Good morning and welcome in everyone. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
A tattler is someone who tattles and notifies authorities of illicit behavior. They have been commonly known as a tattletale.
A tattler is a person who provides information to an authority about another’s wrongdoing.
Synonyms for tattler are a betrayer, an informant, a narc, a snitch or a whistleblower.
A tattletale is someone who tells secrets about what someone else has done. Listen to the women spoken of in the following verse today.
1 Tim 5:13 And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.”
This is about adult women who are tattling on others. What they are doing is acting like a child who tattles on someone else in school.
Today we are specifically talking about a woman who reports things to the authorities. That is the definition of a tattler and it is a sin in the scriptures.
Someone who is a tattler is given to idle talk and doesn’t have anything else to do but to tell tales and reveal secrets about other people. They maliciously gossip and reveal secrets so as to hurt somebody else and their reputation, or embarrass them.
Leviticus 19:16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.
Proverbs 11:13 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.
When you do something with a malicious intent you understand it’s going to hurt the other person because you are filled with hate and spite towards them. If you didn’t have those feelings you would have kept the private matter secret, but instead you revealed it to others who were unaware of it.
A secret is something that is kept or is meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others.
A tattler is a foolish talker.
Eph 5:4. “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.”
Tattling on someone to an authority is foolish talk and it’s a sin against God and others.
God has a purpose for each of us. When somebody is Idle they are not walking according to that purpose.
The Lord Jesus told a parable of being idle and sitting around and doing nothing.
Matt 20:6 And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?”
The women in our study verse today we’re traveling from house to house and learning to be idle. The one thing that wasn’t idle was their tongues as they gossip about the secrets and private family matters of others.
When someone is idle and lazy it results in sin.
Gal 4:18 But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
The women in this scripture are too busy about tattling to authorities and others, that they don’t have anything better to do.
When you tattle on other people it makes you feel bigger than them like you’re a better person. Remember that Judas tattled on Jesus and told the authorities the secret location where he could be found.
One of Noah’s sons tattled on him to his family while the rest of his son’s covered up his sin and kept it a secret.
Being a tattletale is a sin.
As I said for many years imagine if you went out to John the Baptist at the Jordan River and confessed all your sins unto him that you have done wrong in your life, then he turned around and went into Jerusalem and told everybody what you had done. John would have never done that, yet that’s exactly what a woman does as a tattler in our scripture today.
Love covers a multitude of sins if you truly care about other people. What do you think a preacher does? He is giving people the grace of God and forgiving them of their sins and covering it up through our precious Lord Jesus Christ.
Women who are tattlers are more concerned about other people’s problems than taking a look in the mirror at the innumerable problems that they have. Really when you point the finger at somebody else and say they’re so terrible, you don’t have to look at your own life and how terrible of a person you are. Isn’t that just the way of the world to say you’re a sinner and you’re so terrible, but not me!
That’s what the proud pharisee did.
There are numerous gossip columns out in the world today whose purpose is to dig up dirt on somebody else. Their only desire is to expose the secret private matters of people who are popular out in society.
If the tables were turned around how would they want to be treated in the same situation? I guarantee you they wouldn’t like it.
Matt 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
I’ve always told my family that you have to look at another person as if it was you. Just like you were standing in front of a mirror. How would you treat yourself in the same situation? That is the law and the prophets. It’s the simplicity of the gospel because if you can do that you’re fulfilling what the Bible teaches.
Without love there is no forgiveness. Without love there is no mercy. Love covers a multitude of sins.
Women are supposed to be discreet which means being able to keep a secret. Some of them actually believe that they’re letting their light shine by exposing secrets. They are in error. What they are is a gossip and at tattler, and they are sinning against Christ.
Many times I think that a Tattler enjoys exposing secret things to other people because they have so many secrets inside their own hearts that they’re afraid to look at them.
Instead of admitting their own sins, what they do is they exalt themselves over other people and tattle on them. I’m just guessing but I really think it comes down to an insecurity issue. If they come to grips and admit their own sins then all their tattling was in vain because they’re just the same as everybody else.
That’s what the scriptures teach about being puffed up. When you’re puffed-up you’re filled with pride and think that you are better than everybody else
1 Cor 13:4 “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,”
1 Cor 4:6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.” When you are puffed up you disapprove of others because you are very proud of yourself and think that you are more important then others.
Being puffed up is a very self oriented thing. The ministers and the preachers in the church would rebuke and correct others not because they are puffed up but because they cared about people going to heaven and their salvation. That is a completely different issue than what we’re talking about here today.
The people we are speaking about are self important. In their own minds they gossip and tattle on other people because they feel that they are better than them, while the truth is they are a sinful wretch just like everybody else.
Tattlers are more concerned about examining the life of others and reporting it. Christianity is about examining your own life and your own heart.
2 Cor 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
A tattler is lifting themselves over another person. They are putting themselves in a better light by trying to show other people that they are righteous and everybody else is a wicked sinner.
Matt 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”
The tattler who thinks that they are so much better than others will be brought down low. Just look at the story of a religious leader who tattled in the presence of God.
Luke 18:9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
A tattler elevates themselves over other people. It’s not done to help others or to keep private things private. The reason why they do it is to elevate themselves in the eyes of the authorities and the public.
In the church we’re supposed to keep things private. That is for the betterment of the church. God has no more remembrance of our sins when we confess them to him sincerely. The church is held together by God’s grace and forgiveness.
Many times people who reject the Christian faith and leave the church will tattle on everybodys elses sins. The reason why they do this is they don’t understand God’s forgiveness, and they themselves are not forgiven by God.
When you involve earthly authorities outside the church or you start to gossip about other people that is sin. Especially when you go out and tell a bunch of unbelievers about what’s going on in a church somewhere.
When people in the church partake of Holy Communion and then like Judas go out there and tell the authorities in this world about what’s going on in the church you sin against Christ.
There’s a difference between temporal authorities and spiritual authorities. Temporal authorities are concerned about the things of this world. Spiritual authorities which are the apostles and ministers and Prophets of God are concerned about eternal life and your passage to that Eternal home in the heavens. The women we are talking about today have basically turned away from what they know and believe from the teachings of scriptures. If they have damnation who cares who they take with them?
1 Tim 5:12 “Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith.”
Remember if it’s really charity it will cover up sin. Each of us make mistakes along the way, maybe some more than others. When we confess our sins they are kept private and secret and then covered up. That’s what Jesus does for us. He doesn’t expose our sin he blots them out by his blood.
The Apostle Paul wanted the church to stay together and that there would be no divisions among them.
Before we go today I want to make sure you understand that the Bible warns about fault finders.
A Tattler digs up dirt and tells other people about it, primarily an authority figure
A fault finder is a person who finds fault or complains, or objects, in a petty way.
Petty is making things, events, or actions normal people would dismiss as trivial or insignificant into excuses to be upset, uncooperative, childish, or stubborn.
Its a person who overreacts or is purposefully childish and has an immature over reaction in retaliation of an undesired outcome.
Have you ever had a child at home where you told them that they need to finish their homework before they go out and play and they stomp their feet and slam doors of their bedroom that’s called being petty. There are women who do the same thing in society today and they’re grown adults. All of this it exposes immaturity.
Remember Jesus was surrounded by fault finders who were very very petty. Even Pilot understood that Jesus was delivered to be crucified out of envy. Pilot understood that Jesus hadn’t done anything worthy of death. They tried to find fault with him for healing on the Sabbath day. They tried to find fault with him for extending God’s forgiveness to sinners. They were so petty that when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead they wanted Lazarus to be put to death again. Fault Finders are sinning against God.
In Matt 7 Jesus warns….
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
A fault finder is a perfect example of a hypocrite.
The reason why I say that is because they think that they are better than everybody else while the truth is they are a sinner who is worthy of death just like everybody else.
In the church were supposed to help people to overcome their faults not to lift yourself over them with pride and think that you’re better than them. So again why would somebody tattle to an authority about someone else? To be bigger than them.
A fault is defined as an unattractive or unsatisfactory feature, especially in a piece of work or in a person’s character.
A fault is the quality of being inadequate or falling short of perfection. Well, get used to it. Everybody has got their own faults and imperfections. A tattler is not in control of their tongue
James 3
3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
The tongue can be used to preach the gospel and lead people to obedience to the Christian faith. Or it can be used to destroy the lives of others around you.
Our faults are covered up through the forgiveness of each other and most of all by the Lord Jesus Christ. The fault-finder digs up faults and exposes it to an others.
Just so you know how serious a sin this was considered centuries ago,. medieval women were punished for such behavior. You can read for yourself sometime about the scold’s bridle that was used as such a punishment for women who did these kinds of things. Just Google it.
Obviously people don’t do this today. Jesus teaches us to love our enemies but you can understand how people back then hated this sin.
When the sin is committed against us today we suffer it. Remember the Lord Jesus will repay, He will avenge those to whom this evil has been perpetrated upon.
Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Like any other sin keep away from tattling because it will not only wreck your life but the people that you are talking evil about.
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching tlkjbc, or by going to hipcast, buzzsprout or amazon, or by going to our blog at tlkjbc.com, or I suppose, you can find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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