Damascus Road Church

Ephesians 4.29

^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.

Although I'm far from the a "cussing pastor", admittedly, my sermons are laced with an occassinoal "crap" or some other euphemism for poop that some people may be offended by. Quite simply people want pastors to talk a certain way to the extent that there are certain words you just don't say from the pulpit. I'm still looking or the list in the Bible.

I don't like swearing as much as the next guy, well, occasionally a good old $%#$% feels good. But other than that, I don't make it a practice to fill the air with verbal color. Verses like Ephesians 4.29 are often used to speak out against such ‘filthy' talk, subjectively defined as anything you or I might define as "dirty" or "off-color". Of course, such labels are open to various understandings and culture dictates that levels of appropriateness in fact change over time (according to the world) as do its various definitions of the words themselves. This line of argument is similar to making a rule to avoid any "rate R" movie. When is the last time that we let culture dictate what is "acceptable" for us as Christians? There are plenty of PG-13, even PG movies that are worthy of being called many swear words. I hope you get my point.

Few would or should argue that there is a line where talk becomes obscene, vulgar, indecent, or contrary to acceptable standards. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast "rule" with what is appropriate or inappropriate. Without question, there are audiences where the language must be curtailed out of love, to remain above reproach (especially in a pharisaical crowd), or simply to be heard among various peoples, ages, etc. But any attempt to quantitatively identify specific good and bad words, or acceptable and unacceptable joking with any sense of consistency will only prove futile and may impinge on the idea of freedom of conscience, not to mention inch us closer to some sense of self-righteousness.

Once again, we have fallen victim to basing spirituality on the appearance, and assuming that we're "good" if we stop "sinning" with our mouths. The gospel teaches us that, while what comes out of the mouth is an indicator of what is in the heart, there isn't a list of "good and bad" words that exists out there that impacts our justification-alone in Jesus. A problem arises when you create a list of "bad words" because you suddenly miss the point of the sin in your heart. It's easy to avoid the sins of commission here...just don't say XYZ. What about the sins of omission, where you actually could have said something to encourage to build up or to defend and you remained silent? Again, we are looking too close at behavior to the extent of ignoring the core issue.

I can avoid using any of those "bad" words and make some feel terrible by putting or breaking them down verbally. In other words, WORDS are not the point. There have been times when I have cried out to God and said, I'm such an #$%#$% God. I really don't think he's offended but he's hearing what I really feel in my heart and can see past that. Of course, as a public speaker, I have a responsibility. As much as is possible, we want to make sure we don't fall into a slippery slope of establishing self-righteousness apart from the blood of Christ, even in a small way.

Lastly, there is also the controversial element of making sure you speak the language of the people. Of course, this doesn' t mean you have to swear, but I imagine there is a context in which it might be very appropriate to swear in order to express truth (and have it heard) in a language that can be understood. Of course, this might seem extreme in a service, but there are many people for whom swearing is so entrenched in their vernacular that they don't even realize they are doing it. Perhaps using a smatter of their language will help them to connect with you so that they hear the gospel where the power of transformation really sits.