Cursing and swearing

Matt. 26:74 – Peter loved his Lord and followed Him after He was taken at Gethsemane.  Peter was anxious to see what would be done with Jesus.  But when he was accused of being one of His disciples, fear for his own safety led him to declare that he did not know Jesus.  A second time they questioned him and a second time he denied His Lord.  The third time that he was asked, Peter went to great lengths to convince his accusers that he was not a follower of Christ.  He did this with cursing and swearing.  The disciples were noted for the purity of their language.  Being fishermen, I’m sure this was quite the change from their previous habits or from the practice of other fishermen.  So, in order to give his accusers overwhelming evidence, Peter denied the charge the third time with cursing and swearing so that they would know that he was not a follower of God.

The story made me wonder, how often do we curse and swear when we are upset or offended?  Even worse, we thoughtlessly use curse words during casual conversations with our friends!!!  When we use such words are we alerting others that we are followers of Christ? Are we drawing the hearer’s mind to our love for our Savior? Or are we, by those words, inadvertently denying our Lord and portraying to the world that we don’t know Him?  In order to be “Metal Men” and to be known as “Metal Men,” we should ”keep our tongues from evil” and guard the words that we say, because, unlike Peter at that point in his life, we are unashamed of being associated with Christ.