My friend and former pastor John Ed Mathison, still going strong in his 80s, writes a weekly blog on Wednesdays and posts a weekly video on Mondays. This week, he was talking about profanity and how we ought not to use it because God is listening. It’s a good word with a story involving a carpenter working on a project in John Ed’s church. The carpenter couldn’t swear because “I’m in church, and God is listening.” John Ed pointed out in the video that God is everywhere.

It’s a good word, and I want to add to it, or rather, I think God wants to add to it. If God is everywhere, watching and listening, what is he watching and listening for? Just that we don’t use profanity? Not swearing is a worthy habit, but I’m afraid often we confine our self-improvement to just that, self-improvement. The day I watched the video, I read this:

6 Heartlessly they murder the widows, the foreigners, and even the orphaned children.
7 They say to themselves, “The Lord God doesn’t see this. Their God, the God of Jacob, he doesn’t even care!”
8 But you’d better watch out, you stupid fools! You’d better wise up! Why would you act like God doesn’t exist? Do you really think that God can’t hear their cries?
9 God isn’t hard of hearing; he’ll hear all their cries. God isn’t blind. He who made the eye has superb vision and he’s watching all you do. (Psalm 94.6 – 9, TPT)

God doesn’t care only that I don’t swear. He wants me to not oppress orphans, widows, sojourners, and the poor.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart. (Zechariah 7.9, 10, ESV)

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. (Matthew 25.35, 36, ESV)