He who has a crooked mind finds no good, And he who is perverted in his language falls into evil. Proverbs 17:20

If you know someone with a perverted mouth - it is because it flows from a morally bankrupt mind. Even as I reread this statement, something within me just recoils from such a strong statement as this - and yet - when we truly understand what God is saying here in Proverbs - that is exactly what is being communicated.

The first thing we see here is a man with a "crooked mind." The word for "crooked" is the Hebrew word "iqqesh" and it means to be perverse, twisted, and crooked. The idea is that of someone who has a moral, religous, and social perversion by which their mind works. They do not think thoughts that are aligned with decent morals. They despise not just morals - but also religion and any kind of social contract by which men seek to live together in a decent fashion. They highly despise the idea of morals that are the result of religious principle. They hate such things - seeing themselves as free moral agents to determine whatever morals or lack of them they want. The consequences of such moral mental suicide is that they cannot find any good. This really is not that shocking since they would deny the existance of any kind of universal good or absolute truth. To them truth is relative to the situation - and since they hate moral goodness - it is not difficult to see that they revel in the evil and the godless things of the world - and tend to shy away from anything else. Thus - of course they would reject the good - and not be able to find any in society.

The second thing we see is a man who is perverted in his language. Perverted language is language that seeks to throw down, overturn, destroy, and wander from accepted biblical norms of how we should speak. There is a lot of disagreement on what this means in today's society. We've slowly grown to be the first society historically in the church to embrace cursing from the pulpit. The excuse that is so often used is that of saying that words are just words - we are the ones that make them curse words - or at least bad ones. What I find a little disingenuous about all this is that even the world system used to have a set of words that they would not allow on television and movies. It has only been over the past couple of generations that these accepted norms have been overturned in favor of the current "delightful" fare that we've embraced in our day. As you can tell, I am of the opinion that such language is totally unacceptable not just for use in the pulpit - but for use in every day life. It seems to me that as our society has retreated from God - we've also retreated from being circumspect about the things we say. To confess my own sins - I've watched my own speech begin to be down-graded, if you will. The Holy Spirit is in the process of encouraging (and often rebuking) me as He seeks to have me live above the moral cesspool of the accepted speech of my society.

The danger here is that we are warned that such speech DOES come from a mind that is being twisted away from the truth. The other danger is that when we do this we are warned that we "fall into evil." Whenever the church thinks it can reach the world by aping the world's behavior - we watch the opposite happen. First, we do not reach the world - but oh, how the world "reaches" us. We watch the same value systems - which might better be called "value-less" systems - that are in the world truly invade the church. When we do not watch our mouths - we will allow a kind of reverse-infection to occur in our hearts. The word used for mind in the first part of this verse actually means, "heart." Therefore when we do not watch our mouths - it is evidence that our hearts have been captured as well.

Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Therefore is it too strident a thing to say that if we have a perverse mouth - it arises out of a twisted and deceived mind? Our mouths simply reveal what is in our hearts. It would be to our benefit to watch our mouths and be careful what is allowed to come forth from them. In the end - we might look more "appetizing" the world if we do - but could that be simply because we lose the distinction of speaking in a holy manner that embraces purity and righteousness.

Let me say one last thing though - unless some get the idea that I think we are to be the public censure of all that is unacceptable speech-wise. We are called to be salt and light. That means we embrace holiness - not as a means of beating the lost to death - but as a means to be different and to be a thirst-creator in our world. The lost WILL become thirsty for what we ARE - and therefore will want the One who has changed us. Our purpose is to allow holiness to be revealed in our lives as a thirst-agent. We are not to use holiness as something to shame the lost into feigned obedience to God. That will do more to harm the gospel than reveal it. So . . . my admonition to you from Scripture is to have a mouth that is radically different than the world. Let your mouth not be filled with perversion - and your heart filled with deception and twisted morals. Instead let it be filled with Your Lord - who, by the way, did not descend into such language anywhwere in the gospels. He simply lived for God - spoke for Him - and although rejected by some - was embraced by many who saw His actions - His words - and His heart - and became incredibly thirsty for real holiness. May God make us those same things in our generation.

The heart of the wise instructs his mouth And adds persuasiveness to his lips. Proverbs 16:23

One of the maladies that I face in my life is that I engage my mouth too often without fully engaging my mind as to what I am going to say. That particular malady results in another and that is that I find my foot often lodged in my mouth shortly after the first malady manifests itself. Needless to say today's proverb was eye-opening to say the least. I learned that what truly needs to be engaged before I speak is my heart - which is to be what instructs my mouth before it engages in saying what "ought" to be said.

The heart of a wise man instructs his mouth what to say. Some might say that if this were the case all we would say is, "thump, thump" in a rythmic fashion. (Oops, there I go again!) But the Hebrew concept of the heart is a wondeful one. The heart refers to the immaterial inner self - or what the Holy Spirit would refer to as man's spirit. This is considered by the Hebrew mind to be our inner nature - the workings of our mind as it is instructed by the Holy Spirit using as His primary text, the Word of God. Thus the mouth is instructed by none other than the Holy Spirit Himself - who takes the Word and uses it to instruct us, through our spirit, so that our mind is taught. This working then brings to our mind things that should be filtered out - or in some cases filtered in.

Scripture, for example, instructs us in Colossians 4:6, "Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." What a great instruction for our mouths. Therefore, as the Spirit does this He asks us, "Hey Bubba (sorry, I live in Arkansas and this is pretty effective here), is what you are going to say gracious? Does it have a little 'salt of the gospel' in it - so that it will make whoever is hearing you thirsty for God - and the gospel?" Something else the Spirit of God might ask is this, "Yo Bubbba, did you think about what this person truly and lovingly NEEDS - or - are you just spouting off what you want to say to them?" These are things that will truly alter how you speak - because in all honesty - not even our words belong to us. We were bought with a price - therefore we are to glorify God with our bodies - which, by the way, includes our mouths!

Here is another way our mouth can be instructed by the wisdom of the Spirit of God. He may choose to remind us of Ephesians 4:29 which says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear." So this time the Spirit of God may chime in with something like this. "Dude (this is when I am in California), is what you are going to say wholesome, or does it smell like rotten fruit or nasty-smelling fish! Are you going to build up your friend - or just confirm him in the same worldly ways that his other friends speak? Like, you totally need to think about what he NEEDS right now! Have you even heard what HE'S been saying at a heart level in this conversation and others? Don't be a total bogart man - give him some grace - some love brother - some real helpful, encouraging, gospel-smelling stuff!"

Now, apart from the regionalization of all this in my language - there are a few VERY important things we can learn from just these two examples.  We learn how the Scriptures would be used by the Holy Spirit to instruct our mouths. First, note that in both examples the Lord wants to instruct us to think of others as we open our mouths. Second, note as well in both examples that the Lord wants us to have our words abound with grace as we speak. Lastly, there is either stated or implied that our words are to be used to build others up - not tear them down. You can take these three things to the verbal-bank! We ought to write them on the inside of our mouths, so to speak, so that we are reminded that any word that proceeds out of them should be -  1) others-minded, 2) filled with grace and the gospel, and 3) encouraging! Can you imagine the difference that would make in a matter of days in the things we say!?

The rest of today's proverb reminds us that when we do this - our hearts will help us to have additional "persuasiveness" added to everything we say. I have known people like this in my life - and they are amazing people. They are the E.F. Hutton's of the spiritual world - and in many ways the world in general. When they speak - people listen! The amazing thing is that this is not because they have "earth-shaking" things to say every time they open their mouths. It is more because you will be blessed and uplifted whenever they speak! You want to hear what they say - because it nourishes your very soul to hear it.

Precious ones . . . let us not be people whose mouths are instructed by our culture - or by our own selfish motives - or by the evil one who would love to use our mouths for his own destructive purposes. Let us be people of the grace-filled, love-overflowing, life-encouraging, Spirit-instructed mouth! Let us embrace hearing what our hearts have to say about what words we should use. And as we listen to this soul-nourishing instruction for our mouths - may we submit our hearts to be ruled and governed by the Holy Spirit of God. May His tutelage dominate our conversations, our statements, and our answers so that others may be blessed - made thirsty for the God who speaks through us - and hungry for the same gospel grace that has changed our hearts, which is the very reason that our conversation is so different!

A man has joy in an apt answer, And how delightful is a timely word! Proverbs 15:23

Don't you love it when you say the right thing - in the right way - at just the right time? That is what our proverb is about today. It is about being wise enough to know when to speak - and not only that - but what to speak when you have the opportunity.

The beginning of this proverb starts with a Hebraism about the mouth. There is joy in having an answer of the mouth, which the way that this Hebraism would read. It has to do with the ability to speak well - or in this case to speak what helps others. When speaking of Moses' complaint to God about his inability to speak, this similar Hebraism is used. Moses complained to God that he had a "heavy mouth." This meant that he stuttered and stammered when he spoke. This speech problem made Moses think he could not be a spokesman for God. God gave him Aaron to speak for him, but we see plainly that Moses did not struggle to speak when the Spirit of God moved upon him to confront Pharaoh. The mouth of the man here in proverbs knows no such problem. He brings joy to others as they here the "answer of his mouth," which means the perfect thing to say in the moment. Whether this is a word of teaching, reproof, correction, or training in righteousness - the best word to speak is one that is in agreement with God's Word on the matter.

The prophet Nathan spoke the perfect word to David to bring him to repentance over his adultery and cover-up of his sin. Joshua spoke the perfect word to the people of Israel as they needed to decide whether they would serve the Lord. David spoke the perfect word to Goliath to remind him that God was going to give David victory because of Goliath's mocking of God. Daniel had the perfect words to speak to Nebuchadnezzar when he needed his dream interpretted. Jesus always had the perfect word to speak to detractors, to those who were hungry for his Word, and to those who came to Him needy and longing for God's grace and healing.

A timely word is delightful - both to the one who speaks it and to the one who receives it. There are so many who come to church hurting who need to hear such words. They long for a word of encouragement - for someone to lift them up. Others who are complacent and full of themselves need rebuke. Others still may need exhortation because they are timid about following the Lord radically. And a few who are long term church members, but who do not know Christ, need someone to love them by sharing the gospel with them so they can move from just being religious - to being Christians. No matter what the need, God will give us these "answers of the mouth." He will do so as we surrender to Him and desire far more to speak the truth in love - than just to engage in small talk.

There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, But the tongue of the wise brings healing.   Proverbs 12:18

Have you ever had someone say something to you that was so cutting that it felt like a sword stabbing you in the heart?  Unfortunately, those moments happen - and God warns us about them.  Today's proverb reminds us that our words can cut deeply when we speak out of anger or resentment - and do so rashly without thinking about what we are about to say.

Solomon warns his son that there are those who will speak out of the wrong kind of passion.  They speak in anger and rage.  They speak rashly - and therefore do not consider what their words are about to do to the one who is hearing them.  Just about everyone in our world has had one of those moments.  We speak out of anger to a spouse and cut them deeply to the heart.  We speak out of frustration to a child and crush their spirit.  We speak out of resentment to a co-worker and damage our relationship with them.  Whatever the situation, the key here is not to speak "rashly."  This word means to speak thoughtlessly.  The fact is that they just do not take the time to think about what they are saying - and to do so with a graciousness that considers the other person's feelings.  Therefore their words are foolish and said flippantly.  They usually do not know the damage they are causing till later - and sometimes they don't get it at all.  We cannot get our words back once we speak them - therefore we should send out our words with some thought before speaking them.  James warned in the New Testament that we should be "slow to speak."  Following such wisdom will keep us from broken relationships and from having to apologize for saying something stupid.

There are also those whose tongue bring healing.  One damages while the other heals.  Their statements can comfort those who have been hurt.  They can counsel people to do what is necessary to remedy bad choices, bringing spiritual healing to their lives.  There is also another way they can speak - and that is with the Scriptures - which can heal a breach between men - but more importantly can heal THE BREACH between man and God.  Such words are spoken of elsewhere in Proverbs as apples of gold set in settings of silver - for they are words spoken in a right situation. 

One last thing about this particular proverb - and it comes from a personal experience of reading the Scriptures in my quiet time.  I remember reading this particular proverb and thinking that I do not want to use my tongue like a fool swinging a sword blindly.  But I also began to grieve - thinking that I wished that there was something more powerful than a human tongue.  Then the Holy Spirit brought to mind a Scripture that I had memorized.  Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword.  It was then that I realized that although human words can cut us - nothing is as sharp as the Word of God.  And whereas the careless words of the fool may damage - God uses His Word to cut in a way that brings healing.  Hosea speaks of this in chapter six of his prophecy.  God was going to use His word upon His people - and it would wound them.  But it would be the kind of wounding that would be bandaged and healed later.  It was like the wound of a surgeon - who only cuts to remove a cancerous tumor that will eventually kill us.  These are Hosea's words,

"Come, let us return to the Lord.  For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.  He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him."  Here we read how the tongue of the Wisest of all was used to bring healing - even though it cut as the words were heard.  May we be those who speak the truth - who speak righteousness - who speak so as to bring healing to others.  

He who speaks truth tells what is right, But a false witness, deceit.  Proverbs 12:17

Today's proverb has a picture to paint for us about being a person who speaks truth and what is right, or a person who is deceitful and untrustworthy in what they say.  The picture that is painted for us is framed by the Hebrew word used for "speaking" that is mentioned first in this verse.  The word used here is the Hebrew word "puah" which means to breathe.  It refers to how we breathe out.  This is a word used in a poetic way in the Old Testament.  In the Song of Solomon it speaks of the day breathing.  This refers to how the shadows of morning flee at the appearance of the sun.  Here in Proverbs 12:17 it refers to the way that we speak - but not just in a specific situation.  It refers to our lifestyle - or - what kind of things come out of our mouths in every situation in life.  Of course what we see in the rest of the proverb is that we either speak truth or deceit. 

There are those who speak truth and what is right.  "Truth" is the word "emunah" which refers to something true and faithful.  The primary thing being communicated with this word is faithfulness.  Through the rest of the Bible the word speaks of character - God's in Deuteronomy 32:4, Psalm 33:4, 100:5, and 119:90 - and that of people in 2 Chronicles 19:9, Proverbs 12:22, and 28:20.  When someone is speaking truth - they are being faithful in what they say.  The whole proverb says that they are speaking faithfully - and what they speak is finally defined as "what is right."  What does all this mean in the end?  The faithful man or woman declares what is right.  The word for right is "tsedeq" which is the word that speaks of righteousness - or right by God's standard.  It is an ethical word that referred to God's justice and righteousness as represented by the Law of Moses - and by the reaffirmation of God's Word by the prophets.  Here, though, is how this works out for you and me in the 21st century. 

Situational ethics unfortunately rules the day in our world.  Everything is negotiable.  There is no absolute truth - except what you yourself are comfortable in holding - and even that only applies to yourself (except when you are uncomfortable with your own standards - and then you can change those too).  What is left is a society founded upon shifting sands.  But as the people of God - the people saved by His grace - we will stand out like brightly painted, fully lit up sore thumbs!  We are those who regardless of public opinion - hold faithfully to God's Word as our source of truth and what is right.  We not only believe this in our thinking - we also faithfully speak it out of our mouths.  In the midst of a world where the winds of change and compromise drive the public conscience wherever they blow - we are a biblical breath of fresh air when we speak.  To some we will be a breath of death - but to those who are being saved - it will be a breath of life to life. 

At this point I am going to say some things that will most likely offend people - yet they need to be said.  Too often a statement is made like the one above - and yet people will interpret it according to their "situational ethic" mindset.  Thus what is right once again is mired in personal opinion.  A faithful truth-teller will speak up when it comes to biblical ethics and righteousness.  That means that they will speak up about biblical sexuality.  Biblical sexuality is abstinence before heterosexual marriage - followed by faithfulness to one spouse in that heterosexual marriage until death parts them.  Thus a faithful truth-teller will oppose heterosexual immorality and homosexuality, as well as their off-shoots living together outside of marriage and homosexual marriage.  A faithful truth-teller will state that abortion is wrong - in all cases.  A faithful truth-teller will openly stand for racial harmony - and will view racism as evil and sinful.  A faithful truth-teller will state that we are to oppose greed and selfishness by giving to the poor - but will also say that providing for able bodied people who can work is wrong.  Everywhere God's Word makes an statement of ethical morals - the faithful truth-teller will stand - and will speak it.  And . . . just in case a person decides to speak the truth - but not speak it in love - the faithful truth-teller will remind them that the spirit in which you say something (i.e. not like a jerk - and with grace and mercy - yet saying what is true even if the truth itself is offensive) is as important as the truth itself. 

There is a second kind of wind that blows from the words that people speak.  It is the false witness who speaks deceit.  The false witness is the one who speaks lies and vanity.  The word is used of those who were false witnesses in a trial - who lied on the stand.  It refers to a person who says vain things and lives their life in vain.  There is little or no other purpose to their existance than to live for themselves and love themselves.  Their deciet is an intentional misleading of others by either distorting or withholding the truth from them.  Their deceit is evidenced by the fact that there IS absolute truth - but they will not state it or hold to it.  As offensive as some will take this - the false witness is the one who does not speak according to the ethical and moral standards held by God's Law and the entirety of Scripture.  There IS a right and wrong!  God gives it to us by His divine authority - and has revealed it to us in the Scriptures.  Not holding to this - or trying to twist it in any way - is being a false witness. 

When it comes to your words - what kind of breath flows from you throughout your day?  Are you one who breathes forth deceit.  Please understand that in our culture this person is the norm.  They breathe forth the lies of our immoral and biblically unethical society.  We hear them every day on the news - in our entertainment - everywhere.  You and I are to be a breath of fresh air.  They may not see it as fresh because they have been breathing in the sulfuric lies of the pit for a lifetime.  But to speak lovingly and biblically is to speak fresh, life-giving air to those all around you.  Speak the truth.  Speak faithfully.  Speak life-giving, fresh air to all with whom you come into contact!  Be a faithful truth-teller!

The lips of the righteous bring forth what is acceptable, But the mouth of the wicked what is perverted.   Proverbs 10:32

Our culture is coarsening.  I see it every day in the way that we talk.  The use of perverted language has grown a hundred fold in the last 20 years - and unfortunately - it looks like things are getting worse.  It would be one thing to see this among the lost because - well let's just admit it - they are lost.  But what I am seeing is that there is also a coarsening in how Christians speak.  Things that would have horrified us just 25 years ago - are now becoming more common in everyday conversation.  Before you think that I am taking the place of the ultra-righteous who is shocked at all the wicked sinners - I have noticed a coarsening of my own language - and have begun a concerted effort to speak in an acceptable manner before a holy God.

The righteous bring forth what is acceptable with their lips.  That means the things they say are acceptable.  At this point is would be good to define the word, acceptable.  Acceptable to Whom?   That is the question we need to answer.  Our society seems to think that acceptable to the current standards of society is the rule of the day.  By saying this I am not saying that their language equals that of the world, but rather that we set our idea of what is acceptable by a comparison with the world. Let me give you an example of what I am saying.  I want to put a disclaimer here - because I will have to use a word that is not acceptable to many to help illustrate my point.

The world's language is completely out of control.  The amount of foul language allowed on prime time television and movies is astounding.  When you consider that Rhett Butler's, "Frankly Scarlett, I don't give a "expletive," was met with shock and horror in the theaters of the day, you can see that we are out of control.  Frank Butler's remarks might not even merit a drop to a PG rating in our day.  Certainly his remarks would be shrugged off, even by Christians, in our day.  Yet, the sensibilities of that day were horrified by the outrageous language used.  Fast forward to today and we learn that men who are considered conservative Christian preachers are using worse language than Frank Butler from our pulpits.  Words I would have been reprimanded for saying out loud - are now widely accepted by Christian circles.  That is why we need to realize that having our lips bring forth what is acceptable means bringing forth what is acceptable to God. 

We should note that in just two verses God says that He is greatly offended by things which are perverse.  Here we read that while the godly man speaks what is acceptable - the wicked man says things that are perverse.  The idea of being perverted is not just a reference to those who speak sexually perverted things.  It goes further to include any way that God's ways are perverted - which means to twist or make them something that they are not.  To say that we can come to God based on our own works is to pervert the gospel.  To say that God is too loving to judge the wicked is perverting His holiness.  So we see that there are ways to pervert the truth God has reveled to us.  The wicked speak these things - and thus perversity comes out of their mouths.  That is why we not only need to address the foul language that comes from Christians with this verse, but we also need to address the ways people pervert the truth to make the gospel more palatable to the wicked. 

May God help us each day to have our language pleasing and acceptable to Him.  I will admit that the only reason I began to adopt some words and ways of expressing myself that were unacceptable was to look cool to younger people.  This is a horrible reason to let how you speak be coarsened.  We should seek to be holy as God is holy.  We should have a heart that desires to honor God in every conversation that we have with others.  As the Psalmist said, "May the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable to the Lord."  Then and only then can we know that what our mouths bring forth is godly and acceptable to God Himself.

The mouth of the righteous flows with wisdom, But the perverted tongue will be cut out. Proverbs 10:31

One of the topics that the book of Proverbs touches on a great deal is that of our tongues and the benefit or damage that they can do.  Here we have another of those proverbs that counsel us on having a tongue that honors and glorifies God.

The mouth of the righteous is described here liks a fruitful tree.  The word "flows" is the Hebrew word "nub" which speaks of something that flourishes.  It means to bring forth or to bear fruit.  It is also used in the Old Testament to speak of someone who is experiencing prosperity.  We are told that the mouth of the righteous has an abundant harvest of wisdom.  The words that the righteous man speaks are like a tree laden with fruit.  That fruit when eaten will lead us to wise, godly choices.  The reason this is true is because men speak out of their mouths what resides in their hearts.  The righteous man can speak forth wisdom because the Word of God dwells in his heart.  Therefore as his heart gives his lips the substance of his words - those words will be in accordance with the Word of God.  Truly then, you will get wisdom from the things that he says.

Not only is the mouth of the godly man mentioned in this proverb, but also the perverted tongue as well. Perverse as used here means something deviated and distorted.  It describes deceptive and corrupt speech.  Here in Proverbs it refers to one who intentionally distorts what is straight and right.  Thus, this man is not sharing God's wisdom, but a perversion of it.  This kind of tongue will be cut out.  This may sound gruesome at first, but the idea is that of cutting something out of the ground.  It referred to uprooting a plant that was not productive - or one that was counter productive.  The picture that we have from this proverb is an agricultural one.  We have a mouth that is like a fruitful tree - and a tongue that is like a harmful weed.  One is a blessing, the other is a curse.  One will be welcomed as wisdom flows forth from it, while the other will be viewed as a weed that disrupts the production of a garden.  The difference between these two is very simple.  One comes from a man who loves with is right in the eyes of the Lord, while the other comes from a man who distorts what is right and true.  He does so because he values having his own desires fulfilled, rather than doing what is right and good for all those around him. 

Put away from you a deceitful mouth And put devious speech far from you.
Proverbs 4:24

Any godly father who understands spiritual things knows that when urging his sons to have godly hearts, he must also address in almost the same breath how they use their mouths.  Jesus taught us the truth that it is out of the mouth that we know the condition of the heart of a man.  He told us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  Therefore when we take the time to examine the things that are coming out of our mouths, we will be able to better know what is lodging in our hearts.

The father frankly speaks to his sons about the need to put away a deceitful mouth and devious speech.  The first term here about a deceitful mouth has to do with perversion and deceitfulness.  It is a Hebrew term used to describe a person who speaks without any integrity in God's eyes.  He would rather speak deceptive things than the truth, immoral things rather than moral.  Scripture speaks of such a man as an evil, worthless man in Proverbs 6:12. 

Our society is growing more and more coarse all the time.  We know and see this through the language that we hear in the public square - and from the entertainment industry.  I may sound old fashioned, but I remember speaking with my mouth about how an entire theater gasped in horror when Frank Butler cursed at the end of "Gone With the Wind."  It was a ground breaking moment, but unfortunately was a harbinger of things to come.  Now, what that one actor said is common fare during prime time TV and is considered nothing to us today.  The language that is spewed at all hours of the day should shock us, but unfortunately we just yawn at the spiritual depravity of our day and move on with life.

The only way back to a godly, moral society is to rear a generation of sons who no longer consider such things commonplace.  Unfortunately for us, one of the problems is the current attitude of the church. 
We have moved from a cursing society to a cursing church.  The rave of the day among some of our youth is the rise of conservative, evangelical preachers who litter their sermons with language that at one time made the world gasp in theaters.  This development, while seeming to be really cool to some of our youth - will only result in a continued increase in those whose mouth is revealing a heart filled with perversion.  Some may balk at this assessment, but when we see that the godly father commands his son to put such a mouth away - can this be too far off from the truth?

The second command of the father is for the son to put "devious" speech far from him.  "Luz" is the Hebrew word used here and it means to be crooked or perverse.  The idea here is to deviate from God.  When our speech deviates from God's standards and God's ways - and in all honesty, from God's Word, we are headed in a very dangerous pathway.  Knowing that some will read this wondering just what good, godly speech is - and what words that we should avoid - I want to comment very pointedly about such things. 

Our current crop of curse words are focused on some very interesting things.  A couple of curse words deal with defacation.  When we read in the Old Testament that God required Israel to take a shovel and cover up their waste - it only goes without saying that speech that uses such words on a regular basis probably ought to be buried as well.  The other more common curse words seem to center around a crass way of speaking about the reproductive process.  Once again it is fascinating that God's commentary about this is that the marriage bed is holy and that sexual relations between a man and woman should remain in their own bed - and not in the common conversation of society.  Some will scoff at such statements - but I would argue with them as to what kind of biblical admonition encourages such speech?  Paul writes to the Ephesians, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification."  Wholesome words are those words that are not rotten - and since God does not encourage worldliness, but greatly discourages it in 1 John 2:15-17 - we might also do well in discouraging speech that far more resembles the world than resembles the Word. 

Fathers, we need to encourage a new generation of young men who speak so as to please God in all that they say.  Their hearts need to glorify God with what dwells in them - and their mouths need to reveal the godliness of their lives by speaking those words that are good for edification according to the need of the moment for those who are listening.  It would bless our society to see men who once again value a common-speak that does not offend or shock - but that blesses and encourages.