Salty Language

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. -- Ephesians 4:29

This is not, I don’t believe, so much an admonition against foul or profane language as it is about speaking honestly and thoughtfully to one another.  We ought to be careful how we speak to others because we can corrupt someone if we are too harsh and condemning, or not condemning enough. 

Our words should fit the occasion and the circumstances of our hearer.  Many of the world’s problems can be laid at the feet of those who refuse to offend when a reprimand is appropriate.  Speaking the simple truth is now considered by many to be “hate speech”. 

At the other extreme, we used to exercise some restraint on what could be expressed in the various venues of popular culture.  Having labeled all restrictions as “puritanical”, we see that our society becomes daily more immoral, licentious, and depraved.  What a surprise this is.

We need to face the truth about ourselves.  We do not need to be told that we are all right and that every impulse we might have is “natural” and should be followed if we are be authentically ourselves.  The authentic natural man is debased, debauched, and perverse – and the authentic natural woman is probably worse.  If this were not true, Christ would not have had to come into this world and die on a cross for our sins.  We are dead apart from Christ, and all the perfume in the world won’t make a corpse’s prospects any less unpleasant.

To switch to the political for a moment, I wonder if the people who call themselves “progressive” have ever thought about the progress of a dead body.  That is what the “progressive” agenda amounts to.  They would do better by taking up taxidermy like the conservatives.

I am neither progressive nor conservative in that sense.  I believe Christ alone can make the dead live, and this is the hope of humanity.  Those who offer political or economic solutions to spiritual problems are most guilty of corrupting society.