Watch your mouth!

Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil (1 Peter 3:10).

It happened during World War II at Guadalcanal. A detachment of American GIs were startled by an announcement that they found posted at their mess hall. It read, "American soldiers are requested please to be a little more careful in their choice of language, especially when natives are assisting them in unloading ships and trucks and in erecting abodes. American missionaries spent many years among us and taught us the use of clean speech. Every day, however, American soldiers use bad words, and the good work your missionaries did in our midst is being undermined by your careless profanity." The soldiers were further shamed to see that this note was signed by a Polynesian chief.

Many Americans don’t give much thought to what comes out of their mouths. They use vulgar words for human waste to express disgust. They use crude references to sexual acts to tell off someone they are mad at. They use God’s name as an exclamation of surprise. They call down curses from God on persons or situations that frustrate them.

A person who uses bad language is insulting God. God’s name, revealed to us by His grace through the Bible, is reduced to an adjective expressing strong emotion, the same way that references to crude sexual activity and the elimination of bodily waste are used. And when people call upon God’s name to send to hell those they are mad at, the seriousness of God’s eternal punishment of sins is trivialized. Foul language demeans God’s dignity and authority in our world.

Paul says that as Christians, we are God’s ambassadors. What we say represents our Lord to others. When we use language that is crude or shocking, we give the false impression that our holy God is unconcerned with the quality of our mutual relationships. When we use God’s name in a trivial way, we are suggesting that a person doesn’t need to take God seriously. When we call down damnation upon others, we depict our God as a God of vengeance, not as a God of love. Please join me in praying,

Help us, Lord God, to respect Your holy name in everything we say. Help us to bite our tongues instead of calling down curses of damnation upon others. Lead us to express our emotions without resorting to offensive language. Keep us mindful that everything we say reflects on You, the holy God of love. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.