Spooky Speech

 “Profanity is wrong not simply because it shocks or disgusts, but at a much deeper level, profanity is wrong because it trashes that which God has declared to be holy and good and beautiful”  Ray Pritchard'

What are some of the worst smells? What smell, if you’re standing near someone and smell this odor coming from them, you move downwind? 

  Like a hammer and nails to a carpenter, books are the tools of pastors. Yet, books like quality tools can be very expensive. My mentor, Pastor   Dave Cummins, took me to my first used book sale when I was a freshman in college. He taught me to scour used bookstores and thrift stores for quality yet inexpensive books. Fortunately, Jane is very gracious because I’ve probably dragged her into more used bookstores than most of you could ever imagine. Because it became a fun hobby of looking for great finds, our family sold used books to fund our children’s college education.

  Amazon altered the used bookstore world and there are few left. In the past, besides books you’d often find that many used bookstores had a resident cat, and some bookstore owners weren’t meticulous about hygiene.

  Unbeknownst to a cat owner, cat urine stench will seep into their clothes. I’ve moved downwind a few times. My worst experience was being trapped on an elevator with a bookstore owner who reeked of it. It seemed like one of the longest elevator rides of my life and it was only one floor.

  The Bible teaches that Christ-followers are to be distinctly different. John Stott says we’re to be a Christian Counter-Culture. That means a Christ-follower should be the best employee or employer, neighbor, or citizen.

  Being a Christian should also radically change the way that we talk. While an unregenerate culture can gossip, complain, insult, etc. – Christ-followers are to be different. It’s noteworthy that in a culture that purports to value education, most people today would have difficulty having a conversation without coloring the air blue with four-letter words.

  As Christ-followers, our language is to be different. While most know that the third commandment of the Decalogue prohibits taking the Lord’s name in vain, we often fail to see how other “bad words” hurt our testimony. They’re so commonly used in our world that we hardly give it a thought.

  In a column in World magazine, Janie B. Cheaney, compares such talk to B.O. She writes: “Bad language divides into two general categories: profanity (misuses of divine things and divine names) and vulgarity (impolite words for anatomy and bodily functions).” Yet even a lost world knows better. Earlier this year in an interview with Vanity Fair, Selena Gomez shared that when she worked for Disney, they “explicitly told” her to not say the phrase “What the hell?” Even a pagan company realizes that commonly used profane/crude phrases hurt their image and corporate bottom line.

  Such words quickly become a habit. We don’t even notice how much of such communication has crept into our words or even social media posts.

  Did you know that one of the most-read series of the last few years, The Hunger Games trilogy, doesn’t have a single swearword in all of its pages, even though God is totally irrelevant to the story which ends without hope?  

  Possibly, some of you may be thinking that I’m drawing attention to this is because I’m a pastor and I automatically talk “heavenly,” so this is a non-issue for me. Believe it or not, I wasn’t raised on an Amish Compound. In high school, before the Lord got ahold of my heart, I ran with a rough crowd. Then, two of my early jobs were in commercial roofing and in water well drilling for the oil field. The language in both places was crude. And I’d be a liar if I said that at moments of frustration or anger (pastors get angry, too), that those words don’t cross my mind.

  The Bible teaches that as a born-again Christian, my tongue and words are not my own (1 Corinthians 6:20). Jesus bought us off the slave market of sin when He died for us. That means believers can’t just talk as they please. As Christ-followers, we are to be distinctly different in nearly every way. To quote Scripture, “we are not our own.” That means that it’s a sin if we talk like an unbeliever, whether it’s gossip or gutter language.

  While our sin debt is paid and we are now free, as Christians, we must be careful that our liberty doesn’t erode into license. Ephesians 4:29 prescribes how we are to talk: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” It’s hard to see how crude language builds up others or gives grace. More often it’s used by a Christ-follower to somehow look “cool” to a lost world or rationalized as building gospel-bridges. It just doesn’t work. It’s like a senior citizen trying to dress like a teen. Everyone knows that it’s not appropriate…except the senior.  

  It’s heartbreaking that the place we’re most likely to use crude words is in our marriage or with our family. We feel it’s safe to let our guard down. Yet, from a biblical perspective, our kindest and most gracious words should be around those who are closest to us and who we love the most.

  But what do we do about unbelievers who use language that bothers us? Ignore it! God has called us to lead the lost to regeneration, not bring about external reformation. For years I worked in the business world. I never corrected anyone’s language because for someone who hasn’t committed their life to Christ, talking like hell is the least of their concerns. Speaking of hell, Christ-followers using that word casually bothers me more than most other crude words. That’s because Scripture teaches that hell is real, horrible, and everlasting. It’s not something that I believe we should joke about or allude to casually. Incidentally, check the New Testament out for yourself. Jesus talked more about hell than heaven. I don’t want anyone to go to that horrible place, not even my worst enemy.

  In America, certain words can’t be used on TV networks or in G-rated movies. Those words will be “bleeped” out by censors. G-rated is a good standard for Christ-followers but instead of “general,” let’s make that “G” stand for godly or gracious. Remember the popular book, “What would Jesus do?” or WWJD. As Christians, we should change that to “What would Jesus say?” WWJS. I think that guideline would glorify our Savior. 

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