____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ April 21, 1991 ____________________________________________________ EUPHEMISMS by Tom Edwards One of the songs in which we have often sung in church is entitled ``The World's Bible.'' The second stanza of this song states, ``We are the only Bible the careless world will read. We are the sinner's gospel. We are the scoffer's creed. We are the Lord's last message given in deed and word. What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?'' Each Christian must strive to make the best ``imprint'' upon the world that he possibly can. If our type, however, has become covered with the dirt and grime of sin, we will not be able to make a good mark on the paper of life -- and, sadly, the far-surpassing news of the gospel will not be read by others in our lives. One way in which we can ``blur'' our message to the world is by giving ourselves over to improper speaking. Paul exhorted Timothy by saying, ``Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe'' (1 Tim. 4:12). Virtually every Christian realizes that vulgar speech, curse words, swear words, using the Lord's name in vain, etc., are condemned in the Bible; yet how many saints have unknowingly been guilty of such by using words of a more ``mollified'' nature? Such is the case when using many of today's euphemisms. First of all, what is a euphemism? Is it bad or is it good? Actually, it depends on what word it is standing for that would make it either one we could use or one we should not. It has been defined as ``the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt.'' For instance, to say one has ``passed away'' or ``is at rest'' is euphemistic of simply saying one has ``died.'' This is so because the former phrases are milder to our palate of reasoning. In this foregone example, the expressions ``passed away'' or ``is at rest'' are not standing for something bad and would, unquestionably, not be wrong for one to use. Also, in the advertising world, it surely sounds much better for the salesperson to refer to one who is a little on the heavy side as being ``full-figured'' rather than ``fat,'' or for the car dealer to refer to his cars as being ``economical'' rather than ``cheap.'' Or if I were a garbage man, to many it would sound better if I referred to myself as simply a ``sanitary engineer'' instead. In all these examples the euphemistic renderings would be all right to use because they are not signifying anything which would be improper, but let us consider some words in which their counterparts are terms that the Christian should not use profanely -- for to do so would be wrong; the following is a list of such: ``gee'' - euphemistic for Jesus. ``golly'' - euphemistic for God. ``heck'' - euphemistic for hell. ``darn'' - euphemistic for damn. ``blasted'' - though this term is used to mean ``withered, shriveled, blighted, or ruined,'' as in pertaining to crops, it also is used euphemistically to mean ``damned.'' ``gosh'' - euphemistic for God. Sometimes these words are used in combinations, such as in the phrase ``gosh darn it.'' By looking at what these words are really standing for in the above section, it is easy to figure out what this wording actually means. Is it something that a Christian should be saying? Undoubtedly, it is not. Terms such as ``Jesus,'' ``God,'' ``hell,'' and ``damn'' are found in numerous passages throughout the Bible, but never are these words used loosely or irreverently. Since the Christian would not want to say the Lord's name in vain then surely he should not want to use any of the euphemisms that would pertain to His name. As an old song used to say, ``Jesus is more than a swear word -- more than just an `I-don't-care' word.'' For one to use it as such, however, one is profaning that holy and righteous name by which the Christian has been called (James 2:7) -- that ``name which is above every name'' (Phil. 2:9). Let us not be careless in our words, but careful. Remember, as someone once showed, the individual who becomes ``careless'' will soon not be caring as much as he should and will, therefore, ``care less.'' As this attitude proceeds, and the individual continues to care less and less, it will eventually lead to where the individual has lost all concern of even matters that he should consider seriously; and we might, therefore, say of this type of person that he now could ``care less'' about anything at all. This individual has digressed on the steps of decline which lead from careless, to care LESS, to CARE LESS. Just as a tree is known by its fruit, a person is also known by the ``fruit of his lips.'' Let us each strive to rid ourselves of any defilement of the flesh by getting to the real core of the matter. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:4,5, ``for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and WE ARE TAKING EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST'' (emphasis mine). If we are trying to eliminate all wrong thoughts from even the most inner regions of our hearts and minds then we will better overcome the using of such in our day to day conversations. Let us not forget the pure and holy words of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 12:36, He lovingly warns, ``And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment.'' ___________________________________________ "You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned" (Matthew 12:34,35,37). ________________________________________ Tri-State CHURCH OF CHRIST 713 13th Street, Ashland, Kentucky 41101 Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class 10:50 A.M. Worship 6:30 P.M. Worship Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742 e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go ________________________________________