Luke 6:45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Profanity is the parlance of the fool. Why curse when there is such a magnificent language with which to discourse.” To illustrate his point, he once referred to President McKinley’s courage “like a chocolate éclair.”
Roosevelt’s perspective on word choices sounds like a distant murmur in light of today’s accelerated use of profanity, doesn’t it? Politicians, celebrities, and social media influencers seem to believe swearing will get them more votes, more clicks, more power. They’ll show the world how authentic, individualistic and free they are through their words!
Bad words.
You might be thinking I’m an old fogey, an irrelevant legalist who can’t keep up with the times. I mean, who even uses the term “bad words” anymore? But I believe the words we speak reflect something far deeper than what rolls off our tongue. Our words not only reveal the disposition of our hearts, spoken words reinforce the unspoken…positive or negative.
It’s why Paul warns believers to be careful about what they say. “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4). And “…put away all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth” (Colossians 3:8).
You’ve probably heard of the condition known as Tourette Syndrome where people have uncontrollable, repetitive outbursts of obscene words or inappropriate remarks. Thankfully the vast majority of us are not afflicted with Tourette Syndrome. We do have control over what comes out of our mouth. So we’re without excuse.
As followers of Jesus, let’s not be poor imitators of the world. There are far better ways to express ourselves than by “the parlance of the fool.” Jesus told us to store up good things in our hearts. If we do, what flows from our mouth will be life-affirming, grace-filled, hope-inspiring words.
Not bad ones.