We live in days when it is easy to slip into a bad use of time. We have to be very carefully, because some people are extremely busy and they are run off their feet. But at the same time there are always some people in a large community, a large congregation, who, though it may be hard to admit it, actually have quite a leisurely life. That is always a snare and potential source of weakness. When there is no careful use of time, stewardship of time, we can get into all kinds of difficulties. Life was hard for all but the rich in ancient times. The rich that had servants could have an easy life, but ordinary people had a tremendous amount to do. You grew your own food. You had to do everything without any gadgets, without any push-button machines, and so life was full of labour. But today it is a push-button society, and some people have got all the gadgets, all the things they need, everything is bought in ninety percent prepared from the supermarket shelves and actually life can give you quite a lot of spare time. Once the children are off at school and you are not having to, as in ancient times, educate them yourselves, there can be a lot of spare time, and that can be a snare. So every one of us, as the Lord's people, needs to put ourselves under a very strict regime and take account of our time.
Satan had said of those women of old, ‘I'm going to put an interest in their minds in just talking about other people, and running down other people perhaps, and finding faults with other people, and passing on various complaints that have never been verified. And if some of the complaints they make are true, I will get them just enjoying talking about them, and never wanting to actually cure them or do anything about them.’ This gossiping goes on because gossiping is one of the main causes of pride. The person who is a gossip is not only committing a great offence against the Lord, a great offence against the person about whom he or she is speaking, but it's a tremendous source of pride. If the devil can get us running down other people all the time, the effect that has upon us is to boost us. We think we are fine by comparison. We think we are terrific. ‘Have you heard about this person? Have you seen what he or she does? We pull down other people to boost ourselves, and the proudest people in any congregation are the biggest gossips. They are the ones who have made it a way of life to be always putting other people down. While you are doing that, you never put yourself under the spotlight; you never humble yourself. That is something which is to be avoided, at all costs.
‘Busy bodies.’ The Greek is an interesting term. It means people who are at work everywhere, only it is meant in a bad sense. People who are everywhere, busying themselves, but what is referred to is people who are running everybody else's lives. They have got so many irons in the fire; there are so many different families they are interfering with. They are not just helping people; they are taking people over. That is a sin, and it is condemned in the Scripture. As Christian people we must always respect and observe very carefully the sacred right of the other person to make their decisions before the Lord, to seek their own guidance, to process their affairs as individual believers. We must not run other people's lives. To give help is one thing; even to give advice may be good, but to take decisions for people and to bully them and persuade them and force them to do things in the way that you think ought to be done: that is to become a busy body.
This applies to the pastor too. Pastors have to put themselves under very careful rules. Somebody comes to talk to the pastor about some great decision in their life, some problem. They must not lord it over them and say, ‘Well, you've got to do this, and you've got to do that.’ His task is to help them with general counsel, the general principles of the Scripture; to help them to think it through. He has to honour and respect that person's sacred right to make that decision before God and to seek his guidance. The pastor must not steamroll over that person. That would make him a busy body, just as it makes one of these women folk who were being condemned here busy bodies. The pastor isn't some jumped-up person who has a right to push people around and to override them and to make their decisions for them. He has got to carefully respect them. That often means, of course, pastorally, you have the sad business of seeing somebody you've tried to help with the Scriptural principles going the other way and ignoring them, and so it has to be. When the Lord Jesus Christ confronted the rich young ruler, he didn't force him to give up all he had. When that young man walked away, the Lord didn’t run round the other side of him and say, ‘You can't do that. You've got to do it this way.’ If the Lord was obliged to see people walk away and do the wrong thing, sometimes it is the same with us. You cannot force people. Don't run other people's lives for them. All these verses here have rich instruction and help and counsel for us all.