A Whisperer Separates the Best of Friends (Proverbs 16:28)

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home › resources › literature › A Whisperer Separates the Best of Friends (Proverbs 16:28)

Keraza Magazine issue 29-30, July 27, 2017

Whispering is a chronic psycho-spiritual ailment that almost no one can escape. If whispering seems to be mere negative talks about others at their backs, yet it is in its essence a sign of cruelty of heart and severe shortage of love. Unfortunately, social media contributed a lot in the spread of this sin. It convinced people that it is something acceptable to chat publicly about others, and not only chatting but also spreading rumors about them, hurting, and humiliating them. This sin has destructive consequences on the whisperer, the one who listen to him, and the one who is the subject of whispering. Therefore, St. Paul listed whispering among sins like fornication and uncleanness, "For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults; lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced" (2 Corinthians 12:20-21). He also considered it to be one of the signs of the debased mind that that deserves death, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them" (Romans 1:28-32).

Whisperer may have various motives. He may use it to get closer to his listeners and to gain their attention. Many can use whispering it to get entertained, pass time, and overcome feelings of emptiness and boredom. It may also be a way for someone to make his listeners support his negative opinion about someone else, or it may be one of the ways of passive aggression toward the person who is its subject.

The harmful effects of whispering are plenty. It may lead to division, partiality, and spread of a spirit of hatred and jealousy. The gossip of Joseph about his brothers made them hate him, "And Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father… But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him" (Genesis 37: 2,4). It also leads people to lose trust in the whisperer. While they deal with him, they are scared to be the subject of his whispering, hence they cannot entrust him their secrets. Whispering also hardens the heart of the whisperer as long as it goes against the laws of love which "does not behave rudely" (1 Corinthians 13:5). The bad reputation coming from whispering runs after the people who are the subject of whispering hindering their repentance. Let us stop this bad sin that robbed many of the heavenly kingdom, supplicating the Holy Spirit to free us from its evil bonds.

Bishop Youssef
Bishop, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States