Our Speech to the Glory
of God
“Thou shalt not take
the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him
guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” ~ Exodus 20:7
When I was twelve years
old, I came across a tract entitled, “Is It Swearing?”. This
pamphlet covered some words that are common in today’s vocabulary,
but words that should not be part of our vocabulary at all. Here are
some of the words it covered:
- Gosh, golly: “used as
a mild oath, slang replacement for God”
- Gee: “used as an
introductory expletive, a slang replacement for Jesus”
- Darn: “a slang term
for ‘damn’”
- Heck: “a slang term
for ‘hell’”
Did you know that? I
certainly did not, until I read that pamphlet. Growing up, my
parents did not let us use such language, but it was not until I was
12 that I understood why.
“Oh my ____”
“_______it!” or, just plain old “________” --- we all know
that is how the world speaks today. But did you know that every time
someone uses gosh, golly, or gee, they are blaspheming the name of
God – taking the name of God in vain? People today would call this
“wooden swearing”, or basically, not swearing at all. But,
girls, God does not change, and He says that it is wrong to swear
mildly or strongly:
“But I say unto you,
Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is
God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by
Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou
swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or
black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for
whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” ~ Matthew
5:34-37
Seriously, Miss Lois,
that’s not what that means…Really? Look it up in two or
three dictionaries and see if I’m wrong. The reason I wanted to
share what I learned with you is because what we say is to be to
the glory of God. How is it glorifying God when we’re using
His name – or damn, or hell – as swear words?
Well if I shouldn’t
say those kind of words, what CAN I say? That is certainly a
natural question – and it is a question we should ask! I think we
Christians sometimes are too good at mimicking the world’s ways and
not even realizing it. We hear each other say things like “oh my
word” or “oh my goodness” --- but did you know that “Word”
and “Goodness” are either names or descriptions of God? That is
something I realized recently and came under conviction about. The
only thing I might say now is “oh my soul” because David used
that term in Psalms more than once. However, even then, I am trying
not to even talk like that, because – why do we even HAVE to talk
like that in the first place? Just because it is “normal”
doesn’t make it right. If we have a habit of talking like the
world but we didn’t realize just how worldly it is, God is ready to
help us get rid of this habit! His mercy and patience is abundant.
Scripture Reading for the Day:
Proverbs 9
II Timothy 1
Sometimes it is easy to condition ourselves to what we hear and it comes like second nature to use slang words. I need to remember to ask myself is what I am saying glorifying to God?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good reminder because those kinds of modern phrases just tend to "slip" without us even thinking about it. I need to have a vocabulary that is more glorifying to God!
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