For us it all starts with Genesis 1:28 in which God says to Adam and Eve to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…” That is, He says to man to do anything they can to enable mankind to multiply and spread to the rest of the earth and to ensure that mankind continues to live for generation after generation. And as we read further in the Bible, God intends that those who are fruitful and who multiply in His Name will do what God deems to be “good” and without enslaving themselves to the sins of evil. For anyone, what is slavery other than to be forced to do things against our will when we are not made the better for it in terms of of God’s goodness and His Goodness of mankind in general.
What is speech but the verbal promotion of ideas and actions? What is speech in terms of God other than the promotion of such ideas and actions that lead toward the promotion of mankind in general? And it need not start on a wide scale; it can start in one’s household, and if enough households are involved it would lead to the betterment of one’s neighborhood, then eventually to one’s jurisdiction, state, and eventually leading to the promotions and ideas that the rest of the world may see, all in the name of God’s Goodness.
There may be conflicting ideas of what God’s Goodness constitutes, even among people who live by the same Bible. But this is the result of God creating man to be independent thinkers. As far back as Genesis, God left it up to man as to what direction he may choose to go in, and as we see with Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, independence can stand in the way of acting in locked unison. But perhaps God intended that we not act with the same mindset regardless of the level we address. At any point in our history, God had the power to miraculously make everyone do good as He had such power to create the universe.
And even when not everyone was in tune with God’s Precepts, He did not seek to manually change us so we may only do good. Instead, He sent the only Son He had that He believed, through the words of the Son, that we would be persuaded to do enough good to be saved for entry into His Kingdom. God gave each of us in mankind the freedom of choice starting with Adam and Eve. The choice is ours in whether we go our own way or go in the Way of God, but we bear the consequences of whatever choice we make, good or bad.
What does all this have to do with freedom of speech? God gave us the freedom to do what we want, but if we are to commit ourselves to doing good, then we individually need to impose limitations on our own freedoms so as to avoid promoting that which leads to sin.
1 Peter 2:16 says to live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Ephesians 4:29 says to let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
As to the point of Ephesians 4:29 does any talk of good, work to silence those who seek to promote goodness in what they say? Does the Bible have anything to say about suppressing the speech of those whose speech seeks to promote goodness? There is an example, in Acts 4:18-20, in which a council of the Sadducees, rulers, elders and scribes of the temple call Peter and John out on the carpet, and the above Passage describes what takes place:
“So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
In our time, the networks can be compared to Peter and John in terms of reporting what they have seen and heard that could be a threat to the well-being of those who are informed by those networks. And the Sadducees, elders, etc. can be seen as today’s authorities who seek to suppress the networks that may interfere with their own selfish pursuits instead of the pursuits for the benefit of others as they were elected by the people.
To the point of what John and Peter said, seems it would be a form of sin to fail to report to others the things some people do that may lead to and be of harm to them. After all, we are all here to promote mankind in various degrees and levels, and it seems that Peter and John understood that to abide by what the council told them and not say anything, is to go against God. Seems that those who try to suppress them are going against God as well, inasmuch as Peter and John have put the council on the other side.
What is speech but the verbal promotion of ideas and actions? What is speech in terms of God other than the promotion of such ideas and actions that lead toward the promotion of mankind in general? And it need not start on a wide scale; it can start in one’s household, and if enough households are involved it would lead to the betterment of one’s neighborhood, then eventually to one’s jurisdiction, state, and eventually leading to the promotions and ideas that the rest of the world may see, all in the name of God’s Goodness.
There may be conflicting ideas of what God’s Goodness constitutes, even among people who live by the same Bible. But this is the result of God creating man to be independent thinkers. As far back as Genesis, God left it up to man as to what direction he may choose to go in, and as we see with Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, independence can stand in the way of acting in locked unison. But perhaps God intended that we not act with the same mindset regardless of the level we address. At any point in our history, God had the power to miraculously make everyone do good as He had such power to create the universe.
And even when not everyone was in tune with God’s Precepts, He did not seek to manually change us so we may only do good. Instead, He sent the only Son He had that He believed, through the words of the Son, that we would be persuaded to do enough good to be saved for entry into His Kingdom. God gave each of us in mankind the freedom of choice starting with Adam and Eve. The choice is ours in whether we go our own way or go in the Way of God, but we bear the consequences of whatever choice we make, good or bad.
What does all this have to do with freedom of speech? God gave us the freedom to do what we want, but if we are to commit ourselves to doing good, then we individually need to impose limitations on our own freedoms so as to avoid promoting that which leads to sin.
1 Peter 2:16 says to live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Ephesians 4:29 says to let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
As to the point of Ephesians 4:29 does any talk of good, work to silence those who seek to promote goodness in what they say? Does the Bible have anything to say about suppressing the speech of those whose speech seeks to promote goodness? There is an example, in Acts 4:18-20, in which a council of the Sadducees, rulers, elders and scribes of the temple call Peter and John out on the carpet, and the above Passage describes what takes place:
“So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
In our time, the networks can be compared to Peter and John in terms of reporting what they have seen and heard that could be a threat to the well-being of those who are informed by those networks. And the Sadducees, elders, etc. can be seen as today’s authorities who seek to suppress the networks that may interfere with their own selfish pursuits instead of the pursuits for the benefit of others as they were elected by the people.
To the point of what John and Peter said, seems it would be a form of sin to fail to report to others the things some people do that may lead to and be of harm to them. After all, we are all here to promote mankind in various degrees and levels, and it seems that Peter and John understood that to abide by what the council told them and not say anything, is to go against God. Seems that those who try to suppress them are going against God as well, inasmuch as Peter and John have put the council on the other side.
