God's Elect or World's Elite? XXV

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." (Acts 4: 13)

The word "boldness" is from the Greek word "parresia" and means "freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech," to speak "openly, frankly, i.e without concealment" and "without ambiguity or circumlocution," and "without the use of figures and comparisons." It also often denotes "free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance." It includes the idea of "deportment," of "commanding presence," of courageous appearance, that thing "by which one becomes conspicuous or secures publicity." (Strong) 

"Seeing then that we have such hope (confident expectation)," said Paul, "we use great plainness of speech (parresia)." (II Cor. 3: 12) The apostles, yea, all believers, especially those believers who have much studied the word of God, have been able to speak boldly, frankly, honestly, confidently, to discourse as they who "know what they are talking about," as they who "speak as having authority," that authority coming from God and his word of commission.   

This boldness is seen too in the forcefulness of their logic, in the irresistible power of their reasoning when confronting their opponent's speeches and accusations, in their defenses when in trials for heresy, when commanding men to repent and to believe the gospel upon threat of eternal doom. This boldness includes courage and fearlessness when believers have been threatened and persecuted, when they have boldly declared their allegiance to Christ while they were hanging on crosses or while being burned at the stake or while being thrown to the hungry lions. Of deacons in the church Paul wrote:

"For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness (parresia) in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." (I Tim. 3: 13)

This great boldness in discourse comes from knowing "the faith which is in Christ Jesus." They who know little of that faith cannot speak with too much conviction or with power of persuasion. Deep conviction of a highly important truth will produce convincing talk. Lacking conviction and full assurance (that comes from being well schooled in knowledge of the subject) produces hesitancy, reluctance, vagueness, incoherence, timidness, doubt and disbelief, etc. Many believers have spoken without fear, have spoken with courage and confidence, and oftentimes with great grace and with a bold and commanding presence, with a divine or heavenly comportment. It is owing to the presence of the Holy Spirit and of the holy scriptures in the heart, soul, and mind that believers are able to so speak. So the record is: "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak (laleo) the word (logos) of God with boldness (parresia)." (Acts 4: 31)

The presence of the Spirit and of "great grace" caused the apostles to not only discourse well in substance but also in style and delivery. The apostles by the Spirit and grace of God had what is called a "commanding presence," a presence and aura that attracted attention. They had "charisma" in the most noblest of senses. But, on this we will enlarge in the next chapters.

The worldly elite who heard Peter and John speak, and who saw their strong and commanding presence, "marvelled," that is, they were stunned, shocked, and surprised. Such powerful speech from “ordinary” folk was not something anyone would expect. That men of higher learning could speak well and stir an audience with their oratory and rhetoric, is no surprise, but the Jewish elite judged Peter and John to be "ignorant" (Greek idiotai) and "unlearned" (Greek agrammatos), the former word denoting commoners, mere laymen, the untrained, and the latter denoting "unlettered" men, men not formally schooled in the sciences, including rhetoric, men without formal higher education degrees (letters). They were viewed as "idiots," not in the sense of being "stupid" or mentally handicapped, but in the sense of having no formal higher education, and therefore were viewed as "low class" as a result. 

Though Peter and John had no letters of learning from the schools of higher learning they nevertheless were not really ignorant and unlearned. Quite the contrary. Besides synagogue education that they had received as children Peter and John "had been with Jesus" and therefore had a dramatic increase in knowledge due to their discipleship under his direct tutoring for three years. 

The apostles spoke perfect grammar and therefore show that they were not "agrammatos." The four times the Greek word "grammatos" is found in the new testament it is translated (kjv) as "letter," as in "letter of the law" (Rom. 2: 27; also Rom. 7: 6; II Cor. 3: 6)  The proof of their being "learned" and "lettered" as opposed to their being "unlearned" and "unlettered" is seen in looking at what they wrote and said. Not only their grammar, but their reasoning and persuasive skills also show them to be real men of learning. The discourses of the apostles conclusively show this to be the case. 

Luke records that they not only spoke with "boldness" (parresia) but also "with great power" (mega power, dunamis) as they gave "witness" to the truth of the resurrection. They bore testimony with words of confident authority, not in timidity and fear, just as their Lord who "taught as one having authority and not as the scribes." (Matt. 7: 29) The tone of the Lord's voice exuded power and authority as he spoke of the weightiest of matters. It was forceful and boldly spoken in confidence of the truth of what he said. So too may believers speak. 

The apostle Peter addressed all believers, saying "if anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies..." (I Peter 4: 11) The content of a believer's speaking should be what is in keeping with "the oracles of God," with his written word. The "ability" and skill needed to speak as God wills that we speak must come from God. This is one of the ways in which believers "serve" God and they are promised divine help in doing so, "with the ability (Greek ischys) that God gives" (or supplies), which fact shows that good public speaking for the Lord is an art as well as a skill. "Ischys" refers to force, power, might, or strength. Job said "how forcible are right words!" (Job 6: 25) How powerful to convict are words of truth and right! The Hebrew word for "forcible" carries the idea of penetration or to goad, "used here of penetrating speech" and of "words which keep the straight way to truth, go to the heart." (Keil & Delitzsch). 

The right words of holy scripture when properly discoursed are irresistible. Jesus promised to give his apostles, and other believers too, "a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist" (Luke 21: 15); And in the Book of Acts we read of Stephen's logos, or discourse, with this observation by Luke: "And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake." (Acts 6: 10)

There is so much instruction in the scriptures about how to speak and discourse in a manner which is pleasing to the Lord, as we are seeing and will yet see further. We have already noticed how conversion in itself alters the language and verbiage of the sinner. His tongue was once "full of cursing and bitterness" but after his conversion his tongue becomes a tongue of the learned, a tongue of praise, a tongue of witness. 

The apostle Paul asked for the prayers of the saints in regard to the grace and gift of speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He wrote:

"And (pray) for me, that utterance (logos) may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly (parresia) to make known the mystery of the gospel." (Eph. 6: 19)

"Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance (logos), to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds." (Col. 4: 3)

Paul prays for both parresia and for logos, and so should every believer. Paul desires divine help and blessing, enabling, so that he might deliver the message of the gospel and to discourse upon the teachings of holy scripture. Well trained disciples of Christ also have grace in a measure given to them to speak for truth and for God. 

Said Dr. John MacArthur (emphasis mine):

"We have all the speech and knowledge necessary to accomplish all God wants us to do. We will always be able to say everything God wants us to say and to know everything He wants us to know. His will is concurrent with His enablement. The particular speech in mind here is that of telling God’s truth. God gives every believer the capacity to speak for Him. We do not all have eloquence, an impressive vocabulary, or a captivating personality. But we all have the necessary God-given ability, the same capability and the same capacity, to speak for Him in the unique way that He wants us to speak. Besides lack of holiness, I believe the most common failure of Christians is in not speaking for their Lord. The most frequent excuses are “I don’t know what to say” or “I don’t know how to say it” or “I just don’t think I can do it."" (As cited here)

Peter exhorted believers in regard to their being able to reason well in defending the truth, and of their being able to "discourse" (logos) upon bible teaching.

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer (Greek 'apologia' or rational defense) to every man that asks you a reason (logos) of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." (I Peter 3: 15)

This exhortation is made to all believers. Each is to "be always ready" to "give an answer," that is, give a verbal defense, a "logos," that is, a discourse, talk, or speech, for the Christian hope and faith. That exhortation shows that Peter thought that Christians were both able and duty bound to improve their speaking and communication skills. 

He also marks a distinction between the speech of believers as opposed to the speech of the Sophist infidels. Christian speakers speak "with meekness and fear." The Sophists, with their skill in lofty language, and with their elitist arrogance, did not speak "with meekness and fear." They spoke rather "great swelling words of vanity" (II Peter 2: 18; Jude 1: 16), being "the speech of them which are puffed up" (I Cor. 4: 19). But on this we will have more to say shortly. But, let us now see further how all believers are called to become good speakers for the Lord, in both what they say and how they say it. Wrote Paul:

"For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that uses milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe." (Heb 5: 12-13)

This admonition is applicable to all believers. It is addressed to those believers whom he styles as "babes" in the faith, denoting believers who are newly come to the faith, or else who have not yet matured in their faith and knowledge, and exhorts them to "be teachers," and this of course involves speaking orally, though it would of course include writing communication. All believers are called to be teachers, though not all are called to be pastors or elders, they having the greater role in teaching. All believers should be prepared to speak of "the first principles of the oracles of God." Each should be a witness to the gospel. Certainly all Christian parents have a duty and a privilege to teach the oracles to their children. But, not to them only, but to the other members of their family, to their neighbors, friends, community, etc. 

Believers are not only called to teach others the truth of scripture but they are exhorted to become "skilled in the word (logos) of righteousness."  

The Greek word for "unskilful" is "apeiros" and means inexperienced and is only used here. It is the negative of "peira" meaning a "trial or experiment" (Vine). Paul implies that improvement in speech will come as a result of practice and habit. The more a person speaks for the Lord the better speaker he will become. "Practice makes perfect." Also, it shows how Paul viewed good public speaking as a skill, something learned, something involving training. He is not denying the art aspect of good public speaking, for the believer, by his speaking of it as being a skill. As we have said, it is both an art (or gift from God and grace) and a science or skill.

Logos & Speech

In its basic meaning "logos" means "word." But, that is its most basic meaning. That single English word does not give a proper equivalent meaning for every passage where "logos" is used in the Greek new testament. The King James Version has various English words used in different texts where logos is used. 

According to Strong the KJV translators have used these English words as substitutes: word (218x), saying (50x), account (8x), speech (8x), Word (Christ) (7x), thing (5x), not translated (2x), miscellaneous (32x). Among the miscellaneous are the words communication, cause, sayings, speaker, mouth, reason, give account, exhortation, speech, work, utterance, preaching, etc. 

This fact should be sufficient to show us how broad are the uses of logos. Vine says logos also denotes speech, a word, what is uttered by a living voice, what embodies a conception or idea, what someone has said, being used for the "sayings" of someone, including God. It can also carry the idea of a decree, mandate or order. It is often used in the sense of "discourse" or "speech," to the act of speaking, and sometimes even to the faculty of speech itself. It represents "a skill and practice in speaking" or "a kind or style of speaking," a "continuous speaking discourse" or "instruction." It also involved ability to reason, to use logic. In fact our word "logic" is derived from logos. 

Wrote Dr. Gordon Clark:

"Statistics may not provide the most interesting type of introduction, but it does not burden the brain nor injure the intellect to know that John’s Gospel uses the term Logos forty times. What is more surprising, indeed disconcerting, is that the Greek term logos can be translated by forty different English words. Liddell and Scott’s great lexicon has more than five columns, each ninety lines long, of its various meanings. The word word is hardly ever the correct translation. Liddell and Scott say explicitly that it “rarely means a single word” (page 1058, column 2)." (here)

"I have not listed all the meanings, nor shall I read you my abbreviated list. Just survey it from your seats: computation, reckoning, accounts, measures, sum, total, esteem, consideration, value, reputation, relation, fashion, ratio, proportion, rule, pretext, reason(ing), case (at law), theory, argument, principle, law, thesis, hypothesis, formula, definition, debate, reflection, narrative, story, speech, oration, phrase, message, tradition, dialogue, oracle, proverb, language, sentence, and the Wisdom of God."

Again, this just emphasizes how logos has a wide variety of nuanced meanings in the various places where it is used in the Greek new testament.

Of course it is also used as a divine title of the Son of God, the second named person of the Tri-Unity, who is "the Logos of God." (John 1: 1; etc.) This is because he is the one who reveals and communicates the will and mind of the Godhead or for the whole deity. He also as Logos is the truth, the only reality, pure reason and revelation, one in whom are "hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Col. 2: 3)

Paul says in his opening words to the Corinthian believers that they had been "enriched in all utterance." Notice the word "all" (Greek pas) in "all utterance." This shows that Paul is thinking of logos in its widest extent of meaning. The word "utterance" is from the Greek word logos. "All logos" therefore includes 1) the message, topic, or substance, or knowledge that is intended to be communicated orally and 2) the speaking of words designed to communicate that message. We may therefore appropriately speak of "the word of the word," which means "talk about speech or public speaking." Not only is the usage of logos varied in the new testament but so too is the word "word" in every day English usage. 

To be "enriched in all logos" includes the idea of being enriched in what to say as well as in how to say it. A speaker who has much knowledge of his topic will discourse upon it with more than average boldness and forcefulness of expression. Many Christians cannot speak as well as they should on spiritual things and the reason is because they have so little discipleship learning of the scriptures. It seems that most leave in depth study of the bible to the clergy and trust them to tell them what to believe about its teachings and to answer questions regarding the Christian faith for them. Yet, as we have seen, Peter admonishes all believers, not just the clergy, to be prepared, equipped, and trained to speak to others of "the oracles of God" and to give a defense (apologia - logos being the root) to all who ask questions about the Christian's hope and belief.

Concerning what the biblical writers say further about Christian speech and communication we will address in the next chapters.

How the world judges the verbal discoursing and teaching of the Christian is not the standard for what is good speaking. Of the apostle Paul, who spoke most forcefully and with authority, the Sophists and professional speakers and lecturers had a different opinion, saying "his speech (logos) is contemptible" (II Cor. 10: 10). Paul would add - "But though I be rude (idiotes) in speech (logos), yet not in knowledge" (II Cor. 11: 6) By this he means "but though I be judged by the world's elite as an idiot in logic and speaking ability" (which was a false view of Paul's speaking abilities), yet he emphatically denies that he could be legitimately charged as being an idiot in knowledge.

Paul said that those who would be set apart as pastors or elders in the church must have, as one of their qualifications, an "aptness to teach." (I Tim. 3: 2; II Tim. 2: 24) The English words are the translation of the Greek word "didaktikos" meaning "skilled in teaching" (didactic). But, all Christians should develop an aptness to speak in teaching others of the truth.