DO NOT BE A RUMORMONGER!

Dearly Beloved, DO NOT BE A RUMORMONGER! “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (Ephesians 4:25 NIV). Nigerians are about going to the polls to elect new set of political leaders to lead the country both at national and state levels for the next four years. Undoubtedly, access to social media has made dissemination of information easier these days. However, this has made many people out of falsehood, deceit, pretense, inferiority complex, identity theft, plagiarism, and the likes to mislead others by what they disseminate through social media. This trend has led to ascribing information to renowned religious or political leaders to give credence to such information. Recently, a leading famous religious leader had to release an official statement to refute a message credited to him. Unfortunately, this opportunity of easy access to social media in disseminating information has made other people to disseminate further the misleading, untrue, semi-true or even sensitive information to other people without verifying the authenticity of the source of the information. Some people are even ready to argue blindly in support of such baseless information. In Ephesians 4:25, Apostle Paul admonished, “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (NIV). Apostle John added: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1 NIV). Although the admonition here was about false spirits, however, it is applicable also to false information. Furthermore, God warned the people of Israel in Exodus 23:2: “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong” (NIV). Therefore, why would you be involved in disseminating misleading, untrue, semi-true or sensitive information to other people? Why would you not first verify any information before forwarding it to others? While it is good to be informed and let other people benefit from the information you have, be mindful the information you will disseminate to other people. It is better to be sure of the source of any information and its veracity before passing such information to others. Do not be a rumormonger! In His service, Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor). Prayer Point: Pray that you will not join others to spread rumor, but that you will always verify any information before spreading it.