Jefferson Bethke, a New York Times bestselling author and a host of The Real Life Podcast, discussed the power of words, particularly whether swearing is considered a sin.

The person who came up with the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” couldn’t have been more wrong. Words are powerful and can, in fact, hurt. They have the power to build or destroy. 

In a clip posted on YouTube, Jefferson sets out to answer, while using the Bible, whether using four-letter words and other curse words is considered a sin. Throughout the video, Jefferson brings up several important ideas pertaining to our speech. He especially stresses how much weight and power our words hold.

“So, one of the biggest things I want you guys to hear in this video is words have weight,” he says. “That’s one of the main things that the Bible always says about words; is that they can be for life, or they can be for death.”

He also adds that when it comes to speech, followers of Jesus Christ should always keep one question in the back of their minds. 

“In the kingdom of God, we need to know that as followers of Jesus, it’s not a matter of, ‘Oh, have we said this word today or not said that word?’ But it’s actually, ‘Are our words building up other people every moment?’”

Later in the video, he brings up the idea that our actions, speech and words will show the world and those around us how followers of Christ act. They will be watching and listening. 

“And we also have to wrestle with the fact that as followers of Jesus, what comes out of our mouth represents our King, right?”

But the most important thought and idea, in regards to our speech, which Jefferson mentions, is that Jesus stated that we will one day give an account for every word that has come out of our mouths. 

Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.”