“And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.” (1 Timothy 5:13,14)
We decide what we will put our mind on. What goes on in other people’s homes is not our business. We can be unduly interested in what others are doing. “Wandering from house to house,” even in our minds, turns us into “tattlers” and “busybodies.”
Paul let is be known that the wives of deacons should not be “slanderers.” Their focus should be on their own husbands, children, and homes. (1 Tim. 3:11,12) Older women are exhorted to teach younger women by their example. Sometimes just a look can let someone know we don’t do something. “The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.” (Prov. 25:23)
Refusing to be a “tattler” (i.e. gossip) or a “busybody” gives a godly witness. A busybody is anyone, man or woman, who gets their eyes and mouth on something that really doesn’t concern them (i.e., is none of their business.) Both these things begin with the “lust of the eyes” where we are exercising ourselves with things too great or “wonderful” for us.
We allow ourselves to get agitated because we have a “proud look” (i.e., lifted up eyes) which God hates. We think we “see” something but we know nothing unless God Himself has given it to us, and if HE hasn’t, we have “seen vanity” and speak “idle words.” There is so much that God would have us focus on, why then should we trouble ourselves with things that are not our concern?
God deliver us from agitation that begins with our own failure to mind our own business. Beware of where your feet and mind would wander.