A little concerned...

When I was somewhere around 20 years old, God showed me that I was definitely going down the wrong path. I felt that I had to get right with Him. At the time, I was not sure what all that meant, so I decided to stop doing the things that I thought were wrong.

One of those things was my language. There is so much to say about this; and, some of it is debated quite often. Like, “Who or What decides what a ‘cuss word’ is?” I even heard a pastor say, “It is not what you say that matters, it is the condition of your heart when you say it.”

I don’t know. My question is, “Why do we insist on getting as close as we can to the ‘line’ without going over it? Why don’t we look towards God and away from the world instead of towards the world and away from God?”

There are some things in this world that will always be in the gray area. Like eating, going to the movies, an occasional drink, and other things that bring us pleasure of some sort. But there are some things that God seems to be pretty clear about, and to me, language is one of them.
Ephesians 4:29--Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

I have often heard the meaning of ‘corrupt’ debated. It is sad that we get stuck there, instead of moving forward and at leaste eliminating every word that does not edify (build up) and/or impart grace to those who hear our words.

There are many words commonly used today that I have never heard in an edifying way…most of them ‘cuss words’, but there are also many other words that we just throw around not understanding that “A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth, From the produce of his lips he shall be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:20-21

If you are 40 or over, then you have seen the decline in our language. It used to be unfit and unusual to hear a female say a bad word; but now it is the norm. At one time, a male would not say certain words unless they were really, really angry about something. Twenty years ago, you could watch several hours of TV without hearing a single bad word; but today, it seems that you can’t watch for five minutes. I wish I could blame TV or the movies or something on the demoralizing decline of our language…however, it really is quite simply, the condition of our heart. We cater to our sinful flesh and actually want to hear and say inappropriate words! It makes us feel better for the moment. However, it appears that we will be justified or condemned by our own words...

Mt 12:34 “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Mt 12:35 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
Mt 12:36 “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
Mt 12:37 “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

So, where do we go from here? Maybe a good starting place is to go back to something that worked years ago. Maybe we should eliminate, or at least greatly limit, anything that God would not approve of going into our hearts. This would automatically limit the amount of corrupt words coming out of our hearts. The only problem here is that we no longer really know what God approves or disapproves of. It is going to take some deliberate thinking, praying, and reading if we are going to accomplish this mission.

What if we kept some sort of notebook with us this week and jotted down every song, every show, every movie, every word, every conversation, etc, that we are pretty sure that God would not approve of. Ok, at least make a mental note of it. And of course, it would help by looking up what God says about our language in the Bible. (Click on ‘R261’ for a list of similar verses)