Avoiding Tasty Trifles (10/19/2025)

“The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles,And they go down into the inmost body” (Proverbs 26:22).

A talebearer is one who “maliciously gossips or reveals secrets.” “Tasty trifles,” obviously a metaphor, is translated “wounds” in the King James Version. “Inmost body” is translated “innermost parts of the belly.”

From these definitions, we can deduce that a talebearer is not a pleasant person to be around and, in fact, is quite a troublemaker, stimulating conflict and contentions between otherwise compatible individuals.

Such a contentious person delights in not just hearing negative information (“tasty trifles”) about others but also in passing it along—he or she stores such information in the “inmost body” until an opportune time comes along to use it to degrade others.

Since love and unity are two of the significant themes for God’s people living in the New Testament Age, engaging in talebearing obviously violates God’s law. Our desire is to be a person who delights in strengthening others in their relationship with God as well as in their relationship with their fellows—not in tearing them down.