize repeatedly? As soon as I think about that question, part of me wants to stop talking altogether for the rest of the week (which may be the introvert in me talking).
But God doesn’t reveal these things to shame us. He reveals them because He loves us and He is the source of all truth. He invites us to bring our hearts honestly before Him—the frustrations, fears, assumptions, and narratives we carry around every day. He is the safest place to confess what is beneath our words. As we surrender those things to Him, God does more than help us speak differently. He begins to change us from the inside out. He renews our minds, reshapes our hearts, and teaches us to speak words that bring life, truth, encouragement, and grace to the people around us.
So, let’s start off the week with honesty before God. Father, we confess that we all have areas where we need You to filter our hearts so that we can look and sound more like You. We can’t make significant change on our own, we need You as the filter of our hearts and the renewer of our minds. Let us receive Your words about us and empower us with Your Holy Spirit to remind us in real time as we stray. Give us opportunities to be a source of life for those around us and put into practice what your Word teaches us. In Jesus’ Name we pray, amen.
These verses in Ephesians call for those who have been stealing to stop the sin, and move forward in work that will honor God and bless others. I may not be stealing money from another person, but I certainly don’t have a perfect track record of using my time, talent, and treasure as I should. So what is the Lord’s antidote for a heart that might be tempted to “steal”? Seeking first His Kingdom and doing useful work to share with those in need.
When I seek my own “kingdom” instead of God’s, I frequently look to money to provide me what I want or to solve a problem. But Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” He goes on with the encouragement in verse 25 that “therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” He knows we have physical needs, and He cares about those, but He reminds us that the time, talent, and treasure entrusted to us by God are for His kingdom, not our own.
An overflow of placing God first in our lives is that we will work for and give to those in need in obedience to the Lord. This furthers the Gospel. Those “in need” are certainly the materially poor among us, but also those poor in spirit who need the abundance only found in Christ. We may not be able to go on a mission trip or participate in every ministry opportunity, but we can be part of this Kingdom work through our generosity to the local church and to local and global missions.
Prayer: Lord, show me the ways I steal from you or others to build my kingdom. Turn my heart back to you and guide me to work and generosity opportunities that will serve those in need of material or spiritual blessings. Amen.
How do we “give generously” and “without a grudging heart?” We can look to God and His Son as our examples. The message of the gospel is one of God’s giving His Son to the world so that we might be saved. And in turn, it’s Jesus giving Himself, in obedience to the Father, on our behalf to purchase eternal life for believers.
“Our giving is a reflexive response to God’s grace in our lives. It doesn’t come out of our altruism or philanthropy for which we might congratulate ourselves. Rather, it comes out of Christ’s transforming work in us. We give because He first gave to us. While our giving to Him pales in comparison to His giving to us, it pleases God when we follow His example.” (Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle)
In 2 Corinthians 9:7, we read that “God loves a cheerful giver.” There are myriad reasons why it might be hard to give cheerfully, and those are not always easy to put aside. However, my prayer is that you would feel prompted to try out giving in some capacity and see what the Lord has in store for you. I’d put my money on the fact that the Lord will produce a new experience of joy that wasn’t there before.
Let the Macedonian churches of 2 Corinthians 8:2-5 be our inspiration: “In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.”
As we’ve been exploring in previous days, these verses in Deuteronomy 15 again teach us that the Ten Commandments are instructions for wisdom that will bring life to ourselves and others. We are commanded in Exodus not to steal, and on the flip side, we receive many instructions throughout the rest of Scripture to live generously, as God Himself is generous to us.
Deuteronomy 15:4 tells us there need be no poor people in Israel. This is not because everyone had equal wealth. Rather, there was unequal wealth in Israel, just as in the church today, but God had given His people enough collective resources to meet each other’s needs. God used His people to provide so none should feel the need to steal. The same is true in the New Testament and the church body today (Acts 2:42-45, 1 John 3:16-18).
Giving not only blesses the recipient, but the act is an opportunity to free strongholds in the giver’s heart. An unclenching of control and fear that the Lord’s provision won’t be enough.
Each time I commit to a new act of generosity, I am forced to ask myself questions such as “do I really believe you own it all, God?” and “do I really believe my daily provision comes from you, Lord, and not my own strength?” Essentially, am I fully obeying the Lord and being careful to follow His commandments as Deuteronomy 15:5 states? This proves time and time again to be a direct window into what I’m believing or failing to believe about God and His character at any given time. It’s not about how much I’m giving, but my heart posture when doing so.
When I do step into an opportunity for giving that the Spirit has prompted within me, I experience the truth that generosity brings joy and rich blessing (verse 4). I feel an opening of my metaphorical hands. A release of control and fear that I need to rely on myself for provision. I can rest in the knowledge that God will give me what I need for my good and His glory.
As the Israelites were coming out of slavery in Egypt and into the wilderness, they needed to be united in community more than ever before. In addition to providing manna and quail, the Lord gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments as a roadmap of wisdom that would be life-giving for the individual and the whole.
Stealing weakens a neighbor’s well-being, which is why Exodus states that repayment must be in excess of what was taken. The Lord calls for restoration of the neighbor’s ability to live and provide for themselves – something that is good for the individual and the community as a whole.
Stealing breaks trust and fractures relationships. But cultivating trust allows us to build genuine, thriving relationships that will honor the Lord and strengthen us, His people. Christian community and healthy relationships with other believers are foundational to belonging to Christ and His church, growing in our depth of knowledge and love for Him, and reaching others for His kingdom.
“God owns it all.” This is a tenet of generosity and stewardship that I have meditated on frequently since I joined the church staff a couple of years ago in my role as Generosity Consultant. It seems simple and straightforward, but the more I dig into the concept, the more lessons I see that the Lord has for me and all those who live this tenet as faithfully as we can.
When I believe that God owns it all, I can see that the commandment not to steal in Exodus is a reminder that possessions are gifts from the Lord. In that context, stealing is taking a neighbor’s gift. God entrusts, not gives, us assets to steward. I am not to take what the Lord has entrusted to my neighbor, but rather I am to manage my own resources (time, talent, and treasure) faithfully.
Consider the following verses:
Psalm 24: 1 – “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;”
Deuteronomy 8:18 – “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth;”
Stealing also signals a lack of contentment with the possessions God has given me. It is an active way to use my own will to add to my worldly wealth, apart from God’s gifts to me. Stealing is an assumption of ownership for myself, and I know there is no life found in putting myself in a role that is rightfully and perfectly the Lord’s.
