What is Your Name Again?
I try to speak carefully while I am learning people’s names. Calling someone by the correct name has been very important to me. Although my memory is very limited, I still strive to call and learn everyone by their correct name. Have you ever accidentally called someone by the incorrect name? Of course, you have! This is something we all have done, and when you realize it, I always feel so embarrassed and troubled. Why is that? It is not just the fact that you were incorrect, but you do not want your mistake to hurt the one who heard your error. So, “Why should I speak carefully?”
What Does it Mean to Speak as Oracles of God?
As Christians, we should feel the same way about God’s word. We should also desire to speak correctly. In fact, the Scripture encourages it. “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God…” (1 Peter 4:11 NKJV). In this passage, the word oracles, “λόγιον” in its original Greek, can also be translated as “an utterance (of God):—oracle.”[1] So Peter is encouraging us Christians that when we speak, let us speak as God speaks. This would mean we should avoid speaking or saying things God did not say or using our vocabulary in a way God did not. This incorrect way of speaking spreads disunity, strife, and confusion.
Can We Divide the Word Incorrectly?
There are incorrect ways to use Scripture. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Paul instructs Timothy to rightly divide the word, and in doing so, he will be presenting himself approved to God. This also reveals that we can incorrectly divide the word. So, it is very possible to misinterpret the Scripture and then teach it. This has caused a great amount of error to be spread across the world. So to avoid this ourselves, let us mirror Jesus, “…Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak” (John 12:50). Jesus spoke just as Peter mentioned in 1 Peter 4:11, as the oracle of God. Jesus, as we should also do, did not usurp His authority over the Father by speaking incorrectly.
Consequence of Error
We hope not to hurt someone with our mistaken use of vocabulary when we call someone by the wrong name. More seriously than that, we can really harm someone’s soul by speaking or teaching errors from God’s word. This is to be a huge concern for everyone (2 John 10-11)! Teachers are cautioned in Scripture to guard their tongues (James 3). Our language, when corrupted with error, could cost not only our own souls but the souls of those who choose to believe and practice our error if we tell it. So, if one were to simply ask, “Why should I be careful how I speak?” Well because we are to love others enough to tell the truth from God’s word and desire not to cause harm to someone’s soul. Also, we who teach will suffer a stricter judgment (James 3:1), and since it seems this important principle has been forgotten by some, here are a few memory devices. When it comes to how we speak, be as those before us during the Restoration Movement. They had several good slogans that encouraged us to speak accurately, such as, “Where the Bible Speaks, We Speak; Where the Bible Is Silent. We Are Silent” and “Let us Do Bible Things in Bible Ways and Call Bible Things by Bible Names.” These slogans are not Scripture, but as the Scripture has encouraged, these slogans express a Scriptural idea and avoid the corrupt use of vocabulary. Let us not hurt someone with our words by speaking not as oracles of God.
[1] James Strong, A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009) 45.
