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Podcast
Swearing In Bible
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt, and today I want to talk about swearing in the Bible.
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And by swearing, I'm talking about profane language, not taking an oath in court.
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The web is full of articles based upon scientific research, some recent, some dating back as
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far as 2010, which claim a positive connection between swearing and honesty.
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I'll quote experts from some of these articles, and I'll be taking some excerpts because some
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of them are quite long.
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The goodhousekeeping.com has one, if you swear a lot, you're more honest.
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Science says so.
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Here's a quote, scientists from the University of Cambridge recently surveyed 276 people
0:50
about their most commonly used swear words and how often they say or write them.
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The test also measured the participants, quote, honesty and questions about blaming
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others, cheating at games, and taking advantage of people.
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And surprise, surprise, those who used salty language the most lied the least.
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A little further down in the quote, the study co-author David Stilwell told the Daily Mail
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they're not filtering their language, so they're probably also not putting their stories
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about what's going on through similar filters, which might turn them into untruths.
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Still quoting it further down the article, a second larger experiment with almost 74,000
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Facebook users pointed to the same conclusion.
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It turned out people who keep it clean also try to look cooler online, even if it involves
1:59
fudging the truth.
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The study was accepted for publication in the Journal of Social Psychology and Personality
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Science.
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Well, that's the end of the quote.
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Do we find people who swear more honest people?
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Well, the study says yes.
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The next article, published in 2017 by Paul Ratner, says the researchers, led by Gillard
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Friedman of the Department of Work and Psychology at Maastricht University in Netherlands, said
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interestingly, while liars were more likely to use third-person pronouns or negative words,
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honest people were more likely to resort to profanity.
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Most of us Bible believers cringe at this because we know Paul said there must be no
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filthiness in silly talk or coarse gesturing, which is not fitting but rather the giving
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of thanks in Ephesians 5.4.
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And of course, these liberal progressive groups love this because it seems to destroy traditional
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values and allow for something vulgar to be labeled progress into a more highly evolved
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society.
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On the other hand, we can't just ignore the study.
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This has been a study of a variety of people in different parts of the world for a long
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time with similar results.
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So what exactly is going on here?
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First, notice four things the study has not found.
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Number one, they have not found that swearing enhances honesty.
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The two are disconnected.
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The two are connected, but that in no way says they are aides of one another.
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For example, if a mafia drug cartels are connected with family loyalty, that doesn't mean drug
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deals enhance families.
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The fact that a virtue and indecency are found together doesn't imply that the indecency
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aided the virtue.
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Second thing, the research does not conclude that swearing during outbursts of anger is
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connected to honesty.
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The swearing in the survey is about words used in casual or descriptive dialogue, not
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outbursts of anger.
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The third thing is the research does not explain why swearing is prominent among the most disgusting
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people of society, such as criminals, ghetto mobs, street gangs.
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Surely these are not the most honest people.
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And fourth, the conclusions of the study do not distinguish between blasphemy against
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God and other forms of swearing, whereas in the Scripture, blasphemy against God is in
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a category all its own.
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But we shouldn't just disregard the study.
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It does demonstrate something.
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The question is, what is that something, and can it be found in the Bible?
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Let's look more closely at some of their conclusions.
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One is that they're not filtering their language, so they're probably also not filtering their
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stories about what's going on through similar filters, which might turn them into untruths.
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That's a quote from the article.
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We tend to edit what we say.
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That's a good thing, of course, because James says no one can tame the tongue, James 3.8.
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Without editing, we might not mean to say what we would otherwise blurt out, but that
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editing process can also dip into our sin nature and spruce up our statements in order
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to express pride and impress people, cover up problems rather than communicate the truth.
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Those using rough language may not be taking the time to edit out their own sin.
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Also profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level and
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with higher integrity at the social level.
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So I take it a politician who swears to his staff but gives speeches with nice words may
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have gone from truth to lying.
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Third, swearing is often a word that someone uses when they can't think of a more accurate
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descriptive word.
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It's like saying someone's an idiot or a moron or crazy.
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In high school, I had an English teacher who said, profanity is a weak mind trying to express itself.
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That's probably a bit much, but there is some truth to it.
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We use profanity when we want to express ourselves with emphasis and we can't think
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of something more accurate to say.
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What's the Bible say about all this?
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Well, first of all, it's clear that the Bible condemns any kind of blasphemy against
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God, casual or otherwise.
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Exodus 20 verse 7, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the
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Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain.
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2 Thessalonians 19, 12, you shall not swear falsely by my name so as to profane the name
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of the Lord.
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God, I am the Lord.
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First Timothy 1, 20, among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander who have handed over to Satan
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so they'll be taught not to blaspheme.
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Same condition is clear about harsh words and outbursts of anger.
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Proverbs 12, 18, there is one who speaks harsh rashly like the thust of a sword, but
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the tongue of the wise brings healing.
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Matthew 26, 74, talking about Peter says, then he began to curse and swear, I do not
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know the man and immediately the rooster crowed.
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Galatians 5, 19 and 20, now the deeds of the flesh are evident which are immorality, impurity,
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sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, empathy, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions,
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affections.
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And Colossians 3, 8, but now you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander,
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abusive speech from your mouth.
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But that's not what's being discussed in these recent surveys.
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What's been discovered is a connection between truth-telling and swearing.
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And whereas the Bible never condones swearing, it does recognize that harsh true words are
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better than smooth lies.
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Proverbs 12, 19, truthful lips will be established forever, but a lying tongue is only for a
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moment.
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Proverbs 26, 28, a lying tongue hates those it crushes and a flattering mouth works ruin.
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Proverbs 28, 23, he who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters
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with a tongue.
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There's something else relevant to this that we can observe in the Bible.
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Godly men did not always use soft words.
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The Old Testament prophets used harsh words to describe Israel's idolatry.
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John the Baptist did the same thing with the Pharisees.
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Paul told the Ephesians to only use words that were good and edifying.
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Ephesians 4, 29, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word which
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is good for edification according to the need of the moment so that it'll give grace to
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those who hear.
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When Paul was dealing with a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, we read
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this in Acts 13, 9, and 10.
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But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him
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and said, you who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of
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all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?
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That's pretty harsh language and name-calling.
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I remember years ago hearing a literature professor say something like, Matthew 23 is
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the harshest language ever used by anybody against any group.
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It's Jesus talking to the Pharisees.
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Let's read a little of it.
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Matthew 23, 15, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on the
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sea and the land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as
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much a son of hell as yourselves.
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You fools and blind men, you blind guides who strain out an ant and swallow a camel,
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for you're like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside are beautiful, but inside are
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full of dead man's bones and all uncleanness.
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You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?
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And to a different group of Pharisees earlier, he said, this is in Matthew 12, 4, 34, you're
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a brood of vipers.
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How can you being evil speak what's good, for the mouth speaks out of that which fills
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the heart?
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Both Jesus and the apostle Paul used harsh words about people who were opposing or falsely
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representing the kingdom of God, but the words were descriptive words, graphic, detailed,
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vivid, striking, explanatory.
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They were not vulgar expletives without content.
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They were not swear words.
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Nonetheless, they were words that get our attention because they were judgmental and
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communicated a vivid description, which would not be communicated with gentler words.
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Those descriptions connect the ones telling the truth to salty language.
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Jesus said in Mark 9, 50, salt is good, but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will
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you make it salty again?
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Have salt on yourselves and be at peace with one another.
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Well, as a conclusion, Christians should never use blasphemy, including casual blasphemy,
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the most common form of expletive today.
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Christians should never use trash talk as part of their conversation, but Christians
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should use accurate words to describe sin and false teaching rather than using softer
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words to not offend or to be more acceptable.
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Well thanks for listening.
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If you're interested in more on this subject, you can check out my paper Swearing Honesty
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in the Bible.
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It's on our website relationalconcepts.org.
