We have received quite a few emails on cussing and why it's a sin to let a four-letter word rip every once in a while. Why or why not is this a sin, Pastor John? And is there any difference if it's a word directed at a person calling someone a name or just out loud in response to a circumstance like hitting your thumb with a hammer?

What would you say? Okay, these are questions, this kind of question is the sort of thing parents have to deal with because we all have to set standards for our kids and I think kids soon, not late, soon need to have reasons for the standards that you set for them.

Like we don't say that in this family. Well, why don't we say it? And we need reason. So here's some of my thoughts about language. First, there's a whole category of the misuse of important realities. I'm thinking God, Jesus Christ, damn, and hell. Let's take those four. I think the Bible is pretty clear and pretty explicit when it says don't take the name of the Lord in vain, that God as a throwaway word, or Jesus Christ as a word of "I just hit my finger," or "something just terrible happened," or "damn" as a swear word, or "hell" as a throwaway swear word.

The problem with all those is that they take things that are unbelievably important, serious, and they turn them into moments of smallness. There's a disconnect. There's a lack of coherence and harmony between the way they're being used and the weight that they should carry. If a person uses God and Jesus Christ and damn and hell as a throwaway standard expression of irritation or anger, he is belittling God, belittling Christ, belittling the serious of damnation, and belittling hell, and we ought not to belittle these big, big things.

So that's my first take. Second, there's a whole category in the Bible and in English language called crude, crass, vulgar, indecent. Those words didn't come out of nowhere. Those words are invented because human beings in every culture have felt certain things are inappropriate. Every culture has something that they view as offensive, or we have this word "off-color," or we have the word "rude." Now a person might ask, "Well, is there a biblical category for that stuff?" And the answer is a resounding "yes." I was talking about this just the other day, maybe two weeks ago, a week and a half ago, with the guys over at Bethlehem Seminary about the category of this kind of ethics, and here's a couple of texts.

In 1 Corinthians 13, "Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude." Rude. Now, "rude" is in the King James translated, "does not behave itself unseemly." Now that word "unseemly," that's an old-fashioned word. Hardly anybody uses it today, but we all know what that means.

There are things that are inappropriate. They're dishonorable. They're disgraceful. They're indecent. So the Bible says, "Be aware in the culture where you are not to offend unnecessarily against what is broadly considered rude." Or here's another one, Ephesians 5, 4, "Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are," and then you get this phrase, "out of place," "unfitting." The Greek is "anakin," but instead, "Let there be thanksgiving." So Paul knew that there were a hundred decisions you'd have to make in life for which you couldn't consult a list.

There's no list that's going to work for when something is inappropriately crude, or foolish talk, or filthiness. And so he's saying, "But there is a category, and Christians should not want their language to be crossing over those lines again and again." And right there at the end of that verse is a third thought.

So the first thought was taking big, weighty, glorious things and belittling them, and speaking as though they weren't important. And the second thought is there's a biblical category for unseemliness, and inappropriateness, and rude, and crude, and foolish, and filthy, and Christians ought not to want that. Here's a third idea.

At the end of that verse there that I quoted from Ephesians 5, it says, "But instead, let there be thanksgiving," which I think means that Paul thought if your heart is right and brimming with gratitude to God in all things, that will be a monitor on the kind of crudeness that comes out of your mouth.

People that tend to use a lot of four-letter words, a lot of scatological talk, a lot of harsh, crude, rough, crass talk, are generally sounding pretty angry. They're not content. They're not happy in Jesus. Something's out of whack in their heart. So I think a third major issue is, is your heart right?

Are these things coming out of a good heart? Which leads to one last comment. What is it? Ephesians 4, verse 29, "Let no corrupting talk, no foul talk, come out of your mouths, but only what is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." So here you have Paul explicitly moving beyond gratitude in my heart, which I think is going to wash away most of the crude stuff, but he's saying, "Let your language always be good for people." And what he means by good for people is minister grace for them.

So you should ask, if you're about to say some four-letter word, or for some harsh and ugly thing that's kind of dirty, is it going to be good for people? Is it going to build them up? Is it going to make them stronger? Is it going to make Christ more beautiful in their eyes?

So those are general thoughts. Let me see if I can sum them up. Let me try. One, don't debase and cheapen great reality. Number two, does it come under the category of culturally recognized, crude, off-color, vulgar, offensive? Three, does it reveal a bitter, overly angry, dissatisfied rather than thankful heart?

And four, does it minister grace to those who hear? We live—you and I both, Tony, know we cherish Christ and the gospel above all, and that should mean that grace is abounding in our hearts, and most of the language that is offensive and questionable is simply contrary to ministering grace and living out of grace.

Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. Please email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. At DesiringGod.org you'll find thousands of other free resources online from John Piper. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. you