" If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God."—1 Peter 4:11.
One is quite right in thinking that the apostle's word goes far beyond speaking according to the Scriptures, for a man might say nothing but what was scriptural, and not speak " as [the] oracles of God " (hoslogia Theou). The passage implies that one should only speak when one has the certainty of uttering what one believes to be the mind of God for the occasion. If there is not this confidence, one ought to be silent. It may be an artless message, possibly like that of Peter and John, displaying the speaker to be humanly ignorant and unlearned, and yet just the mind of God, suitable to the present need. This is to speak " as oracles of God." Another might speak a word true in itself, but applicable to wholly different circumstances, warning where comfort was needed, instruction where the Spirit was rather calling out communion, or vice versa. To speak thus is not to speak as oracles of God.
Of course, there is the other and equally imperative obligation on the part of those who hear, of examining all by the word of God.—" Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."