For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
COLIN WOO
I know of a "believer" (I do have my doubts about him) who had been borrowing monies from almost half of the church. This is quite a wealthy church with a substantial numbers of wealthy professionals and businessmen. And the amount monies lent were up to the tens of thousands. Because of the teaching of not gossiping most of those who lent him monies did not know about the others having already did the same. The monies were almost never paid back. This "brother" who was an engineer has since been declared a bankrupt and no longer with this church. Had the lenders had the liberty to talk about him, I am sure they would have been forewarned. l am always of the opinion you cannot fault others of talking (bad) about you. The onus is on ourselves to live our lives with integrity. Too many innocent people were hurt with the skewed justification of helping this irresponsible man. Would talking about this man's poor handling of his finances constitute a gossip?