"Colorful Language", or "Sign of the Times"?

The Word of God tells us that in the end times they will call evil good and good evil.  We find it so in many areas of life today. What a turnaround of attitudes we find in the area of profanity and crude language. It used to be that when a scoundrel got saved the Holy Spirit began to work immediately on that man's language, cleaning up swear words and blasphemies against God. No one had to make this happen. It was just part of the conversion process. And when a person encounters God today the same thing happens unless the person is taught otherwise.

Today we have ministers, like the famous "cussing pastor" Mark Driscoll,  sounding just like the world in their speech. Likewise Christians across the nation soak in the language of movies and popular music and spew it back out like sailors. Some call it 'colorful language', but the only color is black.

Our street ministry team encountered two young men one night recenty who at first seemed to be pretty well grounded Christians but soon their smoking and cursing became evident. Their reasoning was that "this is how we reach the lost...by being like them".

It was not so in years past. Colonel Sanders, the famous founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, said that his conversion to Christ cost him half of his vocabulary. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, said that his mouth was so foul that even the unsaved commented on his filthy language, but when Christ got hold of him, He changed him from the inside out...including his tongue.

John Newton, author of the hymn "Amazing Grace" went from being a gutter-mouthed sailor who profaned the name of God, to being a writer of hymns that extol the name of the Lord.

Even the rise of the "Sunday School" ministry was itself a reaction to the foul language of young people on the streets. Robert Rakes, a publisher in Gloucester, England many years ago, was on his way to interview a man in the slums of the city and as he walked thru the poverty-stricken area, he was surrounded by children. Suddenly, he was horrified as he listened to the language they used. Even in their playing, these children swore and cussed and profaned the Lord's name. He was so disturbed by what he saw and heard on that day that he determined to do something about it. And he did. The Sunday School, a new kind of ministry, was born.

It has been said that the kid who once got spanked for writing the obscenities in restrooms is now cleaning up as a writer in Hollywood.

I believe that the world can see thru the sham of a man of God using profanity "in order to relate to people"...or any Christian for that matter. The reality is that we want to be just like the world and are not willing to be separate, as the Word of God requires.

And the world spots hypocrisy and pounces on it with a vengeance. When the famous Watergate tapes were released, the public was shocked to hear the vile language of President Richard Nixon and his associates. Every sentence seemed to be filled with obscenities and blasphemies of the worst kind. What was especially ironic was how Nixon, in a public interview during his campaign for President, had criticized the foul language of President Harry Truman, and praised President Eisenhower for having "restored decency, dignity, and even good language" to the office of President! He campaigned that he would be the kind of man in the White House to whom children could look up.

The world isn't fooled by Christians who compromise. And the Lord has told us that in these days good will be called evil and evil will be called good. It's time to raise the standard again. When a man is saved, the Holy Spirit does not make that man like the world. He makes him radically unlike it.  That's just what He does.

What testimony does your vocabulary communicate?