(By Phil Johnson)

These notes come from the conclusion of Phil's message at the Shepherds' Conference.

There are two kinds of profanity every Christian needs to avoid. One is what the Bible calls foolish and filthy talk—coarse, obscene, smutty words that usually make reference to private bodily functions. The other is every kind of irreverence, ranging from that which trivializes sacred things to the full-on blasphemy of using the Lord's name in vain.

Scripture is not silent on such things. These are not gray areas. Blasphemy is a grievous sin, and that includes all kinds of flippancy when we use the Lord's name or talk about that which is sacred. Do a study of the third commandment and pay careful attention to all the things Scripture treats as a misuse of the Lord's name. Once you understand what the Bible says about flippant irreverence, if you're not compelled to eliminate every kind of joking about sacred things, you must have a heart of stone.

But (and don't miss this point): we're supposed to have some boundaries that we refuse to cross long before we ever get to the realm of actual blasphemy. Scripture commands us both in positive terms and in negative terms to keep our language clean and pure in every regard. Colossians 3 brings both negative and positive together (the negative in verse 8): "But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth." Then verses 16-17 are positive: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

This is not a complex dichotomy. Again in positive terms, Colossians 4:6: "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned." Or Ephesians 4:29: "[Use the kind of speech that] is good for building up, [that] fits the occasion, [so] that it may give grace to those who hear." But in negative terms, listen to the first part of Ephesians 4:29: "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths." And a few verses later, in Ephesians 5:4: "Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place." Last fall, I did a whole message on Ephesians 5:1-4, dealing in careful detail with what that text means. You can download that message (for free) if you are looking for more on this subject. And while you are on line, look for a sermon I did a few months ago on the third commandment, especially if you aren't clear on how far-reaching the implications of that commandment are.

But this morning we have time only to get a quick overview. In that verse I just read (Ephesians 5:4), Paul uses three Greek words that describe the kind of language he commands us to avoid. In English, it's "filthiness . . . foolish talk . . . [and] crude joking." The Greek terms are aischrotes, meaning "obscenity, indecency, impurity." "Filthiness" is a fitting translation. It refers to language that has overtones of moral defilement. The jargon of the porn industry would epitomize the kind of thing this word applies to. It literally means "dirty words"—the stuff your mom probably threatened to wash your mouth out with soap for. Paul doesn't give a list of them, because he doesn't need to. Every culture has an unwritten list of them, and everyone pretty much knows what they are. If you seriously have no clue what they are, ask any schoolboy. They are the same words that affect the MPAA-ratings of movies. They are the calling-cards of carnal conversation. Notice, Paul doesn't say "avoid them as much as possible." He classifies it in exactly the same category as fornication, and he says with as much emphasis as possible, "let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints."

The second word in Ephesians 5:4 is morologia, meaning buffoonery. From the same Greek root as "moron." Stupid, silly, talk—and the context makes it clear that Paul has in mind the kind of moronic wordplay that characterizes so much of worldly conversation today—peppered with vile words, spicy subjects, lewd and erotic themes. The larger context here is all about sexual purity. Paul is talking mainly about sophomoric banter filled with sexual innuendo.

The third expression in Ephesians 5:4 is eutrapelia—"crude joking." In this context, that's pretty self-explanatory. But here's an interesting fact about this word. In secular Greek literature, that word was used in an almost entirely positive sense, to mean "cleverness." The Greek expression comes from words literally meaning "well turned." It evokes the idea of flexibility or versatility, and it basically refers to someone who is quick-witted. More specifically, it describes someone who is witty in a risque or off-color sense. "Crude Joking" is exactly the idea. Greek culture admired that trait (just like our culture today), but Scripture emphatically condemns it—and in Christian literature, that word was always used to denote something negative.

Paul has carefully chosen three expressions that pretty much cover all kinds of dirty words, filthy jokes, suggestive wordplay, erotic subject matter, filthy double-entendre—that which is bawdy, tasteless, or inappropriate in polite company. Notice: Those are the very kinds of things the gurus of contextualization are telling us we need to use in order to speak to our culture. Scripture says such things are not "proper among saints." Whose strategy should we pursue? It's not really a hard question, is it?

Someone says, "Yes but Paul himself used the word skubalon, and that means dung or excrement." Actually, that word had a range of possible meanings, and the way it was used in secular Greek literature explodes the myth that it was considered taboo. It was a strong word, certainly, and I have no doubt that Paul used it deliberately because it was strong. But it wasn't the sort of vile expression that was considered off limits in mixed company. It's sometimes translated "rubbish," and that's one of the possible connotations. But it is undoubtedly true that when he used this word in Philippians 3, Paul was not trying to be mild or tactful. He probably did use the word to signify dung—manure; feces—the worst kind of filth. But you don't need to use Saxon four-letter words in order to convey Paul's idea clearly.

Furthermore, that kind of strong speech was so far from being Paul's trademark that the few instances we find in the New Testament where Paul said crude things stand out boldly—which was Paul's design.

In fact, the only other instance of coarse language people usually point out in Paul is in Galatians 5:12, where Paul was answering the Judaizers. They insisted that uncircumcised Gentiles could not be saved unless they submitted to the ritual removal of their foreskins. Paul turned the logic of their doctrine against them: if salvation can literally be gained through cutting off some flesh, why not go further? If circumcision was efficacious for justification, just think what castration could do for them.

Listen, it's easily possible to explain to English-speaking adults what Paul meant there—and it's even possible to use the same kind of sarcastic argument Paul used—without descending into the gutter to do it. Paul himself managed to say this without overthrowing his own dignity. What he says is shocking and forceful—perhaps the single most shocking thing Paul says anywhere. But He used no vile expressions. He wasn't being profane or obscene, and this grotesque imagery (the self-mutilation of someone who makes himself a eunuch) wasn't a foreign idea he injected into an unrelated subject just so he could turn the topic to something crude. This point was totally germane to the rational argument he was making, not merely a vulgar insult thrown in for crudeness' sake. It came at the end of four and a half chapters in which Paul carefully dismantled the Judaizers' doctrine. And earthy sarcasm like this certainly never became a defining element in Paul's style of polemical discourse. 

Furthermore, there is a significant difference between strong language and obscene talk. Strong language is definitely needed more often than our postmodern culture wants to hear it, but profane language is never warranted, and it certainly has no place in the pulpit.

Didn't Luther sometimes employ scatological language? Yes, he did. Luther was particularly fond of flatulence jokes. He said he chased the devil away at night by breaking wind. At the entrance to the library in Wittenberg today, there's a book of cartoons by Luther's friend, Kranich, the artist. It's displayed under glass and for several years it has been permanently open to a page showing a cartoon of some Reformer defecating in the Pope's Mitre.

Luther was notorious for his ability to be crude like that in his conversations with students. But I don't know of any evidence that suggests he ever brought scatological language into the pulpit. And if you think Luther's use of vulgar insults against the Pope was one of his most effective polemic weapon, then you haven't read much church history. That cartoon is on display today as part of a studied effort to undermine Luther's influence by showing how foolishly he sometimes behaved.

Do a Google search to find Luther's exchange with Sir Thomas More. It is appalling in the extreme. Language I wouldn't dare read from this pulpit. What Luther said to More was shameful, and the only response Luther got was an even worse flood of angry profanity from Sir Thomas More. Deliberately vulgar language and purposely erotic themes have never been helpful tools for the spread of the gospel. No wonder. If you are cultivating that style of conversation, you are being disobedient to what Scripture commands.

"What about Song of Solomon?" That's another aspect of the argument being set forth in favor of normalizing explicitly sexual language and subject matter in our churches. Listen: Song of solomon elevates the physical aspect of marital love by speaking of it in beautiful poetic and euphemistic expressions that are suitable for reading in any audience. The current fad is precisely the opposite. It's nothing but soft-porn, smuggled into the church under the guise of relevance. But it's counter-relevant. The last thing our culture needs is for the world's obsession with sex to be mirrored in the message the church proclaims.

Seriously: when sex-challenges in evangelical churches are constantly grabbing the attention of the secular news media; when and the New York Times, CNN, ABC, and all the major secular news media are doing feature articles focusing on the raunchy language of one of evangelicalism best-known preachers, we've got a serious problem.

My dear mom, who taught me some of these principles through the judicious use of a bar of soap, went to heaven at the end of January, just five weeks ago. She had been stricken with an incurable muscle disease when I was in junior high school, so she lived with chronic weakness for more than 45 years. Her motto was a Bible verse—Ecclesiastes 9:10: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might." She had a cross-stitched version of that verse, which she kept as a reminder.

Three times in the five weeks since my mom died—twice on nationwide television broadcasts (two separate interviews on large secular network programs) I've heard Mark Driscoll make a filthy, sophomoric joke about a certain sexual behavior, and that verse is always his punch line. "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might."

Driscoll has told that joke repeatedly in the most public possible forums. In fact, the joke is so much a staple in his repertoire that it was featured in the New York Times article. Driscoll uses it as a throwaway line for a cheap laugh when the conversation turns to sex. He says he wants to "bring a breath of comedy and hipness to what can be an otherwise dull religious discussion." (Those are his words.) That is not at all what Paul was doing when he used the word skubalon or sarcastically condemned the judaizers. That sort of joke is a blatant misuse of the word of God. Frankly I don't think anyone could have told that joke in an evangelical context just a decade ago without eliciting a gasp of horror from Christians. But these days that kind of smutty humor featuring sacred things is all the rage. The sad thing is I'll probably never hear that verse again without thinking of Driscoll's smutty joke.

That's exactly what I'm talking about when I suggest that it's dangerously easy for bawdy talk and filthy jokes to cross the line into rank blasphemy. In fact, I'm prepared to argue that if you deliberately bring dirty jokes and lewd subject matter to the pulpit because you think that connects better with the culture than the pure truth of God's word, you are guilty of a sacrilege on the order of Nadab and Abihu. To use the words of Scripture in an obscene joke is a far worse defilement of what's holy than the sin of those who put the ark of God on an ox-cart.

Now our time is gone and I need to wrap up quickly. Let me close by saying this: All of us minister in ungodly cultures. I don't care how unchurched your community is or how trashy the subculture is that you have targeted, you need to be reverent and dignified—sound in doctrine and sound in speech. Those are the qualifications for a true minister, and they apply to every subculture.

Unclean lips are a disqualifying factor. That's one of the incidental points of Isaiah 6. Isaiah cursed himself and tried to hide, saying "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" When God called him to be a prophet, the first thing that happened was an angel cleansed those filthy lips with a hot coal. There's nothing truly prophetic about a trashmouth.

Again, that's just one of the secondary lessons of Isaiah 6. The central lesson is that God is ""Holy, holy, holy." Our lives and lips must reflect that.