I still wince when you do, my brother, my sister in Christ
Let’s admit it, my brother, my sister, we expect to wince when we hear cussing from the world, but from those who claim Christ, we should become grieved like Christ is most certainly.
You know the list of popular superlatives of anguish, those profane and vulgar expletives of unruly evil that are full of deadly poison (James 3:8-10)
The Lord hates it all, the profanity that stains our speech, the words that are rooted in anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filth. We simply need to ask if our Saviour would talk the way so many of us do? Would He be magnified and honored if one of His own would be speaking with a defiled tongue? Moreover, when the Lord hears us take His name in vain by saying “O my G--!” we can be sure of what His thoughts are:
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exodus 20:7)
We are guilty as charged for the words we use, the words we say. It is vain to claim Christ without bridling our tongues as we deceive our own hearts when we do (James 1:26).
I hear the profane everywhere. It’s enough to have to stand in line at the supermarket register and then suddenly become caught up in a pestilence of cursing. I even hear elderly people talk like this. I even catch it in print as well on the Twittersphere: scholarly works pepper their essays with it, academics, CEOs, mothers and fathers, all classes of people have normalized expressions of vulgarity. I hear panel speakers at conferences utter these words and the audience chuckles, or worse, shrug it off. It should be no surprise that literary journals, magazines, and websites have adopted obscene and profane words as part of their brand’s namesake.
An editor at a high-brow magazine recently said about having to read work that is littered in obscenities, “There should be a detox facility for proofreaders who have undergone this kind of extreme experience…I used to be a prude, but now I am a ruined woman.”
Sadly, those who don’t join the trash talk are perceived as prudes, because, after all, everyone is talking like a sailor. By now, it’s become socially acceptable.
There was a time when sailor speech, as it is commonly called, was what divided a class of people from another, and now, in the 21st century, from millennials to baby boomers, saved or unsaved, it is the speech du jour, it is the common vernacular of the common man. Gone are the days when people brave enough can utter, ‘Hush, children are present,’ or ‘Hush, women are present.’
Why is the word that rhymes with witch or the word that rhymes with muck socially acceptable?
I personally find it distasteful to curse at all. I think the art of language loses its luster when it’s peppered in profanity. It is almost impossible to take people seriously or professionally when they need to resort to cursing. I’m always shocked by how many professionals speak this way and how it’s trending despite how uncomfortable it is to hear. And yes, not everyone has normalized it. God sure hasn’t, and neither should we.
It seems like the vice of filthy speech has joined the camps of those other behaviors that people refer to when they say: well everybody is doing it, no one cares anymore, it’s no big deal. For the Christian, however, it should be a big deal only because it is a big deal to God. The Bible says:
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. (Ephesians 4:29)
Corrupt communication grieves the Holy Spirit. Paul the Apostle warned against bad language as it is used in anger and in quarrels. Harsh words don’t promote forgiveness, but rather stifle it. When bad words which are rooted in anguish are expressed, the Holy Spirit is grieved.
More grieving still is when profane, obscene, corrupt communication is heard from people who call themselves Christian.
Is it necessary, if one is to be taken seriously, to litter speech with street talk? Have people ever wondered why it is even called street talk?
So the next question is why do most of the population communicate corruption? It may seem like the decline of the culture is to blame. We tend to forget there is a pathology that runs deep in history and the culture and when vulgarity ubiquitously is considered casual conversation, our communities have indeed lost their way. I remember hearing stories of parents literally washing their children’s mouths with soap if they were ever caught speaking filth. Now such demonstrations of parental discipline and correction are considered child abuse; but I’ll leave that for others to explain.
Words carry meaning. The word of God epitomizes how much this is true since people are offended by the Bible because it’s words are heavily meaningful. We know cuss words are always derogatory, no matter who says them, no matter to whom they are said and in what environment. It is foolish to dismiss any word as insignificant. The Bible has something to say about that in fact:
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36)
Idle words are not to be taken lightly. Let’s use our words to praise and to be bold to speak truth. Let’s use our speech with grace, seasoned with salt, “that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” (Colossians 4:6) Filth-filled language vexes the hearer, just as second-hand smoke benefits no one. But then again, to those who disregard their neighbor, I as well as many others are just people in line with presumably nothing or no one to protect, despite being created in God’s image. Although we are far from holiness, we can strive to be better for his namesake.
This post was originally published here.