Does Cussing Make You a Sinner, a Hypocrite, or Just More Real?

I love the song “Cuss a Little,” by Kylie Morgan. It’s about sin, hypocrisy, and authenticity. She says:

I’m just human, buried in denial.

I judge people, and I read the Bible.

I’ve got tattoos but my body is a temple

I love Jesus but I cuss just a little

Each line of the song describes a standard of behavior upheld by conservative Christians. Next, the singer flips it on its head by saying she does something seemingly contradictory to that standard. You might think the song is about double standards, but pretense isn’t just saying you believe one thing and doing the other. True hypocrisy is saying you believe one thing, doing the other, but claiming that you don’t. It’s false righteousness that this song lacks entirely. Instead, Morgan’s song reeks of honesty about where she is in her relationship with God and her practice of the faith.

What Really Makes a Hypocrite?

Jesus Drew this delineation when he talked about a Pharisee who prayed publicly, thanking God that he was not like the sinners around him. But then, Jesus pointed out the heartfelt emotion of a dishonest tax collector who beat his breast and prayed, God have mercy on me a sinner. The fact is, everyone says they believe one thing and then occasionally does the other. Hypocrisy comes in when you claim that you don’t. The Pharisee was a hypocrite because he claimed to be righteous. The other man was not a hypocrite, because he admitted his sin and was sorry for it.

But what about people like Kylie Morgan, who plainly admit that they don’t live up to the conservative expectation of righteousness? Some of them don’t even seem to try. What about Christians who know the Levitical law but still get tattoos? Or, what about Jesus-followers who cuss just a little, and don’t feel bad about it? Are they missing the mark of God’s righteousness?

This depends a lot on what’s in their hearts. Getting a tattoo, for example, may be a violation of some people’s conservative expectations. Some may say that because the body is a temple, Christians shouldn’t get tattoos. But others say because the body is a temple, they want to adorn it as the honorable thing that it is. Some people refrain from getting tattoos because of their faith, while others, because of their faith, want to mark their bodies as holy. Still others, because they are set free from legalism by the grace of Christ, don’t see that a prohibition against tattoos applies to believers anymore. So, it’s not about tattoos, really. People look at outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. What’s in the heart is all that matters. All that matters is faith expressing itself through love.

Following Jesus by Breaking the Law

 Christians like Morgan might say, “Yeah, I understand you have this conservative standard, but I would rather follow Jesus than your standard.” Jesus didn’t mind violating religious tradition and even breaking biblical law. He believed that living authentically was worth more than meeting people’s conservative expectations of him. Jesus broke the Sabbath laws all the time, and got called a hypocrite for it. Instead of true hypocrisy, which would be denying the violation, Jesus admitted the transgression but asserted he had the right to do so. He declared himself lord of the Sabbath, proclaiming that he was free to keep the laws that helped him live in authentic love, but reject anything that didn’t seem to fit.

But Jesus was not alone in possessing this privilege. Jesus gives us the right to determine how to keep God’s law, as well. The Holy Spirit directs us in this. For example, Peter determined that it was okay to break Jewish purity laws by going into the home of a Roman Centurion. Likewise, the Jerusalem Council determined that it was okay for gentile believers not to be circumcised and that they did not need to keep most of the Jewish law. The early church gave up meeting on Saturday and started meeting on Sunday. Thus, they broke the Sabbath permanently. Just as Jesus chose which laws to follow and which laws to break, the holy spirit gives us the same privilege.

Kylie would be glad to know that it’s okay to cuss a little, because Jesus cussed a little too. Withering words flew from Jesus’s mouth when he cursed the fig tree that produced no fruit. Read how he railed on the Pharisees, calling them whitewashed tombs, hypocrites, and sons of serpents. You can’t tell me that’s not cussing! So, Kylie, if you cuss a little then you are in good company!

Dirty Heart, Clean Blood

 Near the end of the song, Morgan says:

My heart is kind of dirty but his blood is clean

So what you see is what you get, but what you get ain’t what it seems

By this she means that she is not saved because of the cleanliness of her own life, but by the self-giving love of Jesus. Salvation is never based on whether we are good enough. Instead, it’s a promise based on the fact that God’s Grace is sufficient to rescue us from ourselves.

“So what you see is what you get.” In other words, she’s not about to make any pretense about who she is. Cussing a little doesn’t make her a sinner because she’s saved by God’s grace. Cussing doesn’t make her a hypocrite, because Jesus did it too. Instead, it makes her a bit more real.

“But what you get ain’t what it seems.” This tricky line means that Kylie is more than what most people perceive her to be. When conservatives look at her, they see someone who cusses, wears tattoos, drinks too much, tells lies, and judges people. But when God sees her, God does not see those things. Instead, God sees a beloved child trying to do her best in this difficult world. God does not label her a sinner but calls her a saint because of her simple trust in divine grace. God reserves the term hypocrite for people who say one thing, do another, and then try to cover up their misdeeds.

An Unrepentant Sinner?

Some might listen to Kylie’s song and label her an “unrepentant sinner.” That’s not surprising, because that’s what religion does. Religion labels people by their actions and then judges them by impossible standards that religious people aren’t able to keep themselves. Sure, God wants to see us make an effort to live better lives—not because of some standard of righteousness, but because a better life is a better life. But God also wants faithful people to be honest about who they are, instead of strutting and displaying false piety. So, if you cuss a little, that doesn’t make you less of a Christian. In fact, it might just make you a little more like Jesus.