VAIN WORDS

Recently when my wife and I were in a doctor’s office, at one point, he felt he had to emphasize what he was saying by splicing his remarks with a few curse words, which in no way helped to clarify what he was saying to us, of course. God is very specific in the third of the ten commandments, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).

I was reminded of the old gospel preacher who came our way when I was a child, and said, “You farmers, when you’re working on your fence and you hit your thumb with the hammer, do you then call on God to curse it, when you know what you want is for Him to do everything He can to help it get well?”

With the use of profanity getting to be more common everywhere around us, we have to be very careful as to how we speak, lest we let ourselves get caught up with the use of that kind of language also. Remember “God will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain!” The New Testament also warns, “But the end of the charge is love out of a pure and good conscience, and faith unfeigned, from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain talking” (1 Tim. 1:5-6). The apostle here is warning us both of things we say and teach. Remember the words of Christ, “But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9). “Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man; but that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man” (Matt. 15:11). Love you, David V. Fultz