Some thoughts on cussing<\/h2>\n
Christians are called to high standards with the words we speak. On the tongue\u2019s use and misuse of words, four general principles guide us. <\/p>\n
1. Don\u2019t misuse weighty words.<\/h3>\n
Weighty words include: God<\/em>, Jesus Christ<\/em>, damn<\/em>, and hell<\/em>. Employing God\u2019s name in vain is clearly forbidden (Exod. 20:7; Deut. 5:11). \u201cWe don\u2019t take the words seriously when we use God<\/em> as a throwaway word, or Jesus Christ as a word for when I just hit my finger or something terrible just happened, or damn<\/em> as a swear word, or hell<\/em> as a throwaway swear word. The problem with all those words is that they take things that are unbelievably important and serious, and they turn them into moments of smallness.\u201d Don\u2019t belittle solemn words. <\/p>\n Whole lexicons of \u201ccrude, crass, vulgar, and indecent\u201d words don\u2019t emerge from nowhere. They\u2019re invented because \u201cevery culture has something that they view as offensive, off-color, or rude.\u201d And Paul tells us that love is not rude<\/em>\u2014it\u2019s not unseemly<\/em> (1 Cor. 13:4\u20135). Paul forbids Christians from using a vocabulary that employs words that the culture would recognize as dishonorable, disgraceful, and indecent. If there was any question, Paul makes the point very clear: \u201cLet there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place\u201d\u2014instead, \u201clet there be thanksgiving\u201d (Eph. 5:4). <\/p>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n Tony Reinke<\/a><\/p>\n <\/em> Distilled from the popular podcast Ask Pastor John<\/em>, this comprehensive book compiles pastor-theologian and bestselling author John Piper\u2019s answers to life\u2019s perplexing questions about situational ethics, spiritual disciplines, theology, and more.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s not enough to not<\/em> use crude language. Paul wants us to voice thanks (Eph. 5:4). \u201cPaul thought if your heart is right and brimming with gratitude to God in all things, there will be a monitor on the kind of crudeness that comes out of your mouth. People that tend to use a lot of four-letter words, a lot of scatological talk, a lot of harsh, crude, rough, and crass talk, are generally sounding pretty angry. They are not content. They are not happy in Jesus. Something is out of whack in their heart.\u201d Crudeness is the sludge that accrues when the fountain of Godward thanks dries up. <\/p>\n Instead of corrupting talk, we speak grace to others (Eph. 4:29). Gratitude works to wash away crude language, but Paul pushes us to consider whether our words are good for people. Do my words make others stronger? And do my words \u201cmake Christ more beautiful in their eyes?\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n Profanity doesn\u2019t make us more culturally relevant for three reasons. <\/p>\n \u201cIssues of moral character\u2014that is, issues of biblical uprightness\u2014are being subordinated to our strategies for how to make the world a better place.\u201d This principle is true in modern political candidates and true in the language of the church, revealing that \u201cour trust has shifted from the power of God to work through the humility of holiness onto the power of our own cleverness, whether it be political shrewdness or cultural savvy.\u201d Such attempts at culture transformation are \u201chopelessly flawed.\u201d No matter how politically shrewd, profane means \u201cwill not bring the kingdom. It will not transform culture. It will not convict sinners. It will backfire and destroy the credibility of the Christian church.\u201d The strategy has been tried: become like the world to save the world. In the process you lose the gospel. In the church, you lose confidence in God\u2019s power, lose confidence in his word, and lose an \u201cauthentic thrill that our way is better\u201d than the ways of the world. This vain attempt to appear cool before the world is destined to fail. <\/p>\n \u201cAccording to the New Testament, what will get the attention of the world and penetrate possibly to the inner recesses of their heart is not cultural similarity with the world but sacrificial service to the world<\/em>.\u201d It isn\u2019t \u201crisqu\u00e9 language that will waken the dead, but radical love\u201d (Matt. 5:16). <\/p>\n God doesn\u2019t want us to use crude jokes, which are out of place or \u201cunseemly\u201d (\u1f00\u03bd\u1fc6\u03ba\u03b5\u03bd; Eph. 5:3\u20134). So Christians don\u2019t simply avoid repeating a list of bleep-able words. No. \u201cWe discern what is suitable<\/em> and fitting<\/em> in a hundred situations.\u201d The \u201calternative to the crude, vulgar language that Paul mentions is not clean language<\/em> but thanksgiving<\/em>.\u201d Crude language exposes a \u201cgratitude deficiency\u201d in the heart. So Paul\u2019s call on the Christian life is not so simple as avoiding vulgar words. Our call is to \u201cfill your mouth with Christ-exalting truth and overflowing, humble thankfulness. Pursue the very good works that Jesus says have a much better chance of impressing the world than if we would just adopt a little bit of their language, which they themselves know is cheap.\u201d2<\/sup> <\/p>\n So is it wrong for Christians, even preachers, to use words like: shoot<\/em>, crud<\/em>, dang<\/em>, crap<\/em>, and friggin\u2019<\/em>\u2014softer cuss words? <\/p>\n In defense of strong language, Paul used scatological or garbage language\u2014 \u201cdung\u201d (\u03c3\u03ba\u03cd\u03b2\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd)\u2014to speak of his former life of legalism (Phil. 3:8). Some Christians would liken this to the s-word. And Paul called false teachers \u201cdogs\u201d (Phil. 3:2). To false teachers advocating circumcision, he suggested that they castrate themselves (Gal. 5:12). Even Christ called false teachers a \u201cbrood of vipers\u201d (Matt. 23:33). There\u2019s a category for using \u201cvery severe\u201d language \u201cwith adversaries of the Christian faith\u201d or false teachers. \u201cSo I will not say there is an absolute prohibition of using severe, cutting, aggravating, edgy language in some situations of conflict where huge and deadly things are at stake.\u201d But Paul and Jesus used these words seriously, never in a cavalier, joking, trendy, trying-to-be-cool way\u2014unlike how they get used today. <\/p>\n Crudeness is the sludge that accrues when the fountain of Godward thanks dries up. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In opposition to strong language in the pulpit, and against pastors \u201cwho seem to go out of their way to flaunt coarse, rude, dirty, questionable language,\u201d we go to Ephesians 5:3\u20135. Verses 3 and 5 warn of the physical, sexual sins that condemn. Sandwiched between them is verse 4, a key text on language. So \u201cit is not just what you do with your groin or your heart, but with your tongue or your mouth as well. If it is wrong to do<\/em> sexual things, he is saying, it is wrong to be cavalier and course in verbalizing<\/em> those very things. There are a lot of things people are willing to take on their mouths that they would not take in their hands\u2014and they wouldn\u2019t take into their lives.\u201d So, for example, \u201crecently I heard a young leader say\u2014and pardon me here\u2014to hundreds of Christians in a joking way about someone who had criticized him the day before: \u2018Screw you.\u2019 And he laughed. I mean everybody laughed. Everybody laughed! Almost everybody. I didn\u2019t.\u201d Don\u2019t say with your mouth what you shouldn\u2019t act out physically. \u201cAnd I would apply the same principle to bathroom language that you would never take in your hand\u2014or hell<\/em> or damn<\/em>, which you would never actually apply to anybody.\u201d So \u201ca pure heart<\/em> and pure hands<\/em> should be accompanied by a pure tongue<\/em>. I think that is the point of verse 4.\u201d<\/p>\n The tongue is governed not by compliance with right\/wrong and good\/bad words. It\u2019s governed by categories of what is proper\/improper and out of place\/ in place. Love is not unseemly<\/em> (\u1f00\u03c3\u03c7\u03b7\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u03ad\u03c9; 1 Cor. 13:5). In the world\u2019s evil, don\u2019t get experienced with it (1 Cor. 14:20). Be a baby in evil. You don\u2019t need to adopt the culture\u2019s shows, movies, and language. Don\u2019t let a fear of prudish puritanism push you into embracing vulgar language. Instead, \u201chonor commonly accepted standards, because it is humble and not self-asserting.\u201d3<\/sup><\/p>\n Paul contrasts filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking with thankful speech (Eph. 5:4). \u201cAnd I think the reason thankfulness is given as an alternative to crude joking and filthiness is a heart that is humble enough to recognize that everything is a gift. And full of thanksgiving to God is the kind of heart that just doesn\u2019t get ugly.\u201d Humble thanks \u201ccleans up the mouth.\u201d We seek to build others up\u2014our \u201ccriterion\u201d for everything we say, even our jokes (Eph. 4:29). <\/p>\n So does my wit build up or tear down? Here are five ways that jokes tear down. (1) The joke is corrupting and dirty. (2) The joke is ill-timed and doesn\u2019t fit the occasion. (3) The joke is egocentric, trying to be clever and nothing else. (4) The joke is a demeaning put-down, making fun of a group or nationality or ethnicity. (5) The joke is \u201crelentlessly superficial,\u201d from a person only trying to be witty. <\/p>\n Yet this list \u201cleaves wide open that there is humor that does none of those negative things, but is full of grace and well-timed and produces a healthy cascade of laughter.\u201d There\u2019s a laughter that breaks out in sheer joy at God\u2019s goodness (Ps. 126:1\u20132). But there\u2019s also a \u201cbelly-shaking humor\u201d that \u201cjust happens\u201d in life. It happened once in a sermon. \u201cI was using an illustration of, \u2018Come on, everybody. You want to be a dolphin, right? You want to cut against the currents of culture, and you don\u2019t want to be a jellyfish. Who in the world wants to be a jellyfish?!\u2019 And a little girl right in the third row raised her hand. \u2018I want to be a jellyfish!\u2019 Everybody simply roared. I could hardly contain myself I was laughing so hard right in the middle of a very important point.\u201d Humor just happens. <\/p>\n In the words of Spurgeon: \u201cWe must conquer\u2014some of us especially\u2014our tendency to levity. A great distinction exists between holy cheerfulness, which is a virtue, and that general levity, which is a vice. There is a levity which has not enough heart to laugh, but trifles with everything; it is flippant, hollow, unreal. A hearty laugh is no more levity than a hearty cry.\u201d So, says Piper, \u201cthere is a difference between robust humor in the soul of a saint who is manifestly taking God with great seriousness and levity\u2014that is the negative word\u2014levity in the mouth of a resident clown, who can\u2019t seem to be serious about anything.\u201d \u201cHumor and laughter in their most natural and healthy forms are spontaneous, not contrived, not planned. Therefore, the challenge in life, as in so many other traits, is to become a joyfully, holy, seriously happy, God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated person so that, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth laughs.\u201d4<\/sup><\/p>\n \n Notes:<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n This article is adapted from<\/em> Ask Pastor John: 750 Bible Answers to Life\u2019s Most Important Questions<\/a> by Tony Reinke.<\/em><\/p>\n 2. Don\u2019t use vulgar words.<\/h3>\n
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\n <\/h3>\n3. Speak thanks.<\/h3>\n
4. Speak grace.<\/h3>\n
Does profanity make us more culturally relevant?<\/h2>\n
1. Immorality is a bad strategy for improving the world.<\/h3>\n
2. The world will not be impressed by our crudeness.<\/h3>\n
3. Filthy language is simply unfitting.<\/h3>\n
But what about soft cussing?<\/h2>\n
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When jokes go crude<\/h2>\n
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