Swearing, Cussing Preachers

 

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. (Exo 20:7)

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. (Eph 4:29)

It is really disappointing to hear what comes out of the mouths of some of the preachers of our day. Sometimes it seems as though there is a contest on to see who can be the most brazen and macho from the pulpit. It has gotten to the point now where many preachers are outright cursing and swearing all the way through their messages. "What are you talking about?" you ask. Well, I am talking about the bad language being used by Baptist preachers these days.

Taking God's name in vain is a serious violation of God's law and shows that a person has no fear of God and is not under submission to Him. Taking God's name in vain is more than adding a curse word to it. It is simply any use of God's name unless you are talking about Him or to Him. The light, careless use of the name of God tells a lot about a person's spiritual condition. "Bless God!" "My God!" "My Lord!" or just saying "God!" when you are not talking directly to Him or to someone else about Him is taking the name of the Lord in vain. The person who does this will not be guiltless before God, even if he is a Baptist preacher.

That's bad, but that's not all we're talking about here. It has gotten more common now for preachers to use words like "hell" and "damn" in ways that are not at all proper. I listened to one preacher recently who used the word "hell" in every way you can imagine except to warn sinners not to go there. He talked about raising ---- and someone beating the ---- out of someone else. He talked about someone who was mean as ----. Every other word seemed to be some slang word or phrase, either identical, or extremely close to those the world uses in their ungodly conversations. Phrases like "cursing, damning, and swearing," grab attention, but it is inappropriate for a child of God to talk that way - let alone a man behind a pulpit!

When someone has to resort to lewd, base language to try to get their message across, it simply proves they don't have much going for them. It gives real reason to question whether they are a true man of God or not. After all Jesus said:

A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. (Mat 12:35)

". . . for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh," says the preceding verse. A man who is called and annointed by God to preach the Gospel doesn't have to resort to crude, rough language to get the message across. In fact, it destroys the message of the Gospel when it is presented with such garbage. The preacher may go away feeling like a real macho, he-man, but God is not glorified, Christ is not lifted up, and it gives occasion to God's enemies to blaspheme. Our language is sufficient, and the Word of God is powerful enough to arrest the hearts of sinners and saints without trying to grab their attention with words and phrases that are nothing more than cussing!

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