David asked a very necessary question of God in Psalm 15—“Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?” Who may dwell with God—in this life and in the next? There are eleven virtues listed in response to that question. Consider just three of them in verse 3.
“Does not backbite with his tongue.” The word “backbite” (or “slander” in some translations) is from a Hebrew word that is most often translated as “spies” or “spy out” (1 Sam. 26:4; Josh. 7:2). At its root, the word means “to spy, explore, go about.” Think about that concept in regard to spying out something about our neighbor, in order to have a juicy piece of gossip to share with others. A person who does such finds no approval in the eyes of God, but only condemnation. Old Testament law forbade one to “go about as a talebearer among your people” (Lev. 19:16). In the New Testament, there is no approved place for one who is “wandering about from house to house,” being a “busybody in other people’s matters,” and “saying things which they ought not” (1 Tim. 5:13; 1 Pet. 4:15).
“Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend.” The Hebrew for “take up” means and is often translated, “to bear, carry; to carry along.” While some may find solace in the fact that they did not initiate a malicious rumor or go spying out a good piece of gossip to share, it is just as evil in the eyes of God to “pick up” (by listening) and then “carry along” (by harboring and sharing) personal information about another that is not yours to hear and to share. If a person begins to share something they have heard about another, our immediate reaction should be to interrupt their words, discontinue the conversation, express total disinterest in the information and walk away. The wise man tells us, “Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on” (Prov. 4:15). That is what agape love does! Rather than stirring “up strife” (which is evidence of “hatred”), “love covers all sins” (Prov. 10:12), for in being “kind,” love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:4, 7).
“Nor does evil to his neighbor.” In summary, David reminds us that my responsibility to my neighbors is to “love” them as I love myself (Matt. 22:39), to “esteem” them as “better than” myself (Phil. 2:3), to “look out…for [their] interests” and not only my “own” (Phil. 2:4), to “seek” their “well-being” and not merely my “own” (1 Cor. 10:24), to “do good” to them (Gal. 6:10) and to do them “no harm” (Rom. 13:10). We call that “The Golden Rule” (Luke 6:31). Are we living that? Are we following the example of Jesus (Phil. 2:3-8)? Have we wrestled our heart and tongue into submission so that we might dwell with our God?