Chloe the Peacemaker

In 1 Corinthians 1:11 Paul says this…

“My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you”

Someone from Chloe’s household had informed Paul of some problems in the church at Corinth.

Apparently Paul did not respond… “you’re guilty of the sin of gossip and instead of informing me of this you should have gone to the person yourself (Mt 18:15-17) and handled it”

I sit in Bible classes and the conclusions I see reached sometimes are that you can’t say anything about anyone else or you are guilty of gossip and the Lord may require your soul one day.

Let me suggest that part of defining gossip is intent. My guess is that Chloe saw a problem at Corinth and the problem was too big for her to handle so she communicated the problem to someone of sufficient spiritual stature to handle it.

Obviously Chloe loved the Lord and loved his bride... the church. She wasn’t trying to slander or demean… that wasn’t her intent. Therefore in my opinion she was not a gossip… she was part of the solution.

Certainly Paul made her part of the solution by identifying her as his source.

Let’s all be very careful about the charge of “gossip” and make sure we understand it in the first place because it may not be gossip at all and we might be hammering on someone who is doing their best to help someone else.