Well, on Monday, we talked about what makes a good sermon. And today we have a question about what place eloquence has in the pulpit, if any. And it's a question from a seasoned preacher who asked to remain nameless. Pastor John, thank you for this podcast. What is the role of creativity, imagination, and rhetoric in preaching?

I'm thinking of things from alliteration and assonance to structural and organizational devices to the use of metaphors, imagery, and illustrations. What would you say, Pastor John, to this preacher? This question has weighed on me for decades. So much so that maybe he knows, we did an entire Desiring God National Conference, I think in 2008, under the title, "The Power of Words and the Wonder of God," and the next year, Justin Taylor edited those messages into a book by the same title, and my talk in that conference was, "Is There Christian Eloquence?" And my burden was 1 Corinthians 1.17, which says, "Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." And I think that is the key issue.

How do we reconcile the pursuit of creative, imaginative, compelling uses of language in preaching and writing with the biblical warnings against replacing the power and offensiveness of the cross with human finesse or human art or human cleverness? Nobody can escape this problem. So nobody out there should say, "Oh, I don't even come close to that problem.

I'm not eloquent at all." No, no, no, no, no. You do come close to this problem every time you open your mouth for Jesus. Yes, you do. Nobody escapes this because everybody in preaching or teaching or witnessing has to choose words. And when you choose words, they are more or less grammatically correct, more or less interesting, more or less striking, more or less traditional, more or less concrete or abstract, more or less evocative, more or fewer analogies and illustrations, which may be more or less captivating, and on and on.

Nobody can evade the issue that when we choose our words, we are hoping that they have an effect for the glory of God and the salvation of sinners. And we make choices and we're never quite sure, was that the right choice? So this preacher is asking, is it fitting, helpful, legitimate, faithful to turn on like a faucet in your brain, to turn on the mental juices of creativity and imagination and make efforts at alliteration?

He mentions like big bad bellicose bully. That's alliteration and assonance like men sell the wedding bells. You hear the sound that's assonance men sell the wedding bells. I got that off the internet as an illustration of assonance and metaphors. Jesus is the lion of Judah or similes. He will come like a thief or imagery.

The sun crosses the sky like a bridegroom leaving his chamber. And illustrations like Jesus parables, the kingdom of God is like, and so on. It's not a simple question. And let me point our pastor friend to the fourth part of the new book, expository exaltation. I've got an entire part of this book devoted to the question of, is there such a thing as a legitimate Christian eloquence?

My answer is yes. But chapters eight and nine really tried to tackle and show that the use of our natural powers, our natural brains, our natural creativity with verbal effort to say things effectively may cross the line of emptying the cross of its power. Or they may not cross the line.

And here's what I've, I've concluded, and you'd have to go to the chapter to see the whole argument, but I've concluded the Bible itself is filled with every manner of literary device to add impact to the language. Acrostics, alliteration, analogies, anthropomorphisms, assonance, cadence, chiasm, consonants, dialogue, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, meter, onomatopoeia.

Look it up. Paradox, parallelism, repetition, rhyme, satire, simile. They're all there. And more, lots, lots more. The Bible is just explosive with varieties of effort to make the language different from ordinary hum, drum, traditional speech. And it seems to me that not only is there an example for us in the Bible for what to do with language when we're handling sacred things, but also that God Himself invites us to join Him in this creativity of compelling language with words like these, this is Proverbs 15, 23, "To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is." Or Proverbs 25, 11, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver." Or Colossians 4, 6, "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person," and on and on.

So my answer is yes, we should use our creative gifts to say things in interesting, non-boring, clear, truthful, biblically faithful, emotionally engaging, memorable, striking, compelling ways that are suitable to the subject matter. So when I seek to guard against the misuse of creativity or the misuse of Christian eloquence, which I don't think is a bad thing, I think mainly of two criteria that would show something out of bounds or in bounds, protecting the cross with its power and its offensiveness.

The first criteria is this, does my way of speaking or writing feed boasting? Does it come from an ego in search of exaltation through clever speech, and would it lead to that? Oh, how prone we are to want to get accolades for the way we put words together, and that's what Paul considers so deadly.

Paul rejects it. Here's the second criterion, does my use of creative language in speaking and writing exalt Christ, especially the crucified Christ? The most helpful word I ever read on this outside the Bible is James Denny's dictum, which I think expresses these two criteria in a nutshell. He says, "No man can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save." I read that early on in my ministry, and it has held me fast.

So hold fast to that and be as creative and compelling as you can be for the glory of Christ and the good of souls. So good. Thank you, Pastor John. And this week we are talking about preaching to celebrate Pastor John's new book, Expository Exaltation, which is the capstone of his 1000-page trilogy.

Asking and answering three really critical questions. Question number one, can we trust the Bible? That was answered, of course, back in book number one, A Peculiar Glory. Question number two, how should I go about reading the Bible to get God's meaning? That was answered in book number two, Reading the Bible Supernaturally.

And now finally, question three, what should I expect from my church and my pastors when they proclaim this book to me? That is now answered in book three, now out, titled Expository Exaltation, Christian Preaching as Worship. Well, our week of episodes on preaching ends on Friday next time, and I'll ask Pastor John, how do we know if our sermons are too short or too long?

That should generate an interesting answer. That's on Friday when we return. I'm your host, Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and preacher, John Piper. We'll see you then. © The Boston Public Library, 2020.