Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen – Eph 4:27

How different would our communities, churches, friendships, and families be if we lived this out?

I’ve talked to students on our School of Mission about this for years. I’ve watched a rebellion from Christians when it comes to language and how we use our voice. I grew up in a religious culture. In our culture bad language is still frowned upon in certain settings; around kids, around older people and around Christians. (I’ve lost count of the times people have apologised to me for their language when they find out about my faith) and when I was younger this was enforced even more strongly than today.

Many Christians growing up here didn’t enjoy the religious restrictions around language. They watched the hypocrisy of some believers who wouldn’t say certain ‘bad words’ but in the next sentence would show disdain or judgement for others using different ‘acceptable’ words. So they rebelled and started to use swear words or Christian replacements to show how non religious they were. Over the years its just become acceptable among certain groups of believers.

I just don’t understand the logic.

I get not wanting to be religious or a hypocrite but to act and speak in the way some do to prove a religious point baffles me.

The Lord wants to use our voices for good, to speak words of life that will healing and multiplication to a hurting world. Why then would we use the same tongue to speak anything opposing that? Why would we say anything coarse or unhelpful?