By Timothy Kitchen Jr

The Knowledge and Intent Behind “Stealing” God’s Words

“Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.”
— Jeremiah 23:30

There is another dimension to this scripture that deserves serious attention.

God did not merely say these prophets were mistaken.

He said they stole.

And the language of stealing immediately raises the question of knowledge and intent.

You cannot meaningfully steal what you genuinely believe belongs to you.

The very concept of theft involves taking something that belongs to another.

These were:

“MY WORDS.”

Yet they were being taken:

“every one from his neighbour.”

That makes Jeremiah 23 more serious than a warning against simple doctrinal error.

It raises the issue of what happens when a person knows where something came from, yet chooses to represent it otherwise.

There Is a Difference Between Being Wrong and Being False

A person can sincerely misunderstand something.

He can read a scripture incorrectly.

He can inherit an incorrect teaching.

He can reach a mistaken conclusion.

God certainly expects us to correct error when we discover it.

But Jeremiah describes something beyond innocent misunderstanding.

God says:

“I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name…”
— Jeremiah 23:25

Then:

“Behold, I am against the prophets… that steal my words every one from his neighbour.”
— verse 30

Then:

“Behold, I am against the prophets… that use their tongues, and say, He saith.”
— verse 31

And finally:

“Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams… and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness…”
— verse 32

Look at the progression:

They steal.

They say, “He saith.”

They lie.

They cause God’s people to err.

This isn’t merely a picture of somebody making an honest mistake.

God is addressing responsibility.

To Steal Implies Something Wasn’t Yours

Consider the word God chose:

Steal.

If I accidentally pick up something believing it belongs to me, that is fundamentally different from seeing something belonging to my neighbor, knowing where it came from, taking it, and presenting it as mine.

That is why Jeremiah 23:30 becomes especially serious when applied to inherited religious teaching.

Suppose someone knows:

This teaching came through someone before me.

He knows:

I learned this explanation from him.

He knows:

These scriptural connections were shown to me by someone else.

He knows:

This isn’t something I independently discovered.

Yet eventually the history is removed.

The attribution disappears.

The teaching is repackaged.

And then it is presented in a manner suggesting:

God gave this to us.

That raises a much more serious question than simple error.

Because the person may know perfectly well:

It wasn’t his to begin with.

“And Say, He Saith”

The next verse makes the issue even sharper:

“Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.”
— Jeremiah 23:31

Think about what God is describing.

A man speaks.

Then attaches God’s authority to what he says:

“He saith.”

That is enormously serious.

It is one thing to say:

“Here is my understanding.”

It is another to say:

“God says.”

And it is still another thing to take something learned from another man and present it as though God independently delivered it through you.

God knows the difference.

God knows where the message originated.

God knows who taught whom.

God knows what the speaker knows.

And God knows the intent of the heart.

A Lie Requires Truth to Be Concealed

A mistake and a lie are not the same thing.

A lie involves knowingly representing something as contrary to what one understands to be true.

If I tell you something false while sincerely believing it, I may be wrong.

But if I know the truth and deliberately tell you otherwise, I have lied.

Scripture repeatedly connects sin with this element of knowledge.

Jesus said:

“If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”
— John 9:41

Their knowledge mattered.

Again Christ said:

“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.”
— John 15:22

Knowledge increased responsibility.

They could no longer claim ignorance.

“To Him It Is Sin”

James expresses the principle directly:

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
— James 4:17

Notice:

“that knoweth.”

Knowledge creates responsibility.

Once you know what is right, deliberately choosing otherwise becomes a moral decision.

That principle reaches far beyond Jeremiah 23.

There is a difference between:

“I didn’t know.”

and:

“I knew, but chose otherwise.”

There is a difference between:

“I misunderstood.”

and:

“I understood and concealed it.”

There is a difference between:

“I thought this was mine.”

and:

“I knew where I got it, but presented it as mine.”

God judges the heart.

Sin Is Also Defined by Knowledge

Christ gave another powerful principle:

“And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.”
— Luke 12:47

But then Christ distinguishes another servant:

“But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.”
— verse 48

Both actions mattered.

But their knowledge was not equal.

Therefore their accountability was not equal.

Christ concludes:

“For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required…”

That principle is essential when discussing spiritual leadership.

The more a person knows, the greater his responsibility.

The more truth entrusted to him, the greater his responsibility.

The more history he knows, the less excuse he has for rewriting it.

This Makes Religious Appropriation More Serious

Suppose a later religious organization possesses teachings inherited from an earlier teacher or body.

Its leaders have the old literature.

They possess the sermons.

They possess the books.

They possess the archives.

They know who taught what.

They know when doctrines entered their tradition.

They know the terminology was inherited.

Then suppose the attribution gradually disappears.

That deserves examination.

But we must be careful here.

We cannot automatically know another person’s heart.

God can.

We cannot simply declare:

“They deliberately stole it.”

without evidence of their knowledge and intent.

But where documents, correspondence, statements, publications or other evidence establish that someone knew the source and deliberately represented it otherwise, the issue becomes substantially more serious.

Then Jeremiah’s language deserves consideration:

“that steal my words every one from his neighbour.”

The Same Principle Applies When Doctrine Is Changed

There is another side to this.

Suppose someone receives a teaching.

He knows exactly what was taught.

Later he changes it.

That change may be legitimate if Scripture demonstrates that the former teaching was wrong.

Truth must always outrank tradition.

But intellectual honesty requires saying:

“This is what we formerly taught.”

“This is why we now believe it was wrong.”

“Here are the Scriptures upon which we changed it.”

That is transparent.

What becomes problematic is pretending:

“We never taught that.”

when you know otherwise.

Or:

“This has always been our teaching.”

when historical documents show otherwise.

Or quietly rewriting the history so that future generations never know there was a change.

Now we are no longer merely discussing doctrine.

We are discussing truthfulness.

Knowing the Truth Changes Everything

James 4:17 gives us the principle:

“To him that knoweth…”

That changes the entire question.

Did they know?

Did they possess the original material?

Did they know where the teaching came from?

Did they know what had previously been taught?

Did they know they were changing it?

Did they know what they were telling the membership was historically inaccurate?

Those questions matter.

Because knowledge establishes responsibility.

“Thou Desirest Truth in the Inward Parts”

David wrote:

“Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts…”
— Psalm 51:6

God isn’t merely concerned that technically correct words come out of our mouths.

He wants truth inside.

That means our motives matter.

Our intentions matter.

Our honesty matters.

Why are we saying this?

Why are we withholding that?

Why did we remove that attribution?

Why did we change that history?

Why are we presenting something this way?

Men see the publication.

Men hear the sermon.

Men read the article.

But God sees the inward parts.

God Knows Whether It Was a Mistake

This should also prevent us from judging too quickly.

We may see the action.

God sees the knowledge behind the action.

A person may genuinely not know.

Another may have been incorrectly taught.

Another may simply be repeating what he sincerely believes.

Another may know the complete history and intentionally conceal it.

Externally, their words might sound identical.

But before God their accountability may be very different.

That is why Christ’s statement matters:

“For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.”

God judges according to what a person was given.

But Once You Know…

There comes a point where ignorance is no longer available as an excuse.

Someone shows you the original document.

Someone shows you the sermon.

Someone produces the publication.

Someone shows exactly where the teaching came from.

Now you know.

At that point the question changes.

The question is no longer merely:

“What happened?”

It becomes:

“What will you do now that you know?”

Will you correct it?

Will you acknowledge it?

Will you restore the attribution?

Will you admit that the teaching was inherited?

Will you admit that something was changed?

Or will you knowingly continue presenting something you now understand to be false?

That is where James 4:17 becomes unavoidable:

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Truth Brings Responsibility

There is therefore a sobering progression:

You may begin in ignorance.

Then evidence is presented.

Now you know.

Knowledge produces responsibility.

Then comes a choice.

Will you act according to what you know?

If you choose truth, you correct the record.

If you knowingly choose what is false, the matter has moved beyond ignorance.

This principle applies to ministers.

It applies to organizations.

It applies to writers.

It applies to members.

And it applies to us.

We cannot use Jeremiah 23 merely as a weapon against somebody else.

If God shows me that something I have said is false, what will I do?

If someone proves that I wrongly attributed something, will I correct it?

If I discover that an argument I thought was mine actually came from somebody else, will I acknowledge it?

If Scripture proves one of my beliefs wrong, will I change?

The same standard must apply to everyone.

“My Words”

And that brings us back to Jeremiah:

“Behold, I am against the prophets… that steal MY WORDS every one from his neighbour.”

The words ultimately belonged neither to the man who first preached them nor the man who later repeated them.

They belonged to God.

That makes stealing them even more serious.

A man may steal credit from another man.

But when he takes God’s truth and uses it to manufacture spiritual authority for himself, there is something greater involved.

He has taken something belonging to God and used it for himself.

God says:

“MY WORDS.”

And God knows whether we innocently misunderstood them—

or whether we knew exactly what we were doing.

The Question Is Not Merely, “Is It True?”

We therefore need to ask several questions.

Is the teaching true?

Where did it come from?

Did the person presenting it know where it came from?

Is he honestly representing that history?

Has something been deliberately concealed?

And what does God’s Word actually say?

Because there is a difference between error and deception.

There is a difference between receiving and stealing.

There is a difference between being mistaken and lying.

And Scripture repeatedly shows that knowledge increases accountability.

“To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Once we know the truth, we become responsible for what we do with it.

So when God says:

“They steal my words every one from his neighbour,”

we should not merely ask:

What did they take?

We should also ask:

What did they know when they took it?

Because God does.

And before Him, intent matters.