One of the songs which we have often sung during worship 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 Timothy 4:12).

First of all, what is a euphemism? Is it bad or is it good? Whether it is one we could use or one we should not use depends on what word it is standing for. Euphemism is 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.” “Died” is replaced because the former phrases are more mild to our palate of reasoning. In this 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. Consider the advertising world: it sounds much better for the salesperson to refer to one who is a little on the heavy side as being “full-figured” instead of “fat,” or for the car dealer to refer to his cars as being “economical” instead of “cheap.” If I were a garbage man, to many it would sound better if I referred to myself as simply a “sanitary engineer” instead. In these examples the euphemistic renderings would be acceptable to use because they are not signifying anything which would be improper. Let us consider some words in which the counterparts are terms that the Christian should not use profanely—for to do so would be wrong. Please note the list to the right.

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 not “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.

Let us not forget the pure and holy words of Jesus. 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.”