How They Differ 3 Gossip is “idle talk, not always true, about other people and their affairs.” It is “light, familiar talk or writing.” Since all of us are interested in people, we sometimes say good, upbuilding things about others. Slander is different. It is “a false report meant to do harm to the good name and reputation of another.” Such talk is generally malicious and is unchristian. 4 Harmless gossip may turn into vicious slander. Said writer Arthur Mee: “More often than not the slander that injures a man, and may bring about his ruin, begins in gossip, the gossip that comes, perhaps, from nothing worse at first than idleness. It is one of the greatest evils in the world, but it springs, as a rule, from ignorance. We find it chiefly among those who have very little to do, and have no particular object in life.” 5 Since idle talk may lead to slander, the apostle Paul spoke out against certain gossipers. After mentioning widows qualified for congregation assistance, he wrote: “Turn down younger widows, for when their sexual impulses have come between them and the Christ, . . . at the same time they also learn to be unoccupied, gadding about to the houses; yes, not only unoccupied, but also gossipers and meddlers in other people’s affairs, talking of things they ought not. Therefore I desire the younger widows to marry, to bear children, to manage a household, to give no inducement to the opposer to revile. Already, in fact, some have been turned aside to follow Satan.”—1 Timothy 5:11-15. 6 Since Paul wrote under divine inspiration, he was not making unfair remarks about those women. What he said is food for very serious thought. No godly woman wants to ‘turn aside and follow Satan.’ Yet, what if a Christian woman finds that she has a weakness for the kind of talk that could make her guilty of slander? Then she should humbly heed Paul’s counsel: “Women should . . . be serious, not slanderous.” He also said: “Let the aged women be reverent in behavior, not slanderous.” (1 Timothy 3:11; Titus 2:3) Brothers too should soberly apply that wise advice.7 At times, of course, all of us talk about other people, their experiences in the ministry, and so forth. Let us never, however, ‘sit and speak against our brother.’ (Psalm 50:19, 20) Indeed, it is wise not to talk too much because “in the abundance of words there does not fail to be transgression, but the one keeping his lips in check is acting discreetly.” (Proverbs 10:19) So we should guard against gossip, even if it does not seem harmful. We have no need to talk about people all the time, since we have a fine selection of topics if we consider righteous, chaste, lovable, virtuous, and praiseworthy things.—Philippians 4:8.