Is it proper for Christians to use obscene or vulgar language? This rarely becomes an issue with the community of believers that populate the cities and towns in our area. For us, it primarily becomes a question when self-described postmodern pastors employ "dirty words" with great alacrity and defend this behavior by invoking the old dictum, "Be all things to reach all people--and I am trying to reach the unchurched and the young who see nothing wrong with swearing."

First, let’s be clear. Paul never meant he sinned when he said "To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). He meant that if a person were weak in accepting that the Law was obsolete and so remained living as a Jew, he would live as a Jew too if that would allow him to more readily make an impact with the gospel on those living as Jews. It never was a sin to live as a Jew, as the sinless life of Jesus will attest.

But is cussing inherently a sin? First, certain words are associated in our culture with being "bad words." Usually these bad words are vulgarisms for the natural acts of defecating and having sex. Neither defecating nor being romantic with one’s spouse is sinful. And many godly farmers, especially in the Pennsylvania Dutch area, routinely use a vulgarism for manure because in their culture the vulgarism does not carry the stigma of being a "bad word."

These vulgarisms for manure and sex became "bad words" not for what they described, but largely because they were applied as curses against people and things. For example, in our day a common "bad word" describes the sex act. But it often was employed not to mean ordinary marital relations, but rather, "I hope you get raped." That is literally invoking a curse against someone. When that same word is used as an expletive about a thing or event, the same meaning applies; the speaker intends to convey, "I curse this day and wish that it could be raped." Wishing someone or something to be raped is almost always nothing more than wishing a curse upon that one.

Most vulgarisms are overtly curses. Some express a wish to condemn people to Hell, quite explicitly, as in the majority of damnation expressions. Even saying, "Darn it" is just a veiled form of damning that thing to Hell. And this is what makes the use of "bad words" and caustic vulgarisms sinful. The words themselves are not really inherently bad, for often they have valid ordinary meanings. It is the intentional curse against people and things that turn these vulgarisms into sins.

God alone may curse man and things. God alone judges whether a sinner will be sent to Hell. When God cursed mankind, the snake, and the Earth in Genesis 3, it was because mankind had committed a crime against God so heinous it deserved this curse. Yet, God Himself, at the cost of the life of His own Son, provided the means of escape from the curse. When God cursed man in Genesis 3, it was not merely a wish for a curse, but it was a literal and binding curse which God invoked. He alone can invoke binding curses.

Whenever a man invokes a curse, he is putting himself into God’s throne. Man can utter curses, but it is always a sin to do so, for man has no authority or power to carry out the curse and no ability to judge another man’s heart so as to genuinely determine if anyone is actually deserving of the curse. Notice that Peter invoked a curse against himself to try to give his lie credibility (when he denied that he knew Jesus), yet, his own curse against himself was vain, for a Christian cannot condemn himself to Hell after God has redeemed him.

In Matthew 5:22 we are told that Jesus commanded us never to say to a brother, "You are a good-for-nothing fool." That is the core meaning behind any curse: "You are worthless and deserve eternal destruction." It is an unloving insult, and it is a lie, for what God has redeemed cannot be considered worthless or be subjected to a curse. Further, would you curse an unbeliever who might be among the elect of God who has simply not yet been saved?

The word "cussing" is really a shorthand form of the word "cursing." Cursing means to bestow a curse against someone, to wish them pain, suffering, and often, eternal damnation. Cussing is not really the use of shockingly vulgar words, it is the use of words that convey your desire that a person or thing be mercilessly punished, or to verbalize your desire to wreak your vengeance upon them, as if you were God and had the perfect justice and mighty power to carry this out. Well, men do not have such perfect discernment, nor do they have the power, nor do they have the authority. Vengeance (cursing) belongs to God alone. And each time a man curses another man he demonstrates his ignorance of the Scriptures and his arrogance as he attempts to seat himself on the throne of God.

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