I grew up in a southern culture where the words you used, and the people you used them around mattered. For example, choice words were typically not used by decent men around women or children. It simply was not respectable. Depending on whose mother or child someone said them around, it could lead to bigger trouble because it was perceived as a lack of respect. Decorum mattered. The use of words mattered. For what it is worth, my thoughts on the subject are not from an idealistic perspective. There is not a word, or combination of words, that I have not heard many times over, or (shamefully) thought or used myself at one time or another.

Fast forward to today, and we have digressed, significantly. Words (think four letter) that were used sparingly or for a particular emphasis, are commonly spoken. They have made their way into television and movies, and saturated much of what people watch. What is particularly surprising is that words were very carefully chosen in professional settings in the past. People who might have used them freely in those settings were seen at best as uncouth, or at worst plain ignorant. If you go into public, you will hear them in the common course of language and conversation, and many people think nothing of it at all.

I am not naive enough to think that in culture this can be reigned in. I will argue however, for Christians, that there is a better, more God-honoring way. The Bible has much to say about the use of words.

Exodus 20:7 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for God will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Psalm 141:3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 21:23 Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Matthew 12:36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.

Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

James 3 ⁴ Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. ⁵ So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. ⁷ For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰ From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

You may be thinking, is this really all that important? Apparently God thinks so because these are only a few of the many verses that reference the subject. I will leave you with this question- Are people able to tell there is something different about your life, because of the way you speak? Do your words point people to Jesus Christ or draw them away? If this matters to you, then your words should matter to you.