Careful What You Say<\/a>.<\/p>\n\tQuestion:<\/h2>\n
That is a very good explanation, and the Bible does indeed mention it. But that would mean that these words are defined by humans. Christ wants us to take note of them so that we do not use them in order to control our tongue and not have our witness damaged.<\/p>\n
However, where is the line? You consider “doggone it” to be the image of taking God’s name in vain, which is what a euphemism is — an image of the actual inappropriate word or phrase.<\/p>\n
I’ve never understood “doggone it” as being a euphemism for taking God’s name in vain. Certainly, one might say it rather than give in to the temptation to take God’s name in vain, but even a simple sigh of frustration is the same as that. If you say nothing, you almost overwhelmingly must express the frustration in some manner, and so even a sigh becomes a replacement for a bad word or for taking God’s name in vain.<\/p>\n
I don’t know of any example in the Bible to illustrate what I mean because the only thing that comes to mind is Michael the archangel disputing with Satan over what to do Moses’ body, but I think he said that out of wisdom, not frustration.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
Why does frustration require taking God’s name in vain, whether in your mind or in your words? Yes, we get frustrated at times, but God is not the reason behind our frustrations and His name should not be the first thing we think of to express our displeasure.<\/p>\n
It is true that phrases in any language can change meaning over time and a phrase that indicated something inappropriate in the past may now no longer have a bad meaning. However, what I pointed out was to simply research what a phrase currently means. You may be surprised how many phrases that you used simply because you heard them often and never thought about what the words meant, only to find out that you are saying something that Christians should not say.<\/p>\n
Language was invented by God (Genesis 11:7). It is how we communicate with each other. The words within a language have agreed upon meaning; otherwise, we would not understand each other. As I showed, certain categories of meanings are inappropriate for Christians to use. Arguing that these are just human words does change the problem or the solution.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Where does the Bible suggest swearing is a sin? And how does it define what words or type of words are to be considered sinful to say? We all understand that taking God’s name in vain is a sin. We are told this in the Bible directly. But I have never seen nor heard…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[492],"class_list":["post-35956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-profanity"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22301,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-sexual-immorality-porneia-include-masturbation\/","url_meta":{"origin":35956,"position":0},"title":"Does “sexual immorality” (porneia) include masturbation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like to just say in\u00a0some previous answers\u00a0you have said that masturbation is not mentioned as a sin, but it is. We are told in Acts 15:20 to flee from sexual immorality. Today, most of the world sees masturbation as sexual immorality, and it has always been considered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2975,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-does-the-bible-say-homosexuality-is-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":35956,"position":1},"title":"Where does the Bible say homosexuality is a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 26, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I saw your email in a Christian site which was also on homosexuality, I decided to write. I wondered if you believe it is a sin as I can't find any passages on gay love to show that it's a sin anywhere. Answer: A previous question, \"What kinds of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45462,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-the-bible-say-it-is-better-for-you-to-plant-your-seed-in-the-belly-of-a-whore-than-to-cast-it-upon-the-ground\/","url_meta":{"origin":35956,"position":2},"title":"Doesn’t the Bible say “It is better for you to plant your seed in the belly of a whore than to cast it upon the ground”?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was reading\u00a0Does \"sexual immorality\" (porneia) include masturbation?\u00a0and something I read in the Bible constantly came to mind. I don't remember the exact book, chapter, or verse, but the Bible does say that it is better for you to plant your seed in the belly of a whore than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22119,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-the-bible-contain-impolite-phrases\/","url_meta":{"origin":35956,"position":3},"title":"Why does the Bible contain impolite phrases?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was always taught from a small child by my Christian parents, not to say bad words; yet, I noticed in I Samuel 25:22,34; I Kings 14:10; 16:11; 21:21; and II Kings 9:8 that the writer used these types of words.\u00a0 Could you tell me what this means? Answer:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53933,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-moral-danger-of-the-modern-dance\/","url_meta":{"origin":35956,"position":4},"title":"The Moral Danger of the Modern Dance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Frank Walton Biblical Insights, Vol. 6, No. 6, June 2006. \"Dancing\" can be defined simply as \"the rhythmic movement of the body to music\" (II Samuel 6:16; Luke 15:25; Ecclesiastes 3:4). The\u00a0Ryrie Study Bible\u00a0notes on religious dancing in Psalms 149:3: \"In the Old Testament, whirling motion done by a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/ModernDancing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":94006,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/swearing-not-at-all-understanding-jesus-prohibition-in-light-of-the-whole-counsel-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":35956,"position":5},"title":"Swearing Not at All \u2014 Understanding Jesus\u2019 Prohibition in Light of the Whole Counsel of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Becky Ren\u00e9 Few biblical subjects appear, at first glance, as straightforward as the prohibition against swearing found in the words of Jesus and James. \"Swear not at all\" seems plain, uncompromising, and universal. For this reason, some conclude that any oath-taking in any circumstance-including legal oaths required by civil\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}