“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). The Bible reveals God, first and foremost, as a God that speaks. His word confirms His identity as Creator. It declares His thoughts. It transmits His power. It weaves the fabric of reality in which all of creation exists.
Throughout creation week, the Word shaped the physical world, formed the starry heavens, and called forth a mind-boggling array of life forms. And yet, the creation brought into existence by the divine Word is itself incapable of using the spoken word. The stars do not speak—nor do the oceans, nor the rocks, nor the trees, nor the animals. All remain silent. All, that is, except for human beings.
On the sixth day, “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Of all the ways in which human beings differ from the rest of creation, nothing is more significant than our ability to speak. It’s not just the sound of the words that is so important. A parrot can produce sounds that we interpret as words. But the parrot does not speak as we do, because the parrot does not think as we do. Speech is the ability to transmit intelligible thought from one conscious mind to another conscious mind. It is, in a most fundamental way, the outward expression of the image of God within a person.
When God created Adam, He did not speak him into existence. Instead, “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). The intent of God’s unique creation of the man seems clear—the Creator reserves His words until He can have a conversation with the man made in His image. The expectation for the reader is that this man, after receiving the breath of life and becoming a living soul, will himself begin to speak. He is, after all, made in God’s image. But Adam remains silent until the very end of the creation account. When he does speak, his words verbalize the bond of unity between the man and the woman: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). This outward expression of his inner thoughts reveals a conscious mind that reflects the image of his Creator. And so, when Adam speaks, the work of creation is complete. The omnipotent Word is reflected in the free speech of a man created in God’s image.
However, immediately after Adam speaks for the first time, the serpent enters the picture. Yes, the enemy hates this expression of God’s image—the freedom of speech—almost as much as he hates God himself. When the words of one human being are suppressed by another, you can be certain that the serpent is lurking in the shadows. When flattery, bribery, coercion, or fear are used to control a person’s speech—and the ideas that shape it—you can be certain that darkness is present. When thoughts and ideas—and the words that express them—become crimes, you can be certain that the dragon is not far away. The first and most important liberty has always been freedom of speech—the freedom to express in words the thoughts of the conscience. For this reason, any attack on a person’s freedom of speech is ultimately an assault against the image of God in that person.
Some will say, Shouldn’t hateful, untruthful, or dangerous speech be controlled, suppressed, and silenced? Isn’t such control really an act of protection and mercy to the community? It’s an argument that has been used over and over by oppressive regimes, dictators, power-hungry corporations, insecure bosses, neighborhood bullies, and even churches. Such arguments, of course, presuppose the existence of an objective moral standard by which to measure the validity of the speech in question. However, the identification of that moral standard always varies depending on who is attempting to control the speech in question.
For example, when an atheistic government attempts to control the free speech of its political opponents, its supposed moral authority to do so can only come from an evolutionary paradigm. Often, this takes the form of survival of the fittest. The short, deadly, and one-sided dialogue usually goes something like this: “Your speech is dangerous because those with the most power have said that it is wrong. Therefore, you must be silent, or be silenced.” What comes next often plays out in a raw and ruthless scenario not so different from a museum diorama of two cavemen with clubs pulverizing a defenseless third individual. Usually, the rest of the world looks on disinterestedly from the other side of the glass, much like a bored school child thinking only about what is on the lunch menu. This type of brutal take-down of free speech repeats itself over and over in our modern world. The rules change only slightly depending on who has the most influence, money, and power. In each round of this sick game, the image of God woven into humanity wears a little thinner, as the echoes of the divine Word become fainter and fainter.
Within a nation, organization, or church that claims to be Christian, however, the rules are supposed to be different. Christians identify the Bible—the Word of God—as humanity’s objective moral standard. When a disagreement arises between two individual Christians or between members of the church, the issue is to be resolved by the principles contained in the Word of God. As Jesus Christ said, “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). When Christians begin to act more like the cavemen than like Christ, it is a sure sign that the objective moral standard of the Bible has been silently replaced by the evolutionary club. Power struggles, jealousy over influence, an unreasonable focus on money, and efforts to control speech quickly follow.
So how should Christians, or the church, respond when confronted with the speech of someone they are convinced is telling lies, spreading slander, or putting the common good at risk? In the Middle Ages, the go-to solution was to light a fire and let the criminal’s final words waft up to heaven in the smoke. But the Bible says, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22, 23). Jesus remained silent as He stood on trial, condemned by false witnesses and lying magistrates. Not long after, as He hung on the cross, his enemies continued to taunt Him. Yet He still refused to silence the speech of those who hated Him. As the words of Christ’s accusers locked them forever into sin’s strong cage, a few feet away, the Creator bled dying to give them life and preserve their freedom of speech.
When sin arose in heaven, God did not immediately silence the dragon. In fact, He has allowed the accuser to continue speaking for nearly 6,000 years. It seems that in the divine government, preserving freedom of speech is more important than winning the argument at any cost. And this remains true even if your opponent is the “father of [lies]” (John 8:44). We as Christians are slow to learn this lesson. History is filled with the dark pages of intolerance and persecution against those who think and speak differently from those in positions of power. And yet, it appears to be one that we must learn before our Savior can come to claim us as His own.
Revelation 14 describes those who are translated to heaven at Jesus’ return. “And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1). The Father’s name represents His character, and its placement in their foreheads signifies the restoration of the divine image in the hearts and minds of these people. When they begin to think like their Creator, their thoughts are reflected in their speech. “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (Revelation 14:5).
The power of speech reflects God’s image in humanity. Freedom of speech is the first and primal freedom because it reflects the Creator’s freedom. The dragon hates God. He hates the image of God within humanity. And he hates freedom of speech. Let every Christian, and every Christian church that claims to serve and represent the Creator, protect the freedom of speech with their lives. Our very existence depends on it. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).