Refrain from Naughtiness

November 21

At times we think God is totally opposed to anything we do that smacks even slightly of ‘fun.’ He seems to have a very rigid standard to which He holds us if we profess to believe in Him. From engaging in illicit romantic activity to cheating on taxes, He holds our feet to the fire.

One area that we may not readily discern as being on His list of ‘Don’ts,’ is the words that we utter. We enjoy a good joke. Slightly off-color humor is part and parcel of our TV watching fare and we certainly hear the nuance of suggestive humor from the masters-of-ceremony of gatherings of almost every sort.

It’s inoffensive humor to all but the most straight-laced among us, but it’s not inoffensive to God. Many of us can personally attest to lapses into questionable comments that we might make in order to prove ourselves to be witty or to be one of the guys. We don’t want to seem prudish so we allow small compromises to enter our speech.

In II Timothy 2:16, the Apostle Paul writes to his spiritual son, “Avoid irreverent, empty speech, for this will produce an even greater measure of godlessness.” What seems to be a harmless utterance, according to Paul, has the potential of opening the floodgate of questionable communication. In order to be in God’s will, we must refrain from all naughtiness of not only action but also speech.