“The Weightiness of Sin” Pt. 3
Romans 3:13-14
August 7, 2016
A blog that I occasionally read recently published, “50+ Old Fashioned Insults We Should Bring Back.” In the author’s estimation, we have lost the ability to insult others in “clever, nuanced, descriptive, and… amusing” ways. So he made an appeal to reincorporate some older terms to insult others with grace. Among his suggestions:
- Someone who is awkward should be called “cow-handed” or “the duke of limbs”
- A vulgar, blustery man who asserts he is a gentleman when he isn’t should be called, “A man of four outs” as in, “he is without wit, money, credit, or manners.”
- A short person might be called, “Go by the ground”
- A discontented person is a grumbletonian
- Silly or foolish people might be called ninnyhammers, nincompoops, or nigmenogs
- A lazy man should be called a “slug-a-bed”
- An uncouth, ill-mannered, and untrained young person would be called an “unlicked cub”
He also mentioned a number of President Theodore Roosevelt’s most well-known and well-used put downs (apparently Roosevelt did not endure foolishness well):
- “Fragrant man swine”
- “Little emasculated mass of inanity”
- “Well-meaning, pinheaded, anarchistic crank”
We chuckle at those kinds of things because we frequently want to find ways to communicate our distaste of someone or something without coming out and saying exactly what is on our minds. Yet these kinds of words are self-indicting. They reveal, as Christ says, the meditations of our hearts. And in fact, Paul will go even further. The way depraved men use words indicates the depravity of their souls. Words are not insignificant. They are powerful — in both their use to encourage and destroy individuals. And Paul, having stated that all men everywhere are depraved, used words as his first example of the depravity of man. Words are not insignificant. They demonstrate the exact nature and condition of a man’s heart.
Paul’s theme in these verses is that —
One mark of depravity is that dead men speak deadly words.
In these verses, Paul charges depraved men with four sins of the tongue:
- The Words of the Depraved are Deadly (v. 13a)
- The Words of the Depraved are Deceitful (v. 13b)
- The Words of the Depraved Are Destructive (v. 13c)
- The Words of the Depraved Are Disagreeable (v. 14)
Download the rest of this sermon from Romans 3:13-14.
The audio will be posted on the GBC website later today.
Words of Grace 