God does not consider keeping of secret to be sinful itself. There are some secrets you should keep to avoid unnecessary tension. As long as secrets are meant for the good of others, they should remain as a secret till death.
Why Should You Keep Secrets?
1. To avoid pains for others.
When you know another person's secret in your custody is like a regret to that person, and it causes pain for the person, you are expected to keep it as secret. When you know someone has a history of mental illness, it's obvious that revealing such secrets around will hurt the fellow. When someone confesses an immoral act to you, telling the secret to people will definitely give pain to the person. The sons of the old prophets who revealed the secret of the young prophet to their father led to the death of the young prophet. If they had kept quiet, it won't have caused death for the young man (1 Kings 13:1-26).
2. Not everybody can handle secret.
There are some folks that feel burdened anytime they have secrets with them, it is evident that such people will not be able to handle the secrets kept with them. People who talk too much find it extremely difficult to handle secrets. Therefore, when you notice someone you think cannot handle a secret, you ought to rather keep it to yourself.
A gossip goes around telling secrets, so don’t hang around with chatterers. Proverbs 20:19 (NLT)
3. To avoid spoiling a surprise.
Someone might tell you he wants to buy a car for a fellow; you are not expected to tell the fellow that someone wants to buy him a car; because you might not know if the person wanted to make it a surprise to the fellow or not. When someone tells you he/she wants to do or give something to anybody, if the person did not ask you to tell the people, it is not your duty to tell people around. It's always painful most times if someone spoils a surprise for you, so don't spoil a surprise for anyone.
4. To reduce rumour and create a healthy environment.
Rumours are mixture of truth and untruth passed around by word of mouth. When you have a secret about someone or something, if sharing it can cause rumours and create an unhealthy environment, it is better to keep it. An African proverb says, words from afar will either have an addition or subtraction of words, which means the secret you share will always be deformed when it is passed to others. If it is an unpleasant secret of someone, definitely the people who pass the secret around will make addition and subtraction of words that can make it more unpleasant. This will create a wrong impression in the minds of many. So, when you are in custody of a secret that can create a wrong impression about anyone, it's best to keep it as secret so as to have a healthy environment.
When arguing with your neighbor, don’t betray another person’s secret. Proverbs 25:9 (NLT)
Despite the fact that God is the custodian of all secrets, He will never reveal secret that will harm anyone. Due to secrets that have been revealed, many homes have been broken, there is lack of confidence and trust in anyone, marriages scattered, believers backsliding, it has even caused many suicidal actions. Keeping of secrets is quite easy for some and at the same time extremely difficult for others.
People who tell secrets about others cannot be trusted. Those who can be trusted keep quiet. Proverbs 11:13 (ETRV)
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you in keeping your mouth under control.
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