Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy;
    do you really want junk like that in your belly?

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The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;
    they go down to the inmost parts.(A)

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28-29 Don’t talk about your neighbors behind their backs—
    no slander or gossip, please.
Don’t say to anyone, “I’ll get back at you for what you did to me.
    I’ll make you pay for what you did!”

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28 Do not testify against your neighbor without cause(A)
    would you use your lips to mislead?
29 Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me;
    I’ll pay them back for what they did.”(B)

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3-4 Don’t allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.

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But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality,(A) or of any kind of impurity, or of greed,(B) because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk(C) or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.(D)

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