Postby Felix » Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:56 pm
On a personal level, I'm not sure I can say how "bad" swearing is. I have certainly done it more than I would like to admit, but is it a sin? I have no idea, so I looked in the bible.
Matthew 12:36 says:
"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken."
And James 1:26 says:
"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless."
There's also a multitude of other verses I found about controlling your tongue, watching your words, etc. Of course, that means nothing if you don't consider swear words to be inherently evil.
I was curious so I dug deeper and found this:
1 Corinthians 8:9-13
9Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
Now, I know this verse is talking about food that has been sacrificed to idols, but just read it again and think about it in the context of swearing. Even though you may personally consider swearing to be alright, your brother might not feel that way, and since swears are taboos in our culture, using them around someone else would pretty much destroy your witness as a Christian. As Christians we are called to a higher, holier standard of living. No matter what your personal opinion on the matter is, the fact remains that cussing is universally accepted as a bad thing to do, so what will people think when they hear a "christian" belting out those f-bombs?
And I mean really, it's not that hard to substitute your cuss words with something milder. Personally, I think it's a lot more fun to yell something like "Flibbergiblets!" and, as Mary sort of brought up, humorous phrases like that actually sometimes lessen the seriousness or pain of the situation.
So I guess my verdict is that what kind of language you use when you're alone is really between you and God. There's no way to know exactly what His sentiments are on swears, but I'm sure we'll find out on that day of judgement. Personally, if it's something iffy, I would rather stay away from it.
But there's no doubt that we should all steer clear of foul language while around others. That should be a no-brainer.
Okay, I think I'm done.