The Bible And Bad Language

What follows is an excerpt from a very dear friend to whom I did my best to explain the view that I believe that God communicates to us from His word. As always, please leave a comment and let me know how you think I represented the view from the Scriptures. If you do want to comment, please do read my whole post, just so you do not get an idea from what I said that is not what I am trying to write. Thanks! I hope this helps to at least get the wheels turning in your mind, if nothing else.

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I know that what I will say will probably (hopefully) spur further conversation concerning this topic, but I will similarly risk your not liking me or thinking less of me in some way and let you know what I've been thinking.

I've thought A LOT about the whole issue of language and what is appropriate and inappropriate and I have come to some conclusions, and some other non-conclusions as you will see

My first conclusion was in the form of just questioning what I've always grown up being taught by simply asking, "Why?" Not necessarily in a rebellious "I don't want to obey" type of attitude, but just asking, "Why do we have such stringent rules the way we do?" I thought to myself that if one is to own such standards/rules/guidelines, or even more strongly perhaps, an moral injunction, one should be able to support such rules with clear Scriptural support, not just a few misapplied verses.

Having asked the "Why?" question, I began to get feedback. Many people said that the Bible clearly speaks against "cursing", "swearing", and using "filthy/corrupt language."

Looking at cursing for instance, the Bible speaks of cursing as cursing another person, not as we would say that someone "cursed someone out." That kind of application isn't used in the Bible. Cursing is more like speaking beguilements towards someone or something, such as the kind of mockery Jesus endured on the cross as he had many men speak curses to him, wishing ill and harm to him as he was on trial and hanging being slapped and asked to prophesy. You know the story. Also, a few more examples of cursing are things like Job cursing the day he was born, or when King Balak asks Balaam to curse Israel. It seems ridiculous that the king would ask Balaam to just utter a "curse word" against Israel, but actually to prophesy evil upon them. A modern example would be saying "D- you" out of anger towards another person. Those are the kinds of things against which the Bible directly speaks.

Swearing seems even more straightforward than cursing. When the Bible speaks of swearing, as in Matthew 5, Jesus says, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all by heaven, for it is the throne of God... Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil." Jesus equates swearing with oath-making. There should be no need to say "I swear on my mother's life that I didn't take the cookie." Our word should be so trustworthy that we are taken to sincerely mean what we say.

We could do word studies on these word usages, as many have done- and compile a laundry list of places in which both words have been used, but in none of the cases I have found have I seen either of those words mean anything other than the things that I mentioned.

This discussion gets interesting when the third reason given against using "sinful words" is brought up, and the most clear passage cited is Ephesians 4:25ff. Paul makes a list of things in the format of "Don't do this, but instead do this, the reason being... (and applies an aspect of the Gospel to each particular instance)." Specifically, we're looking at verse 29, "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." The issue here hinges on the definition of "corrupting talk." I won't make up some Greek word that supports my argument, because frankly, I don't know Greek . However, we can get an idea of what Paul means by seeing the positive speech qualities with which he contrasts "corrupting talk." He says that things that should be uttered should not be corrupting, but are things that are 1) useful for building up, 2) fitting for the occasion, and 3) used to give grace to the hearer.

It may seem like an open and shut case on the side of never using any kind of "bad words" at all, but I ask that you look at the broader context of the way that Paul talks. First, building others up does not mean that we are supposed to make everyone feel nice and warm inside. If that were true, then Jesus sinned all the time. His purpose was to use the means necessary to (sometimes in a jarring way) proclaim truth. Paul says in Ephesians 4:15 that we are to grow up into the head (of the body of the church) which is Christ. That is our motive- we need to do whatever we can to help people understand truth, so that they will see God in a clearer way in order to help someone in their process of sanctification. So things that build up may be something like, "The Spirit was moving through your message today, pastor", but may also be some a variation of "You need to get your head where it needs to be and see what's actually going on here in 'x' situation." Both are things that will hopefully build up a brother/sister- one nicely, the other more harshly.

For a word to be fitting for the occasion, it may similarly be an expression of blessing to a minister, or a warning to a straying brother or sister who may be harmfully affecting himself and/or others.

Ultimately, God-centered words are meant to give grace to the hearer. I think it's interesting that God does not define unwholesome talk by way of a vocabulary list. He could have done that. The reason I think He chose not to do such a thing is because rather than denigrating the battle for words by making about a list of "do's" and "don'ts", He makes it a matter of intention.

There are certain words that are condemning and judgmental, the foremost of this category being the "G-D" word. This word explicitly invokes the name of God to curse something that we have ABSOLUTELY no power to curse. It's the same thing to say D- You to any person for the purpose of wishing harm upon them.

There are also words that have very inappropriate sexual meanings that I would never want to say them because in saying them, they bring up sexual thoughts that should not be thought of at any time, regardless of the person.

Then there are words that are not sexual or condemnatory, but fall into the category of social politeness- words for excrement being among these. As an example, we wouldn't talk about the details of cleaning up after the dog during Thanksgiving dinner. God considers the heart of the words said (intention) more important than parsing out the uses of culturally defined words (vocabulary list).

Looking at Jesus, He always went right to the core of the matter- He never said, "You need to do x, y, and z to be one of my good disciples." He said that the summary of the WHOLE LAW was to love God with all of your heart and your neighbor as you would yourself. If we love God with our whole hearts, then the things that we say and do will directly follow from that heart (Matthew 15:18). That's why I don't see a problem using a euphemism to make a certain point about something I see as important. In this case, it really bothers me when people are under the delusion that real men are not allowed to cry. I used the phrase that I did because I honestly didn't see a problem with using it. I wasn't thinking, "Aha! Here's a way to toe the line of sin and still be not be sinning!"

While slightly unrelated to this specific instance, I also see just as much of a problem saying something like "Dang it" as I would saying "Oh snap" when something doesn't go the way it was supposed to- because someone that says "Dang it" isn't using that phrase in a way to inappropriately condemn something, but is saying something out of frustration. The intent is just the same as when someone says "Snap" or "Oh come on."

If there is a way that I can build someone up (by possibly using shock value as a way to get someone's attention) using language that isn't a part of my everyday vocabulary, I can't see in Scripture (either inductively or deductively) the conclusion that certain words are inherently worse than others.

However, I BY NO MEANS want anyone to think that I go around using base language all day, because I don't. I'm just convinced that while we need to consider the appropriateness of our speech, God holds our hearts accountable; and if we are trying and seeking God's enabling us to be mini-grace-dispensers (whether the form of grace be a pez candy or a hard pill to swallow) then I don't see what else God will judge us for.

If you're here that means that you've (hopefully) read my little epic on what I think the Bible says about speech , and I really hope that you don't just write it all off because it's different than what you and I have grown up hearing, but that you would think through my points, and let me know if you have objections to either the methods or the conclusions that I have in anything regarding this topic.

I love ya bro, and I'm really glad that we're friends

David