I am probably the weirdest person you will ever meet in terms of making up words to put in the place of cussing. I will frequently range from saying something as close to the American culture’s ‘bad’ words as “freaking,” to words that are just basically me pulling letters out of thin air and putting them together after the phrase “what the…” I’ve been known to say frick, flip, frack, gravy, goodness, gracious, nonsense, fark, and many other borderline prafane words to make myself feel better about my exclamatory tendency. Now, (and of course this doesn’t make me any better than anyone I know who openly cusses, it probably actually proves I’m in denial or something) I haven’t really ever been one to outright cuss, I’ve always just used filler words. But the other day at lunch at Willie’s with some of my friends from the Art Institute I got called out.
We were waiting in line to order when something warranted the exclamation from someone else, “What the french toast!?” which reminded me of the sign in Mrs. Prine’s old room at Cy-Creek that said “What the function?” (Math joke! But anyway.) and so I said it out loud. Now, though this isolated event was not just me making an almost profanity exclamation for no reason (I was outwardly referencing the sign), I do a lot around my Art Institute friends, and this time, one of my two closest friends at Ai, Ashlee, called me out on it. We’ve talked about how I don’t cuss before, and she said, this time, “You know, you don’t really cuss, but you do in your own way.”
She wasn’t trying to be mean or anything, but that comment froze me for a fraction of a second. I was really caught off guard by it. Really. I had to try really hard to not stop and have a mini theological debate in my head right there and stop everything else I was doing. So that’s where this blog comes in:
Where do you stand on the subject of profanity?
Obviously, some of us have had similar conversations a few times before because of everyone’s favorite edgy person, Derek oh-what-a-tangled-Webb-we-weave, and his album that you love-and-feel-uneasy-about-at-the-same-time, Stockholm Syndrome. (Sorry, I think I just broke the legal hyphenated adjective limit.)
But anyway, I’m looking at a slightly different dichotomy I think. I’m looking to examine the difference between flat-out cussing and (let’s call the other one) ‘substitute’ cussing in the context of Christians being saved by faith (Ephesians 2:8) and God looking at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).
I think we can agree that flat-out cussing is generally frowned upon in Biblical teaching, if not because of the whole “Taming the Tongue” part of James 3, then because of the charge Paul gives us to not do anything that might make a brother fall (Romans 14:21). Aka, cuss in front of someone because we think it’s okay. Even if you think you are ‘solid enough in your faith’ to yell expletives, there may be someone around you who is struggling and will be really disappointed that someone they looked up to doesn’t care enough to keep their tongue tamed.
Then there’s also Matthew 5:21-24 :
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”
I put this whole thing in here because I think it’s the most important part of this subject for me and you to consider. Jesus is effectively saying here that it isn’t a matter of the word itself, it’s a matter of the heart behind the words. (Though I might add that I’m saying this after noting Romans 14:21 earlier, so I’m not advocating that we try to transcend the sin of cussing and be able to do it with a clean heart which I’m pretty sure isn’t even possible.)
I suppose the main point of this post is not specifically that we should not cuss, but that we should be concerned with having pure hearts before God, because God looks at the heart. He does not care, I think, if we accidentally (or purposefully) cuss, or if we sin in any way (though if you’re not at least concerned with not sinning, there is probably something wrong), but I think that God sees us as really are, not as our specific sins. God wants us to yearn for him. If we are truly wanting God as we should, then we do not need to worry.
“Give us clean hands and give us pure hearts,
let us not lift our souls to another.
O God let us be the generation that seeks,
seeks your face, O God of Jacob”
What do you think: about cussing? about little vs. big sins? about God looking at the heart? about anything else?