I suppose, given our human tendency to legitimize our behavior (both good or bad), I shouldn’t have been surprised. But I shook my head in sadness when I read the following LiveScience headline on the Fox News website this past week: “Swearing Makes You Feel Less Pain” (www.foxnews.com; July 13, 2009). The article reports on the efforts of researchers to see if there was any link between swearing and an individual’s tolerance of pain. “The researchers enlisted 64 undergraduate volunteers and had them submerge their hand in a tub of ice water for as long as possible while repeating a swear word of their choice. The experiment was then repeated with the volunteer repeating a more common word that they would use to describe a table. Contrary to what the researcher expected, the volunteers kept their hands submerged longer while repeating the swear word.” So there you have it. Finally – proof that swearing is good for you! Didn’t you just know that if we waited long enough, science would catch up with what most of the world already believed and practiced?
Please believe me when I say that I am not campaigning to be chief of the language police. I also know that our language can be destructive even when we aren’t “cussing.” But make no mistake – God cares about the words we use. Twice in Ephesians, Paul references language that would be unfitting for a disciple of Christ. First: “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” (Ephesians 4:29). Also notice: “…and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks” (Ephesians 5:4).
Regardless of the results of human research, it seems clear that whatever qualifies as “unwholesome words” and “filthiness, silly talk, and coarse jesting” ought not to be part of our vocabulary. Could God be telling me that I need to clean up my language?
God loves you!
Mike
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