Evil Communications Corrupt Good Character

Introduction

Turn your Bibles, if you will, to Colossians chapter 3. That’s where we’re going to begin in just a moment. We welcome all who are here. Thank you so much for being here. But I know that you didn’t come for me or for one another, even though we do need to think of how to encourage one another and stir one another up to good works. But we we have all decided to come here for God and to serve Him. And ultimately everything we’re doing is between us and God and to honor and reverence his holy name. I want to talk to you this morning about filthy language.

I imagine that this is a problem among many Christians. I don’t have evidence of that here, but perhaps it is a problem among some here, even. And I don’t mean just profanity, but I’m going to sort of use this term filthy language to be a sort of a blanket for many other types of bad language that someone might use. Now we’re not going to talk about all sins of the tongue, like lying and gossip. And we’re not going to study James chapter 3, even though that is a profound chapter about sins of the tongue. And it tells us that the tongue is a world of iniquity. Certainly we see that this is a very important topic. But we’re going to focus on filthy language. Beginning with abusive speech.

1. Abusive Speech

So here we are in Colossians chapter 3. And if you will begin reading with me in verse 5, therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. So we need to be dead to all of those things. Verse 6: for it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. And in them too, you also once walked when you were living in them. But now you also put them all aside anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Verse 9 goes on to say, Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him.

So I want to focus there on verse 8, and particularly one thing in verse 8. After he lists anger, wrath, malice, slander, he then mentions abusive speech. This is in the King James rendered filthy language. But in connection here with all of these emotions of anger and of ill will toward others, anger, wrath, malice, and slander, I think that we understand this to be hurtful words used in connection with all of those, all those things. It’s when you’re angry that you say the most hurtful things. And it might not be four-letter words, but it’s words that it’s words that insult. Words that are bitterly sarcastic, or that are brash and bossy, or that are scolding and critical.

When if you’re going to slip up with your tongue, this would be one of those times. I remember one time my dad, and I never heard my dad say a bad word. I never heard him say a hurtful word to anybody. He’s just a gentle man and a gentleman, and a Christian. But he one time got really frustrated. And he said, if I was the cussing type, this would be one of the times that I’d be cussing. But he didn’t. And we know what it’s like to be in those moments where if I was a cussing type, those are the times when we have to be extra careful. And Jesus forbid forbids calling someone a fool in Matthew 5 and verse 22. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court, and whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court.

And whoever says, you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. You may not think of the word fool as a four-letter word. Well, it’s got four letters, doesn’t it? But my point is, it’s not always just the word, but it’s how we use the word. And it’s the attitude behind the word. And here the context is the idea of anger and in your anger insulting someone. What we must do is we must put all such speech away from us, as Colossians 3.8 says. We must set it aside, take it off of us, and we set it over here, and we don’t put that on anymore. No, we don’t even touch that anymore. Because we’re Christians. We are different from the world. And we are intended to be that way.

When you are angry, a word of advice from the Word of God would be, keep silent. Proverbs 11 and verse 12 says, He who despises his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding keeps silent. In Proverbs 17 27, he who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. What kind of spirit do you have? Are you someone who has a hard time keeping his or her temper? If so, then you might very well be someone who has a hard time keeping your tongue. Because often our temper and our tongue go hand in hand. Control your temper, you’ll control your tongue. A word of advice my dad gave me growing up was you can always add words, but you can never take words away.

2. Unwholesome Speech

And that’s true. Once you say something, you can apologize. You can feel terrible about it. You can try to correct it. You can try to control the damage, but you can’t go back and eliminate those words from ever being uttered. You said them. And they will always stand on your record as something that you have said. Now you can get forgiveness for it. But you always regret that. But you will never regret holding your tongue and not speaking. Because you can always add words. But you can never subtract them. Well, connected with this idea of abusive speech is the idea of unwholesome speech. And I want to take us now to Ephesians. So you just flip back a few pages in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 4.

This is a sister epistle of Colossians. They are parallel in many ways. In verse 29 of Ephesians 4, it says, Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. The word translated unwholesome in the New American Standard is a word that, according to Strong’s Concordance, means rotten. That is worthless. So, literally, this is rotten language. It’s a word that applied to animal waste. Or putrid vegetables. You recall when Jesus said in Matthew 12 and verse 33, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad.

For the tree will be known by its fruit. Well, the word he used for bad there is the same word that is translated here as unwholesome and it means basically bad or rotten or worthless. So this is any word which is obscene, which is offensive, and which is harmful. Now, let’s dig into this a little bit more. We looked at just sort of general terms of anger earlier, or the idea, anyway, of just expressing hurtful things in your anger. But what are some words that in and of themselves are unwholesome? Three categories. First of all, profanity. I think everybody knows what profanity is. This is cuss words, curse words, swearing, four-letter words, whatever you want to call it. These are the kind of things that we see on the movie screen, the kind of things that we hear at work, nonstop in some cases.

Or at school, nonstop. It is defined in the New American Oxford dictionary as blasphemous or obscene language. Now, do we have a problem in this congregation of profanity? I don’t know. In one case, when I was preaching at a church, I knew that there was a problem among two of the teenagers. This is a small itty-bitty church. And it had been told to me by a parent that these two teenagers had been using excessive profanity in their texting back and forth. Texting back and forth. And by the way, that’s just as bad as saying it. So I asked this question do we have a problem with profanity in this congregation? And then I said, I know that we do. And I tried to make eye contact with everybody.

I don’t know that we do here, but if you do, you know that you do. And that is not the speech of a Christian. These are unwholesome words. Secondly, crude speech. These might not be the quote unquote four-letter words as we think of them, but they are offensively coarse or rude words, speaking of things that ought to be private matters, made into an amusingly rude or irreverent fashion, taking perhaps something that is good and pure and making an obscene statement of it. We’ll touch on this later when we talk about course jesting. Third category is euphemisms. Euphemisms are milder words used to replace the more extreme offensive language. Oftentimes these euphemisms have the same sound. They’ll start with the same letter, end with the same letter.

An example of this would be the word freakin’ or friggin’. Well, what is that a replacement for? The F word. And I could go on and give you examples. You can think of many yourself that have the same sound as the curse word and are used often in the same context with the same emotion behind it, but we don’t actually say the cuss word, and so we tell ourselves we’re fine. Sometimes euphemisms may not sound the same, but may have the same meaning. And again, are used in the exact same way and same context, and many times are still offensive words to replace things. You can think of words that replace the S word that don’t sound like it, but have the same meaning and are offensive.

So, euphemisms. By the way, we need to be careful, I think, with euphemisms that replace the name of God. Or Jesus. And you can do research and see where such terms as ga and golly and gee and gosh have their roots. They are euphemisms for the name of God. I’m just saying we need to be careful. That’s what I’m saying. Or even I knew a young man one time that just over and over would say, Oh, my word, oh my word, oh my word, oh my word, oh my word. Am I saying that’s a sin? No, but who is the word? In the beginning, the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. I don’t know if that’s where that all came from, but it sure replaces using God’s name or the name of Jesus in such a phrase.

We need to be careful with any of the oh my that we might utter. Am I saying that all of this stuff is sinful? These euphemisms, I’m not saying that. I’ll leave you to kind of make that judgment, but they sure don’t edify, and they do not impart grace to those who hear. Brethren, it’s not about what’s right, it’s about what’s best. I’m gonna say that again. It’s not about what’s right, it’s about what’s best. And the truth of the matter is we’re not supposed to be just one step above the world and better than the world. We are supposed to be night and day different from the world. In Ephesians 5 and verse 11, do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.

And how are we going to expose the language of the world when our language is just like the world’s, or just a little bit different? Just twist it just a little bit. We’re not able to expose the language of the world in that case at all. What we have to be is totally different. And that’s what Paul is expressing in our verse here, Ephesians 4 and verse 29. There are three things, three ways that we are to be totally opposite from the way that the world talks. Totally different from unwholesome speech. First of all, our speech should build others up. It shouldn’t tear others down. Paul says, good for edification. So words which are encouraging. Words which are purposeful and useful as opposed to unwholesome words, which, if nothing else, are just useless.

Second of all, our words should be carefully chosen. Paul says, according to the need of the moment. So considering the context of the conversation and who we were talking to, and you choose, out of all the words you could choose, you try to choose the absolute best that could be chosen. And thirdly, we need to use words that are a blessing to others, not a curse. Paul said, so that we’ll give grace to those who hear. In Proverbs 25, 11, like apples of gold and settings of silver, is an answer given in the right circumstances. Apples of gold and settings of silver. That is a mark of wisdom, brethren. To choose your words carefully and adapt them to that situation. We need to be very careful, do we not?

3. Foolish Talking and Careless Words

A sister passage to Ephesians 4 29 is Colossians 4 6, which says, Let your speech always be with grace seasoned with salt. Palatable. That you may know how you how you ought to answer each one. And so again, this points to the totally different kind of speech that ought to be said to be true of the Christian. And that ought to be true of the Christian. Well, going back to our Ephesians 5 passage. Verses 3 and 4 says, But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. And actually I’m now introducing a new verse. So I want to focus on that foolish talking there.

What does it mean? Foolish talking. Or the numerator one of the versions says silly talk. Or something like that. What does that mean? Well, in the Greek, it is moralagia. Which is made up of two parts, moros and lagia. Moros is the word we get moron from. Literally, the word means moronic talking. Moronic words. You ever just hear somebody talking? Maybe they’re talking about religion. Or maybe they’re just talking about whatever, and they’re just spouting their thoughts on things that are not thought through, that have no concept of truth or reality, or what is good and what is pure, and you just think that’s just foolish speaking. That’s the kind of thing being talked about here. Godless speech that is without forethought and without wisdom. Such speech, brethren, must not even be named among us.

Along with all the other sins that are listed in verses three and four, none of these things ought to be named among us. Now I believe what that means, if I understand it correctly, is that nobody may be able to point and say, see, those Christians, they’re doing that. Let it not be named among us. Let nobody be able to point at this congregation at any member of this congregation and say, Well, that person uses filthy language. That person uses foolish speaking. Let every single one of us have the same standard. And our standard, brethren, is God. Verse 1 of chapter 5 says, Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love just as God Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

That’s our standard is God. In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus forbids every careless word. He says, But I tell you that every careless word that men may speak, they shall give an accounting for it on the day of judgment. What does that mean? You know, the King James renders it idle word. I’ll tell you what it doesn’t mean. Christian man that I knew in Dade City told me that he went to visit one time another Christian, and they were just kind of sitting and talking, just kind of, he just wanted to get to know him, and they were just chip chatting about just different things. And that the man that he was visiting just kind of stood up and said, I don’t have time for this idle chatter.

And just kind of dismissed him. As if to say, that’s godless. We’re just talking about sports and the weather and things. That’s not important stuff. That’s not at all what this is talking about. When it says idle word in the King James, I like the way the New American Standard renders it careless. Every careless word. So the idea here is that of faultless words that really have no uh wisdom or forethought, as we were just indicating. And in the context of Matthew 12, what had just happened? Anybody know the context? The Jews had just blasphemed the Holy Spirit. They said, Jesus, you have performed miracles by the power of Beelzebub. And that’s when he says, but I tell you that every careless word that men may speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.

And he goes on to say, For by your words you’ll be justified, and by your words you’ll be condemned. In other words, you have not thought about what you just said. You don’t have any clue what you have just said in blaspheming the Holy Spirit. You are utterly foolish. And so we need to be very careful about what we say. There are false preachers all over the land who utter careless words every time they get up in the pulpit. There are people in Bible classes who sometimes just spout their mouths with no idea about what they’re saying. They’re just trying to challenge this or challenge that. And it has no idea of real truth behind it, no substance behind it. Brethren, we need to be careful not to utter careless words, whether it be in Bible classes or whether it be in the pulpit or whether it be in our daily conversations.

4. Coarse Jesting

Now going back to our Ephesians 5 4 passage. The next word after foolish talking, or the next term, is coarse jesting. So, coarse jesting, now that’s not the way that we really talk today. Child, don’t go out there and use course, jesting now. See, we don’t talk that way today. So, what does this mean? Well, it is witty speech that includes sinful insinuations. That’s how Collie Caldwell sums it up in his commentary on Ephesians. In other words, more or less, the way I see it, this is basically dirty jokes. Can we all understand what I mean when I say dirty jokes? Okay? So that’s a little bit more common vernacular than coarse jesting. But this is the kind of stuff that the kind of jokes that go on at school and at work all the time, the kind of stuff that you know you ought not be listening to, and you just find yourself paralyzed, and the kind of stuff you know you ought not laugh at, and you know you ought to say something about how you don’t appreciate it, but you don’t sometimes.

It is the kind of jokes that sometimes you might find yourself telling because you know the audience will like it, and you have well turned a topic or a situation to your audience. It’s kind of the idea of the Greek here. To turn it well. Brethren, we ought to be ashamed for participating in such base conversation as the world participates in. Amen. If you can’t say amen, say ouch. Such speech is not fitting. It’s not fitting. Why? Because we’re not of the world. We are of Christ. We are Christians. What kind of speech and what kind of behavior is befitting of a Christian? Godly behavior. Godly speech. Totally different standard. What is fitting is giving of thanks, Paul says. In other words, that’s totally different. You see?

5. Abusing the Lord’s Name

It’s totally different. It’s positive. It is spiritual. Let that be the type of speech that we utter, brethren. Well, certainly, we see that, of course, jesting is disrespectful. But even more disrespectful is abusing the Lord’s name. This is anytime we use the names of God or Jesus or even the Holy Spirit to merely express emotion.

If you recall the show that used to be popular, Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I used to like that show a lot, but you had to mute it when it came to near the end for a big chunk of near the end because you knew the Lord’s name in vain was going to be uttered over and over. What happens is that they come in and they build a house in a week for a very poor family that has a terrible house and all that. And toward the end of the show, after the house is finished, the crew, the TV crew, you know, comes and drives this bus between the house and the people who are going to own the house who have been shielded from seeing what it looks like.

And then, you know, they say, move that bus, and the bus moves, and then you see the surprise, and of course, then it’s the commercial break. And then they come back and you begin to hear what they’re saying over and over, and it never fails every single episode. It’s the same thing. I had yet seen one that they didn’t utter the Lord’s name in vain, and you just, ah, and you gotta you gotta mute that. You can’t listen to that. Is that how we ought to use the name of God or of Jesus Christ? Is simply when we’re surprised or when we’re happy or when we’re sad or disappointed. Are we at all talking to God when we say that? Oh my God. Say that to him.

Oh my God, you are amazing. You are holy. You are righteous. Not, oh my God, I have a new house. I’m not getting on to y’all. I feel like I’m getting on to you. I just, you know, I’m out of my soapbox right now. Sometimes the name of God is used as a filler. Lordy, Lordy. Brethren, we need to be careful. Any time that we use God’s name in a common or profane, which is the meaning of profane, common way, is, I believe, disrespectful and irreverent to God and to Jesus. In Hebrews 12 and verse 28, we learn that we are to honor God in all that we say and all that we do. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God acceptable service with reverence and awe.

That ought to define our complete approach to God in everything we say and do is reverence and awe. In Exodus 20, in the third commandment, there is a prohibition in the Old Testament against using God’s name for profane and empty purposes. Of course, we are no longer bound to the old law, as Greg aptly pointed out for us this morning at 9. But we certainly see this concept throughout Scripture. And the passage says this: you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. From what I understand from what I’ve read, what that specifically means in context is not uttering an oath, like a false oath, using the name Jehovah.

Or even common oaths using the name of God. I swear by God. No. But by extension, because of the very principle that is behind that command, we ought not to use God’s name in any kind of irreverent way or empty way. Including the way that we typically think of what it means to take the name of the Lord in vain. Now, we’ve talked about several different sins of the tongue, haven’t we? We’ve talked about abusive speech, unwholesome words, profane or foolish talking, coarse jesting, and abusing of the Lord’s name.

6. We Ought Not Even Hear That Kind of Language

But I want to take it one step further here in conclusion. We ought not even hear that kind of language. Let ourselves. We ought to guard ourselves. Hearing it results in speaking it.

So the owner of the second one thought it would be a good idea to get the two together. Thought that his parrot could learn how to get rid of his cursing habit, but the opposite thing happened. They both learned to swear. We are parrots. It’s just how we are. We end up speaking the way that the world speaks if we’re around it too much. Can we control that all the time? No. But do we even try, brethren? I know what it’s like to work at Cracker Barrel as a server. That’s what my living was when I first got married. Does everybody back there curse? Where I worked, they did. Did I try to ask them to stop? Yes. Was it successful? Not always. But it did make a difference.

Can we not ask? Can we not seek out company that won’t use such profanity? And to avoid certain company that does, do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good morals, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 33. And by the way, people will imitate the way we talk. Because our children are parrots too. Parents, let us be careful. Let me be careful. What we say in front of our kids, if you get on to them for the way that they talk, it might just be that they learned it from you. The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart, as Jesus teaches in Matthew the 12th chapter. And therefore, whatever you put in your heart is going to come out in your actions and in your words.

And a curse word slipped out, and he said, that was the medicine talking. He said, it slipped. You know what, brethren? If it weren’t in your heart in the first place, even medicine wouldn’t cause it to slip. So don’t put it in your heart and it won’t slip out. But if it’s in your heart, if it’s what you’re exposed to, if it’s in the TV shows and the movies that you like to continually bombard yourself with, then guess what’s going to happen eventually? It’s going to slip. And it might slip in front of the preacher, it might slip in front of somebody else, and you’ll be ashamed about it. Well, how did that happen? It’s a process that begins by opening your heart to the sin of the world.

Conclusion

And in Proverbs 4 and verse 23, it says, guard your heart with all diligence. For out of it flow the springs of life. Your heart is a wellspring that needs to be protected and guarded from the evils of the world. Because everything you do comes from your heart. Jesus, as I quoted earlier, said, But I tell you that every careless word that men may speak, they will give an accounting for it on the day of judgment. For by your words you’ll be justified. And by your words, you’ll be condemned. May we, brethren, as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, guard our tongue and our heart to be pure before his sight. Would you bow your head with me in a word of prayer? Our Father God, forgive us when we have used speech that is not befitting of a Christian.

God is Father as we grow to learn to not just not say bad things, but to get to the point, Lord, where our speech is that which is pure, and that which lifts others up and serves a purpose and words that are carefully chosen. Help us to grow in our maturity as disciples and to be vastly different from this wicked and corrupt world that is all around us. Give us humility, however, that we can influence the world around us by setting an example so that people can look towards Christians and say, those people are different. I want to be like that. Teach us to be like your Son and to be like you, our Father. It is through your Son that we pray. Amen.

Thank you so much for your kind attention. If I’ve stepped on your toes, I’ve stepped on my own. Truth of the matter is, I’m no better than anybody there that’s out there, and no one of you are better than anybody else either. We are all sinners. And we are purified by the blood of Jesus Christ. We need to reject the life of sin. And we need to strive to be holy. And we can find forgiveness and grace in Jesus Christ and in his blood that was poured out for the remission of sins. We can contact that blood through baptism in water. Having repented of our sins and believed in his name and confess his name, you can do that. Salvation is available. It’s right here. You can have it today if you don’t.

If you do, or if you’ve fallen away, and you need our prayers.

And we’d love to pray for you and to help you and strengthen you. If you’re not comfortable to do it publicly, give one of us a call on the phone. We’d love to talk with you privately. But if you want to come now, if we can help you now, please come as we stand and sing the song of invitation.