Undignified

In an age focused on self-respect and political correctness, to be undignified is perhaps seen as the most grievous of errors. When we see a couple making out in public, we think (or yell) “Get a room!” When someone crosses boundaries of what we consider politically correct conversation, we become indignant and correct their error rather harshly. And when someone who confesses Christ as Lord cusses, the world ends.

We so quickly embrace the idea of being undignified before the Lord in worship, as David was when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem. We promote proudly the concept of being “Fools for Christ.” But when we see someone be real and use language that doesn’t fit in our comfortable theological box of acceptability, we can’t even process that without abandoning the ship of grace and diving into the torrential seas of judgment and condemnation.

Yesterday, Joy, a Christian writer I came across recently Tweeted this:

[rant]Nothing makes me want to yell “F***” quite so much as a child undoing what I just redid AGAIN. [/rant] #lifeunmasked

Of course, there was no censoring in her original Tweet. Naturally, when I saw that, my hypocritical evangelical heart winced as I thought “Oh, crap. What non-Christians reading this are going to throw this in the face of Christianity calling us hypocrites?” And in perfect irony, a way God usually likes using to teach me, the word flying through my head wasn’t “crap,” but was something slightly harsher.

The lesson that God so brilliantly taught me is that maybe in that moment, when we want to defend our precious ethics of Christianity, we’re much less like David, and much more like Michal (2 Sam. 6:16).

Can God not handle raw, unfiltered authenticity? David seemed to think so, and not just when he danced until he was inappropriately dressed. The Psalms are filled with David crying out to God in laughter, fear, anger, and anguish. Yet, when we hear a Christian cuss, we jump straight to the “don’t use crude language” verse instead of checking ourselves to make sure that we aren’t being like Michal, and despising them in our hearts for being so undignified.

After all, if worship is partially an act of declaring how big God is, maybe the “Christian who cusses” being so open in their weakness is an act of worship in itself, unconventionally declaring that God is big enough to handle us openly acting in our weakness.

Now, before all my conservative friends (and family) think I’ve “gone liberal,” am I saying that we should freely sin more so that grace may abound more? Using Paul’s words in Romans 6, “May it never be!”, or perhaps a more literal translation of Paul’s words is more fitting, “Damned if you do!”

So, no, I don’t condone profane language, and I do believe there is absolutely room for loving correction and speaking truth into a person’s life concerning this issue (and sin in general), but we must check our hearts before we jump to correction. We must make sure that our focus and intent in correcting is solely based in concern for that person’s intimacy with Christ and their sanctification, and not based in our feeling offended. We must forgive them for offending us before we move to correct them.

Is cussing as a Christian hypocritical? Maybe.

Do both Joy and I have room to repent here, asking the Spirit to press out the heart issues that drive the occasional use of language? Probably.

Is rashly judging fellow Christians for being open in their weakness a greater hypocrisy? Absolutely.

The beautiful thing is that God not only sets us free from being dead in sin (Eph. 2:1-10), He sets us free from our hypocrisy. He frees us to live life unmasked.

And He frees us to extend that same grace to others.