Recently while in a local retail store, two employees walked by my daughter and me while conversing. As they did, we could not help but hear their conversation. It was laced with the most vulgar and crude language. They showed no concern that my daughter or I heard what they were saying. A few weeks ago, a parent at my wife’s school met with his child’s teachers. During the meeting, he used crude and horribly offensive language within earshot of his children. Apparently, he saw nothing inappropriate about this. It seems everyone s cussing these days. A few years ago, The Hill published an article, “Why lawmakers are cursing more now more than ever.” It once would have been politically disastrous for a politician to be heard cursing in public and career-ending to use such language in any official capacity. But in the last few years, everyone from city hall to the White House seems to be using R-rated language. There have even been a few pastors who gained notoriety (infamy) for using curse words in their sermons. Something has dramatically changed.

When I mention the growing ubiquity and common usage of swear words, my children often respond with an eye-roll and say something along the lines of “this is the world we live in.” It is the world they have grown up in, but I remember when it was not so. This is not to say that cussing is a new phenomenon, for it has always been part of a fallen world. Part of the sinful rebellion of man is to use the glorious God-given ability to communicate and express ourselves with words and pervert it with curses and crude words. The phrase “cuss like a sailor” has a long history. In 1699 Cotton Mather said of sailors in a sermon about the fear of God, “Is not the sin of profane swearing and cursing, become too notorious among our sailors? Filthy speaking, bawdy speaking, unclean and obscene ribaldry is too commonly heard in the mouths of sailors.” The difference between the days of the puritans, my own childhood, and the present is that in the past, such “obscene ribaldry” was understood to be obscene and actively hidden from polite society.

The spoken word is powerful. There is power in speaking a name. There is power in speaking a declarative statement. There is power in asking a question. God created man with the ability to formulate and express thoughts with words. We know God through His word, and we express ourselves to God through words in prayer. Our relationship with one another is developed by the words that we speak. The spoken word can be glorious in that it can encourage, inform, bring joy, and heal. The spoken word can also be destructive in that it can discourage, deceive, and wound. With our words, we can enlighten or confuse, bless or curse, build up or tear down, encourage or demoralize.

The ability to express thoughts and emotions through speech is part of being made in the image of God. God is one who speaks. God spoke all things into existence. The third verse of the Bible begins with the words, “and God said.” With these words, God declared what was good and pleasing. Later God gave testimony to Himself through the words of the law. And finally, Hebrews tells us, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” And our God who speaks, by His command, created man in His image with the glorious gift of expressive speech.