So, Do You Gossip?

Gossip 
-noun
Idle talk or rumor, esp. about the personal or private affairs of others: the endless gossip about Hollywood stars.
-verb
To talk idly, esp. about the affairs of others; go about tattling

Is it Gossip if I tell my roommate a story about our mutual friend?

A story about an unknown or irrelevant friend?

'News' about a celebrity?

What if the story is about something embarrassing my friend did, and we laugh about it?

Perhaps the story is about sinful decisions a girl made, and we pridefully criticize and condemn her?

Consider the story is about my friend hurting me, and my roommate is now 'on my side'?

Or if the story is about someone's conflict, and she counsels me in how to handle it?

What if it's just a fun story, and you can't wait to tell her?

When does talk become Gossip and Gossip become talk?

Our words hold great power and weight.  They have the ability to build-up as well as the strength to tear-down.  In Paul's letter to the Ephesians he commands, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."  We must choose our words wisely to prevent destructive and deadening talk from coming out of our mouths.  Among other things, this includes slander and gossip.  Furthermore, we are commanded to talk only in a manner that encourages, edifies, and blesses those who hear.  Our words have weight because they effect those who hear them - and we will be held accountable for the effects of our words on others.

Perhaps I need to be much more cautious when I talk about the lives and affairs of others.  However, a conviction is never meant to be shallow, for our sin is never shallow but deep within our hearts.  Therefore, I must confess that I gossip not because I cannot contain my mouth, but because my heart is sinful and utterly depraved.  "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34).  It is not my mouth I must repent of, but the sin in my heart that leads to gossip.

On the topic of 'Gossip' John Piper writes:

The New Testament warns against gossiping. The Greek word translated “gossip” means whisper or whisperer. In other words, the focus is not on the falsehood of the word but on the fact that it needs to be surreptitious. It is not open and candid and forthright. It has darkness about it. It does not operate in the light of love. It is not aiming at healing. It strokes the ego’s desire to be seen as right without playing by the rules of love.  "For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find...that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder" (2 Corinthians 12:20). 

It is the darkness in our hearts that leads to the outpouring of Gossip from our mouths.  This is a deep rooted issue with immediate and far reaching effects.

Is this a sin that we don't take seriously enough?