How Serious is Gossip?

Do you know someone who loves to spread gossip? And it seems they manage to always keep things stirred up; a basis for disunity in friends and family.

“Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no talebearer, strife ceases.”  Proverbs 26:20  NKJV

When we speak evil, it is not a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

“And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.”  James 3:6  NKJV