Eric Camp

Let me ask you a few questions:

Do you believe everything to be true that you read on social media? Do you believe everything to be true that you see on TV?

I have heard on so many occasions lately people say things such as the title of this blog. Somebody said something, I have heard this or that, and these are not positive things that are being described, they are typically negative.

Everything we hear from other people or read online should always be received with an understanding there is partial context to the storyline. Just because someone says aliens are headed to Earth doesn’t validate the claim as 100% truth. Just because someone says they had a bad experience at a restaurant, church, school, job, etc, doesn’t make it 100% valid against the entity or organization that one may be speaking about.

We don’t have conversations anymore to resolve conflicts or issues, we just gossip about it like we are innocent and have no fault in the issue in which we are gossiping about. There is always another side to any story and context is vital in order to uncover absolute truth of a situation.

I personally have started inviting the accused party into the conversation if someone is attempting to tell me something that sounds or seems uncharacteristic or detrimental to their integrity. After all, that IS what Jesus Himself said to do in the first place!

I write this because it’s alarming how many negative conversations and gossip are believed just because we heard someone say this or that about someone or something. Be Bigger than that. Especially as a Christ-follower.

When we don’t, chaos and confusion and lies seem to envelope and surround people and organizations and even churches because someone only told a half-truth.

Pray for wisdom and discernment in all things.

If in doubt, do what I do, go yourself to place or the person accused for clarity. Take the one accusing with you if you can, it’s amazing what confrontation and conversation can resolve if we will just have the courage, obedience and audacity to do it!

Matthew 18:15-20 // “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

¹⁸ “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

¹⁹ “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

James 4:11 // Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

Proverbs 16:28 NIV // A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.