The World's Most Contagious Sin... Swearing

In my life there is one sin that I commit most often when compared to every other one. This sin is swearing. Ever since I was a kid and I heard those certain bad words for the first time, they stuck with me for the rest of my life. Despite how hard I would try not to, profanity would still slip out of mouth before I knew what had happened. This eventually led to me letting out some kind of curse after every negative occasion I encountered. My parents and other significant adults would try to punish me and get me to stop, but it wouldn’t work. Swearing became one of the biggest habitual sins I had ever committed. But I was saved by grace when God revealed portions of scripture to me. After years of swearing, I finally gained the ability to control my tongue.

There are many verse that go over sinning. One of the verse that make the most impact it Ephesians 4:29. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for the building of others up… [and what] may benefit those who listen.” Notice how the verse says “Do not” at the beginning. This means do no swear ever, it doesn’t mean don’t swear when you’re having a good day, or don’t swear when everything is just dandy. It says don’t swear ever. That means when you kick a step really hard, you don’t swear. Or when you find out you ruined a project you had been working on for over an hour, you still don’t swear. This verse tells us that there is never an OK time to swear. But that the only thing that should ever come out of our mouth is “that which benefits those who listen.”

James 3:9-10 says “With the tongue we praise our lord and father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” We can not praise God and curse humans with the same mouth, that is too hypocritical to even imagine. The chapter goes on to say that fresh water and salt water can not come from the same spring. Therefore you cant not swear and obey God at the same time. Either we are a pure and holy spring that produces pure and holy water, or we are an evil spring that produces evil and impure water. A characteristic of a Christian “Walking the Christian Walk” is that they have taken on the traits of the “clean” spring, and have striven to be more Christ-like as time goes on.

When I had reached this point in my life I began to understand that swearing was a greater sin than the grain of salt characteristic I had previously portrayed it as. But where did that leave me. I knew now that I was a habitual sinner, but how did I dig my self out of this mile deep hole? The answer I needed was found in 1 John 1:9 - “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” After reading this verse I realized that not only was God going to forgive me of my sin, but he was going to help me stop sinning too. I also realized from the latter half of this verse that God was not only going to forgive me of my sin, but was also going to purify me of it too. When I finally understood what God meant when he said this, God produced in my brain a way to relate this to my everyday life.

We all know from buying water at a gas station what “Purified” water is. It is everyday water that goes through a filtration process to make it clean and healthier to drink. This is exactly what God says he will do in 1 John 1:9. God tells us that he is going to become our spiritual filter. He will take our normal everyday life, filter it through his word and his teachings, and will produce in us clean and holy water.

After this long process to rid myself of swearing I finally realized what God was trying to tell me; That I couldn’t do it alone. I was a human, and therefore it is my nature to sin. Unless some greater being stepped in and helped me along the way, I would always fail and revert back to my old sinful ways. It finally dawned on me that God wasn’t asking for me to go at it alone. God was only asking for me to give it my full efforts and he would help me along the way to finish the race in a worthy matter.

Swearing is one of the most addictive sins that Christians have to go through. We are taught our whole life that it is not “that bad” of a sin. After all it is impossible to avoid the media surrounding us. There is swearing on TV, the radio, internet, and even in our school systems. Thus our brain is constantly dulled down to completely ignore the true nature behind the words. The old saying “monkey see monkey do,“ in this case, is actually a sad reality. Our brains our programmed to recreate what we see and hear around us. Therefore it is only natural for us to make swearing a regular habit. The only way to conquer this sin is through the power that God gives us when we accept his message. When the holy Spirit enters our heart God gives us a newfound strength to do whatever we set our hearts to doing. But remember, God doesn’t expect us to be perfect, in fact he knows we will slip up and eventually fail. But if we ask God to forgive us when this happens; He will pick us back up and set us again “on the road to victory.” If we put our minds to it and ask God for his help, swearing will become an easy thing for us to overcome. And before you know it, you will be one step closer to “Walking the Christian Walk” in everyday of your life.