Do Bad Words Necessarily Make You a Bad Person?
Thinking about the true consequences of swearing, curse words and profane speech
Should people who use curse words immediately be judged as bad people?
Does swearing mean people can no longer do good things for those around them? Of course not!
Now let me ask you the opposite extreme of this.
Can people who avoid using curse words be immediately tagged as hypocrites?
Is the lack of profanity and swearing in one’s speech an absolute indication of lack of honesty in a person?
I guess it works both ways. But why is it that people are more afraid to be judged as hypocrites than as foul-mouths?
Perhaps there is no simple answer. Maybe our world has just grown into such a condition that the worst thing anyone could ever fear is to be judged as someone who is a self-righteous hypocrite.
But what is a hypocrite? While it can be defined as someone who speaks clean but behaves badly, it can also be taken as someone who claims to be good but can’t stop speaking bad words towards other people.
“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, his religion is vain.” — James 1:26
If you claim to be a good person, what is stopping you from refraining from saying bad words?
Don’t you know that those words can affect the people around you in a negative way?
“No foul language should come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for needed edification, that it may impart grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption.” — Ephesians 4:29–30
Good words encourage, enlighten and build up people. Bad words irritate, demean and spread negativity around.
And not only that. Bad speech affects not only the people around, but the very person who is responsible for it. Because words have power. They concretize what used to be abstract thoughts.
It is for certain that thousands of bad thoughts come and go in our heads, but what do you think happens when we allow those thoughts to be spoken? Speaking something crosses the boundary between a mere thought and a reality we affirm. A reality that affects us and everyone else who hears it.
“Hear and understand. It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.” — Matthew 15:10–11
“The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” — James 3:6–8
“Avoid profane, idle talk, for such people will become more and more godless, and their teaching will spread like gangrene.…” — 2 Timothy 2:16–17
Of course we can say that was once been taboo has just become normal. What has been shunned has become the common speech of man. Ah, but so is bad conduct, betrayals, heartbreaks and many other evils that became more common in our modern times. Either these things have affected our words, or our words have caused more evil to happen. Perhaps it can be both!
There is a consequence to everything that we do.
And that includes the words that we utter with our mouths.
What are we nurturing with our corrupt words? What are we trying to prove? If good words can’t help you become a good person, will bad words help you to do it instead?
“For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. A good person brings forth good out of a store of goodness, but an evil person brings forth evil out of a store of evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak. By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” — Matthew 12:34–37
“There are words comparable to death;
may they never be heard in the inheritance of Jacob.
To the devout all such words are foreign;
they do not wallow in sin.
Do not accustom your mouth to coarse talk,
for it involves sinful speech.
…Those accustomed to using abusive language
will never acquire discipline as long as they live.”
-Sirach 23:12-13,15
Jocelyn Soriano wrote the books 366 Days of Compassion, To Love an Invisible God, and Defending My Catholic Faith. To support Jocelyn in her “full-time mission” as a Catholic writer, please consider subscribing, upgrading your subscription, buying her books or giving her a tip via Ko-fi.
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