Is cursing wrong for Christians or is it okay for Christians to swear? There are pastors who
swear while preaching, and they say nothing is wrong with that. Now I will answer that in just
a moment. I was actually addicted to cursing as a teenager. It happened in the Ukraine. I
was in school and surrounded by people who didn't believe in Jesus, and who didn't have parents who
guided them in the right way. You know cursing was common, cursing was normal. It was part of the way
you expressed anger, you expressed frustration and you tried to navigate your life. As a teenager,
I started that and I liked it. I liked it so much that I became almost obsessed. I was like
a cussing sailor. Everywhere I walked from school, home. I was cussing non-stop. It's kind of like
became almost like a tongues for me. It's like a different tongue I was speaking. Of course I would
do it at my house because I'm the oldest of five. I didn't want my parents to catch it and of course
give me a spanking, and one day I was milking a cow. Yes, we had a cow and I was milking a cow.
That was actually true, and the cow hit the bucket with the milk, and I remember I was so angry,
so upset and I just let that cow have it. I loaded it so many curse words on this cow. Little did I
know, my dad was passing by the barn, and I think when my dad heard this foul language, he probably
thought a demon entered the barn. So he stuck his head inside and to his greatest surprise,
and shock, and disappointment, it was his son. So my dad of course did what every Pentecostal
dad would do. He gave me a Biblical five-fold, pressed down, shaken together spanking and I was
delivered. I'm not joking. For real. I never cussed again as a teenager. So I don't know,
maybe that's one of the tools we should bring back to apply the Scripture and apply the rod to our
children so they can be free. But I do believe many people need their mouth to be cleansed,
their mouth to be purified, their mouth to be healed, their tongue to be healed because many
of us are destroying with our mouth, what we're trying to build with our hands. We go to school,
we get education, we have connections, we have a gifting and calling, and then we run our mouth
crazy. We let this verbal diarrhea come out. All kinds of garbage comes out, and while we're trying
to express ourselves, we're actually destroying ourselves. Cursing. We're releasing a curse into
our life. Now what is the difference between cursing and swearing? Cursing is defined as to
use profanity to bring evil upon. Swearing is to make an oath or to give a vow, to swear falsely.
So swearing can include curses and oaths, while cursing really just includes curses. Now cursing
can include profane, offensive or taboo words. Such as, words that have to do with sexual or body
reference, taking the Lord's name in vain, or an utterance or wish to express harm that will come
and another person. And this is very common where people begin to use God's name in vain,
and they swear using the Lord's name. They'll never do that using Muhammad's name, Buddha's
name, their mom's name, their dad's name. But they use the Lord's name in vain. Some people
get into this habit because they're not Christian, and they become Christians and that needs to be
broken. We see that Peter actually was one of the followers of Jesus, and Matthew 26:74, it says:
So Peter cursed. That means he called down curses. In this case he was pretty
much trying to say stuff to confirm that he was telling the truth, and then secondly,
he swore. That means that he was trying to prove that what he's saying is true by mentioning
higher power. Often with the suggestion that you'll be punished if you're lying,
to swear or to make a promise. And honestly, in the midst of all this, when Peter was swearing
and cursing. He actually denied the Lord. So I wonder how many of us, while cursing and swearing,
using God's name in vain, are actually living a prayerless life because remember. Peter was
sleeping when Jesus called him to pray. Peter was living on this high emotion instead of actually
having deep devotion. And Peter was following Jesus at a distance when Jesus was arrested,
and then Jesus was going through this arrest and Peter's just cursing and swearing, denying Christ,
and Jesus said to Peter, you'll deny me three times. I wonder if that is something that is
leading us to deny our faith. I'm not saying that a person is renouncing Christ. What I'm saying
is they're following this path that Peter did. Yielding to his weakness, yielding to the flesh,
yielding to the demonic temptation by cursing and swearing. Now a few things that we need
to say from the beginning. Words have power. Words can begin and end wars. They can create
and destroy families. They can break hearts but they can also heal them. Proverbs 18:20 it says:
Words, they cannot change reality but they can change how people perceive reality. There are
people who say, "Well God created this world with His words. Therefore we can create our world with
our words." That is the furthest thing from the truth. We can't create with our words. We're
not God. But our words do have power to change how people perceive that reality. Five words of
Zechariah, cost him 40 weeks of silence because our words do provoke God. God said of Israelites,
He says because you said in my hearing, that's exactly what I'm going to do. And they end up
spending their life in the wilderness and they never entered the promised land. Jesus
is called the Word. The words are like seeds, planted into the soil of our heart that produce
harvest. Our tongue is like a rudder and a fire. Now profanity, cursing, is really an evidence of
ignorance. Those using profane language lack the vocabulary to express themselves without resorting
to gutter language. No Christian should be guilty of such unbecoming talk. In fact,
the founder of KFC said one time that his conversion to Christ cost him half of his
vocabulary. If you got converted to Jesus and your language did not change, something is not
right. Please listen to the following things that I want to share with you, why cursing
and swearing is wrong. Number one. God's word prohibits dirty talk. Colossians 3:8, it says:
Many of the words known as cuss words are descriptions of immoral acts,
filthy emissions of waste from the body or private body parts. And the Bible is very clear that we
are to put these off. Meaning as we put on Jesus Christ, certain things must be put off. Anger,
wrath, blasphemy and also filthy language out of our mouth. Our mouth needs to be cleansed.
The second thing that I want you to remember is our speech reveals what's really in our heart.
We see that Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and religious leaders in Matthew 12:34. He says:
You must understand is that when a Christian uses the foul language in public. They waste
the opportunity to set themselves apart from any unbelievers who commonly say the same filthy
things. What separates us from the world is not only our hearts but also our mouth. You know,
when you spend all night and you wake up in the morning, sometimes we have a bad breath you know,
and so many Christians have a bad mouth. When they open their mouth
just bad stuff comes out. Negative things come out. Things that are filthy come out. And that
actually could be a huge indication that maybe they didn't put off the bad mouth,
the filthy talk. But maybe their heart wasn't changed. Maybe they need a hard surgery. So
instead of just trying to discipline their mouth, they need to have a total makeover
of their inner being. They need to be born again. The third thing that I want you to
remember about filthy language is we will give an account to God for every word. Matthew 12:37.
When we will stand before God, not only our works will be judged but also our words. How
many of your words will be placed on the scale, placed on God's judgment,
and how many of them will bring you a reward and how many of them will go through the fire
and end up as ashes? Be careful what you speak. Be careful what comes out of your
mouth because you will be judged. I will be judged for my words. The fourth thing,
and this is a strong one. The Holy Spirit is listening. Ephesians 4:29, and it says:
The word "corrupt" here is the word that is used for rotten fish, rotten fruits or warm,
eaten olives. Meaning our speech should not be morally rotten.
You may say, "But what would happen if I have a rotten speech?" Well you will stink,
spiritually, morally you stink. But you know who you stink to?
The Holy Spirit because the next verse, verse 30. Ephesians 4:30, Paul says:
The word "grief" means to cause pain, grieve, make sad.
To cause severe mental and emotional distress, to vax, irritate, offend, insult, to experience
sadness or distress. That's what Holy Spirit experiences when your mouth is rotten. When
the smell that comes out of your mouth is nasty, it grieves the Holy Spirit. The fifth thing that
I want you to remember. What comes out of your mouth can defile you. Matthew 15:18, Jesus says:
This is not just an expression. A lot of times in our culture we're like, "Well I'm
just expressing my feelings." You're also not just expressing, you're also defining yourself,
defiling yourself as a person. Many movies receive an R rating because of foul language.
Meaning that even unbelievers recognize that cussing, filthy language is inappropriate.
At least for children. It defiles, it's wrong, and we as Christians should understand that. So
what do you do if your tongue needs healing? If your mouth needs cleansing? If your world
that comes out of you needs to be changed? A few things that I want to highlight. One,
take your thoughts captive. Sometimes before there are words in our mouth, there are thought
in our heart. 2 Corinthians 10:5, it tells us about bringing down the strongholds, taking
our thoughts captive. Secondly, muzzle your mouth. The Bible clearly tells us to actually bridle. The
Bible clearly tells us to put restrictions We have to control what we say. James 1:26. We can't just
say, "Well, I can't help it." Yes you can. You can choose your words. Choose them wisely. Thirdly,
ask God to cleanse your lips. Isaiah 6:5, when he had an encounter with the glory of God,
he felt that his lips were dirty, his mouth was not clean. And God took a coal from the
altar and then put on his lips. He purified his lips. It's interesting because for the first
five chapters Isaiah kept saying, woe, woe, woe. Woe to everybody, everybody is bad. But when he
came in contact with God's glory, he realized his own mouth is dirty. Let God cleanse your
mouth. Ask Him for help and mercy. Number four, change your environment. In 1 Corinthians 15:33,
it talks about that companies can corrupt morals. There's a story told of two parrots who lived near
each other, and one was accustomed to singing hymns while the other one was addicted to
swearing. The owner of one obtained the permission to let the one that's singing songs to God,
to hang out with a parrot that is addicted to swearing. Hoping that the parrot who is
singing songs will influence the parrot that's cursing but the opposite happened. Both start
swearing because your environment can affect your mouth. Be careful the environment that you
are in. If you are able to ask, when you walk into a place where they're playing godless,
foul language music or movies. To ask them, "Could you turn that off?" Usually people
will accommodate customers preferences in those places. But sometimes you can just walk away
from that place or a conversation if somebody's swearing. or you can ask the person, say, "Hey,
I do not appreciate that. Could you use other language that does not involve swearing or foul
dirty dirty language?" And people will appreciate your conviction and they will honor that,
and if they don't leave them. The fifth thing is season your speech with grace.
Colossians 4:6, it says:
So the Bible says, always have your speech season. Have you ever tasted food that just doesn't have
any like salt or just doesn't have this taste to it? And many people, they don't curse but they
don't have their speech seasoned. Put some little spices into your speech. What are those spices?
Not anger, not self-righteousness, negativity but grace, salt. Always have your speech be seasoned
with gracious words. Have tasty words, not raw words. It's easy to vomit out immature phrases,
crude words but seasoning takes time. Take time to make God's Word go into your word
and that they can become tasty. Have words appropriate to each situation, like it says,
that you may know how you should answer each one. Have you ever noticed people who cuss and spew out
cuss words over and over. No matter who they talk to, it's bleep, bleep, bleep this, bleep, bleep,
bleep that. Christians are to thoughtfully address different needs of different people
that we encounter in different situations, with our speech being seasoned, and lastly, speak in
tongues. Acts 2:4, it talks about the Holy Spirit coming upon disciples, taking over their mouth. I
find it interesting, that one of the areas that the Holy Spirit affects when we are filled or
baptized in the Holy Spirit, is our mouth. It's the area that we seem to not able to control
without the help of the Holy Spirit. So instead of just always trying to control yourself from
not saying the wrong stuff, release yourself to the Holy Spirit, that He will speak through you,
sing through you, intercede through you. Both in language that you understand and in language you
don't. Speak in tongues. Speak in tongues often, pray in tongues, sing in tongues. worship God,
fill your mouth. May it be a well of wisdom. May the mouth, and I just declare that over
you today in Jesus name. According to Proverbs 10, verse 11 all the way till verse 32. May your
mouth be a well of life. May wisdom be found in your lips, as you are a person of understanding.
May you be a person who doesn't have multitude of words because sin is not lacking. May you be
the person person who restrains his lips because that's where wisdom is. May the tongue of you,
your tongue be a choice silver. May the lips of yours, the righteous person feed many. May the
mouth of the righteous bring wisdom. May the lips of the righteous know what's acceptable. May that
be your portion. May your heart be pure and your mouth be purified, for the glory of God. If you
have lived your life cursing and swearing, repent today. Put that off of you. You're a new creation,
reflect the kingdom of Jesus, not the latest trends of this culture. God bless you. Thank
you for watching this video. Let me know in the comments below, have you struggled with cursing?
Have you been freed? What did you do? How did God set you free from that? Are you currently
struggling with it? Did this video hit just the right spot for you because you exactly needed
to hear that so God can take you to the next level? Let me know that in the comments below.