Pulpit Language Principles, 1 of 2

No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need, in order to give grace to those who hear. And don't grieve God's Holy Spirit, who sealed you for the day of redemption. All bitterness, anger and wrath, insult and slander must be removed from you, along with all wickedness. - Ephesians 4:29-31 HCSB

Obviously, it would be impossible to directly prohibit specific English words for the very simple reason that none of them appear in the Bible. However, there are some general principles that we follow in determining what language is publicly acceptable and what is not.

Mindfulness: We are to be very mindful of everything spoken, not only from the pulpit, but also in our daily language. After all, on the Day of Judgment we will have to account for every careless word we speak. By our words we will be acquitted and by our words we will be condemned.[1] So nothing should be done carelessly, off the cuff or without a direct purpose. We cannot use words simply because that is our habit and we cannot control our mouths.

Stumbling blocks: We cannot use words for the express purpose of shocking. We do not want to place unnecessary stumbling blocks in front of people that may cause them to fall into sin. Rather, our purpose is to do the exact opposite: to build up and prepare the way and remove every obstacle from people’s way to the Lord.[2] As a minister of Christ, the teaching elder of the church should guard knowledge and people should seek instruction from his mouth as the messenger of the Lord of Hosts. When we turn from the way and cause people to stumble by our instruction, we have violated our covenant with God and will incur His justified wrath.[3]

Crude, sexual language: We are prohibited from using language that is characterized by sexual immorality, impurity or greed. We avoid coarse and foolish talking or crude, unsuitable joking. [4]

Constantly edgy: There is as much of a danger of people zoning out when the language is consistently edgy as there is when it is consistently stodgy.

Insulting language: We must not insult people. We can argue against their philosophies, declare their activities to be sinful or their ways foolish, but we must shy away from demeaning creatures that made in the image of God. Jesus gave us our direction in this when He said, "You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Fool!' will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, 'You moron!' will be subject to hellfire.”[5] We are thus very careful to distinguish between the sin and the sinner. We have no problem identifying people’s behavior as foolish, but we humbly recognize that the same foolishness often characterizes our own hearts.[6]

[1] Matthew 12:36-37
[2] Isaiah 57:14
[3] Malachi 2:7-8 cp Proverbs 15:2
[4] Ephesians 4:29; 5:3-4
[5] Matthew 5:21-22 HCSB
[6] 1 Corinthians 10:12; 1 John 1:8-10