I can remember one day, I was a young boy, maybe 7-8, still remember I was in the hallway of our home in Seaford, just playing happily with my brothers, and somewhere in the conversation I said the word ‘bugger’. Boy, did I cop it. Probably a decent smack, certainly a verbal dressing down on how not to use that disgusting word ever again. I vigorously protested my innocence – I didn’t know there was anything wrong with that word – but I got the message loud and clear – there are some words that we were forbidden to use within earshot of my parents, and that was definitely one of them!
Didn’t put my younger brother off too much. He was a bit of rebel, bit wild. I can still remember him being forced to scrub his tongue with a bar of solvel – soap for those too young to know what I’m talking about. He’d let a few expletives rip and got the old fashioned ‘wash your mouth out’ treatment. Even that didn’t stop him though.
Tonight, as we finish up our mini-series about the power of words, I wanted to touch on this subject of swearing. It’s a tricky one for Christians. Can we swear, or is swearing sinful? What words can we use and which ones can’t we use? As the standards continue to be relaxed, especially on our television screens, newspapers - can we as Christians use a few words a little more guilt-free these days? Is it OK to watch movies full of swearing? Most importantly, what did Jesus say about swearing, and is there anything in the Bible that might help us decide?
I find it really interesting that if I take four letters – say the letters H I T & S, which spells ‘Hits’, but if I rearrange them, they become what we term in Australia a swear word. Now even if we take that rearranged word at its apparent meaning, I can say poo and no one minds, but the S word is classed as swearing. Funny thing language. But words have power. And if I dropped a magic word here tonight, it would be powerful. Why? Cause we’re in church. And we’re not allowed to swear. Or are we? What do you think?
I want to address this question two ways – 1. blasphemy and 2. profanity. I’m going to use the word profanity because swearing can mean what we do in court, taking an oath etc, which the Bible does talk a bit about, but is outside the scope of what I’d like us to consider tonight.
So in response to the first category, blasphemy - God made the Divine views pretty clear in the commandments to the Jewish nation, which we call the Ten Commandments.
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, (Exodus 20:7)” You know that one? Now this might have actually referred to those who use God’s name to back up an oath, and then break the oath. Remember we’re going back a few thousand years here. But I think it involves more than just that.
The Jewish teachers say for instance that it’s wrong to say a meaningless prayer, such as thanking God for food, and then not eating it. That would be using God’s name in an empty way. Another aspect would be to use God’s name when you really aren’t talking to him. So this ever-increasingly popular use of the phrase “Oh my God” when something unpleasant happens, or something exciting, that would be an example. Or using the phrase “Jesus Christ” as an exclamation.
Not actually talking to God? I reckon God says then don’t use my name. After all, how would you like it if every time something happened somebody called your name? Oh my Colin! Or when something went wrong, everyone shouted “Anne Lane” The first few times you might ask what they wanted. But eventually it would just get irritating.
It’s interesting that some Jews wouldn’t even use the name of God. They wouldn’t even say it. They wouldn’t even write it. They had symbols, that we translate into the word Yahweh, but the Jewish people treated the name of God as so sacred they wouldn’t say it. Wouldn’t ever utter it.
So blasphemy. Is it a big deal? Well, it seems it was back then. The end bit of the verse, the commandment, talks about God punishing us if we do take the Lord’s name in vain. I wonder? Does God care about it today?
I got a new dimension on the blasphemy thing when I read this same verse in the Good News Bible’s translation: Ex 20:7 – Do not use my name for evil purposes, because I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name.
This bit I get, totally. People who say they represent God, or God’s views, and do the exact opposite of what God would want. People who kill in the name of God, who harm others, who are selfish, who hate, who mislead people by saying “God told me this, blah, blah”. Who use the name of God to make themselves wealthy. eg the tele-evangelists.
Definitely don’t use God’s name for evil purposes or self advancement, otherwise I reckon you’re in for it. I personally try not to use the name of God or of Jesus in any other way than as a reference to the Divine, because I feel like I cheapen those names if I do.
I reckon there’s plenty of alternatives we can use, and we’ll save the names of God and Jesus Christ for worship and prayer. What do you think?
So we move on to profanity – hey did you know the Bible has a swear word? Yeah – Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass.
Now apparently the term “profanity” itself derives from Biblical terminology for “outside of the temple”. Anything outside the temple was profane. And by our English definition, it’s the treatment of the sacred with contempt or irreverence.(repeat) Profanity. That’s why the words we still consider pretty nasty are the ones that have their origins as an irreverent or contemptuous term for sexual activity or sexual organs or private bodily functions.
Now the Bible doesn’t specifically talk much about profanity or foul language, not in definitive terms, so we’ll have to look at a few Bible passages to come up with our overall picture. And I’ll run through them first, then we’ll consider them… Jesus first…
Matt 12: 36-37 – You can be sure that on Judgement Day everyone will have to give account of every useless word he has ever spoken. Your words will be used to judge you – to declare you either innocent or guilty.
Every useless word. Hmmm. Next one:
Matt 15:11 – It is not what goes into a person’s mouth that makes him ritually unclean; rather what comes out of it makes him unclean.
Our words can make us unclean. The Pharisees insisted on this special, heavily-regulated hand-washing ritual before they ate, to do with being clean before God. Jesus is saying that God’s more interested in what’s coming out of your mouth than what’s going in. Next:
Matt 5: 22 – But now I tell you: whoever is angry with his brother will be brought to trial, whoever calls his brother “You good-for-nothing!” will be brought before the council, and whoever calls his brother a worthless fool will be in danger of going to the fire of hell.
Jesus is warning us against insulting people. Now Paul’s words:
Col 3:8 – No insults or obscene talk must ever come from your lips.
OK. No insults. We talked about that last week, didn’t we? Jesus teaching. And no obscene talk. But no real definition for us of what may be classed as obscene. Next:
Eph 5: 4 – Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
And I like the way The Message puts this verse – ‘Christians have better uses for language than that. Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.’
So we’re including now dirty jokes, and general sort of gutter talk, as not really befitting of Jesus followers. Next:
Eph 4: 29 - Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words, the kind that build up and provide what is needed, so that what you say will do good to those who hear you.
From our Bible Reading. No harmful words.
What do we get from all that? Here’s what I get:
(a) Words are important. We don’t want to use them carelessly or use words that are useless, cause it’ll come back to bite us on Judgment Day. Couple of other translations say careless words instead of useless words.
(b) They can have consequences with our relationship with God. God wants us to be clean, our words can make us unclean.
(c) No insults. Jesus definitely didn’t want us using words to put other people down.
There’s a real clear message coming from the Bible about using words to build each other up, not to harm each other.
(d) And no obscene, vulgar talk. But again, this question – what constitutes obscene talk? What words are acceptable and which ones aren’t?
Well tonight I may disappoint some of you, because I’m not going to put a list up on the screen of unacceptable words or acceptable words. Here’s what I’ll do instead – give you three ways to discern for yourself. You can make your own list. You need to work out for yourself what’s acceptable and what’s not. But I’ll give you three ways you might be able to put the words you use to the test:
(1) The objectionable test. Really, I think what it boils down to is the offence factor. If there’s a possibility that the person you are speaking to could be offended by a word you use, then don’t use it. It’s about being sensitive to the feelings of others.
I’ll try to be very careful with the words I use when I’m with you people of our faith community, for example. I was even hesitant to say bugger in my story at the beginning, and I won’t do it again. I won’t even say damn, woops I said it, but there may be people who would be offended by me using that word, so I won’t. Yet in other company, it may be a word that I do use, if I know that they won’t bat an eyelid.
Now there are a few words that used to be fairly common that our society is now starting to reject based on the objectionable test. For instance, a homosexual person might not mind if you use the F word, but would be highly offended by the word poof or faggot. An African-American person might be offended by the word nigger. We don’t use the word coon or boong or even wog anymore. And I think all this is good. There should be no insults. No put downs. No offence. No name-calling.
Will a particular word possibly offend the hearer? Don’t use it. It’s the Matthew 7: 12 principle – do for others what you want them to do for you.
The objectionable test. Then I’ll run the words through something similar, what I call:
(2) The nanna test. Would I be happy to use that word in talking to my nanna? So words my nanna wouldn’t like, like crap, I wouldn’t normally use. Oops, this is hard. I keep saying words I say I won’t say. But do you get my drift? As a Christian person, as a follower of Jesus, I want my words to be wholesome. I want them to be words of meaning. Gee, there’s enough words in the English vocabulary, I don’t need to use cheap, careless, useless words.
Then there’s the final test:
(3) The Holy Spirit conviction
If your heart is in tune with God, you’ll know what you should and shouldn’t be saying, because the Holy Spirit will let you know. Your Spirit-infused conscience will tell you. We each feel it if we’ve said something…naughty. Something unclean. Cause we’ll just feel, hey I shouldn’t use that word.
People ask, how about movies. Is it OK to watch movies or TV shows with swearing? Run it through the tests – does it offend you? Does it offend people you are watching it with? If not, then I would say it’s OK. Would you be happy to watch it with your nanna? If so, then OK. Then, does it feel right? Or is the Holy Spirit making you feel uncomfortable? Personally – I can handle the odd word here or there, but we won’t watch movies or shows that contain a lot of coarse language. That’s just where I sit.
When I think about the types of people Jesus hung around with – brought up in a carpenter’s shop, mates with fishermen, with prostitutes, with sinners of every type, I’m sure Jesus heard quite a few words that we’d class as coarse or obscene, and his ears didn’t fall off. But I’m also pretty sure that his own words would have been more carefully chosen.
In 1 Pet 1:15 it says: Be holy in all you do, just as God who called you is holy. (Repeat)
I think we can extend that – be holy in all you say, as well as what you do.
I don’t swear when I pray. I want the words I use in conversation with the Spirit of God to be beautiful, pure, clear, wholesome words. Why? Because I’m talking to my God. But if we believe in an omnipresent God, then wherever I am, whatever I say, God hears. And if Jesus was standing looking at me across the room, I would want to make sure that my words were pleasing, that my words would cause no harm, weren’t insulting or offensive, no matter how angry I was feeling, or how hurt, or frustrated or frightened. That my words were helpful, and encouraging, and funny and delightful and sensitive and joyful and had depth and meaning, and were enshrined in love and kindness, and from a heart that was desperate to be just like Jesus himself.
I guess that’s it, isn’t it? We come back to our prayer from last week – let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, Lord.
Last Modified on 03/04/2012 12:15