“I'm free to do what I want any old time,” sang the Rolling Stone in 1965. It can be tempting to see freedom – including freedom of speech – in that way: freedom to do what I want, in whatever way I want. The laws on freedom of speech in the UK give a great deal of freedom to criticise, disagree with and even offend other people. We can speak, for the most part, whatever we want in whatever way we want.
Christians enjoy the same freedom of speech as everyone else, but should we use that freedom in the same way? How should followers of Jesus exercise the liberty we have to hold and express our opinions and beliefs? How can Christians be distinctive in the way they speak with freedom?
When the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesian church, he instructed them about the way Christians should live in the world. As he talks about how they grow into greater unity as the body of Christ, he writes:
speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
The end goal is to grow into maturity in Jesus Christ, and the way that happens is by speaking the truth in love. We ought to speak the truth in love to one another in the Church, and that should also spill out to the way we relate to people outside the Church too. We exercise our freedom of speech by speaking the truth in love.
Speaking the truth
Speaking the truth is the most fundamental of human freedoms. As the writer George Orwell said in his book 1984:
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
Psalm 15 asks the important question about who can approach a holy God and live in his presence. The answer David gives is: “The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart” (Psalm 15:2).
As Christians we are to speak the truth from our hearts. We are to speak truthfully in our dealings with other people and not lie. We are also to speak the truth about the world, about what is right and wrong, and about what is true and what is false. As God says through the prophet Zechariah:
These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts
When we speak the truth, we risk offending others. Jesus himself did not shy away from saying what was true, even when it upset and angered those to whom he was speaking. He confronted the religious Pharisees about their hypocrisy, calling them “blind guides,” “snakes,” and “whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:13-36). Even though Jesus deals more gently with others, he still speaks the truth about them, telling the Samaritan women “you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband” (John 4:18).
The apostle Paul also spoke the truth, even if it might upset others. When he saw that Peter and others were being taken in by those who taught that Christians should keep Jewish customs, he chooses to confront Peter publicly:
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
John the Baptist also spoke the truth and faced the consequences for calling out Herod for his sinful behaviour. He was imprisoned and then killed for his desire to speak the truth.
Christians are called to speak the truth about ourselves, about God and about the gospel. We are to exercise our freedom of speech to speak the truth about what God has said and done. We are not to use our freedom to manipulate, coerce or intimidate. As Paul tells the Corinthians:
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
Speaking in love
As Christians, we are called not only to speak the truth, but to speak the truth in love. We are to speak the truth about the gospel, even if that risks offending people. But we are not to aim to offend, but to love those to whom we speak.
Our freedom of speech allows us to debate, disagree and argue. But our goal is not to win the argument, but to win the person. The apostle Paul speaks plainly and truthfully to the Corinthian church about their failings. But he tells them: “For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.” (2 Corinthians 2:4)
We honour God by what we say and by how we say it. Paul teaches the Colossians about their speech in this way:
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
We have freedom to speak the truth, but we use that freedom to speak truth which is full of grace. After Psalm 15 talks about speaking the truth from our hearts, it goes on to say that the person of God is someone “whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbour, and casts no slur on others” (Psalm 15:3).
We can disagree with others, but we do not denigrate them. We do not use insults, cheap shots or name-calling in communicating God’s grace. We cannot use aggression or threats to speak the truth, because we want to speak in love. We know that each person we speak to is a person made in God’s image and loved by God, and so we choose our words and tone accordingly.
Paul sums up this approach in his advice to Titus:
Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.
As we speak the truth we are to be gentle toward everyone. We are to be kind, peaceable, loving, merciful and compassionate. In short, we are to be like Jesus.
Speaking with truth and grace
As John speaks about the wonder of Jesus coming to be born as a human being, he explains the incarnation with these words:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus is full of grace and truth. As his disciples, Christians should also be full of grace and truth as we seek to emulate our Lord and Master. We should not shy away from the truth: the truth about ourselves, the truth about the world, and the truth about the God who made us. But that truth always comes wrapped in grace, just as Jesus, who called himself ‘the Truth’, came wrapped in meekness and humility. As we have seen, Jesus spoke the truth clearly, and sometimes with strong words. But he also spoke with love and mercy, care and compassion, goodness and grace. We should do the same.