This article presents a few thoughts on a topic that has received much airtime in the past decade—plagiarism in preaching. I am quick to add that if you searched the Internet hard enough and long enough, you might discover that someone else said or wrote something nearly identical to this article. Perhaps I am plagiarizing while writing on the topic of plagiarism!

That is part of the quandary that preachers live in today. The overwhelming power of Internet technology never ceases to astonish me. We must use that resource well, for God’s glory, to serve his purpose “in his own generation” (Acts 13:36) with opportunities afforded to us that were inconceivable to our forebears. There are legitimate ways to do so. With respect to biblical understanding, all God’s people—certainly the most mature among them—make it their mission to learn from others who know more than they do about Scripture and how to apply it. God teaches the whole church, not merely individuals, over the entire course of human history. That is a good thing. It means I do not have to start from scratch to hammer out the doctrine of the Trinity. And a preacher does not start from scratch when he is preparing a message on any text from the Bible. The best writers on the topic of plagiarism agree.

The nuances in the discussion, however, surround the issue of the attribution of sources within a sermon. Note carefully that our focus is upon spoken sermons, not written and published ones. The rules are different for a variety of reasons that I will not get into here. Our concerns about plagiarism surround the application of the Ninth Commandment: we must be truthful, never deceitful. The most egregious cases of plagiarism demonstrate an obvious violation of trust, compromising of integrity, failure to speak truthfully, perpetration of a lie. There is also an obvious violation of the Eighth Commandment: plagiarists steal something from another. Plagiarism is sin.

Yet most cases of supposed plagiarism are far less obvious. To illustrate, let us consider a sermon I preached recently from Genesis 14: “Faith for Battle, Faith to Worship.” I first preached from this text in the 1980s, early in my pastoral ministry. Back then I used my fresh seminary training to carefully exegete the Hebrew text (the real text in a book, not a bunch of ones and zeros on a screen! Harumph.). I also read a couple sermons that were available, such as those by James Boice. Or maybe that was ten years later when I prepared version two or three of the message. What books did I read, what preachers did I hear, and when? I do not remember. That is the problem. I have decent retention for quotes but a poor one for sources. Not to mention that aging is not kind to long-term memory. After four decades, I truly do not know what I borrowed or from whom.

But does it matter? Seriously? Everything I declared from the pulpit came from my own mind and heart with the conviction of its truth. The sermon was my own, as the Holy Spirit has taught me through the Word. And I freely and joyfully admit that the Spirit used the gifts of many other students and preachers to teach me over the years, such that now I can teach others also. Does that sound faintly like, “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2)?

The implication of Paul’s instruction to Timothy is clear: Whatever God teaches individual believers from his Word is never meant only for their personal edification; it is for the whole church. That fact is particularly true for pastor-teachers who are called by God “to equip the saints for the work of ministry . . .” (Eph. 4:12). By all means, let us always speak truth, never lie, and never steal. Yet I wonder if some concerns about “plagiarism” in preaching arise from the modern idea of “intellectual property” and the demand for individual rights. We will not deny that the Eighth Commandment applies to published works. But ought we apply the same standard to the living words spoken from our pulpits, by men taught by the Holy Spirit? We must not allow a preoccupation with twenty-first century academic protocol to bind our consciences, hinder corporate learning, and undermine effective preaching.

Some charges of plagiarism might be facile and shallow at best, slanderous at worst. Yet another concern looms even larger. We must ponder the very nature of preaching itself. To plumb this, let us change the perspective from the preacher to the worshiper. On the Lord’s Day, I sit with the congregation, while the preacher mounts the pulpit. He reads the inspired Scriptures, prays, and then opens his mouth to speak. He informs my mind from that particular text, explaining its meaning within the context of the whole Bible. He urges me to believe it in my heart and obey it from my heart—and to repent where I have failed to do so. There I hear the very “oracles of God” (1 Pet. 4:10–11; cf. 2 Cor. 2:17; 6:3–7), the Living God’s authoritative voice binding my conscience to serve my Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart, even if I must die as a result. Nothing less qualifies as good preaching.

If we hold to this biblical view of preaching, what are the implications for plagiarism? How can we avoid it? Let’s begin here: I emphatically do not want to hear a bunch of footnotes from the pulpit about this author or that author, with chapter and page number! I did not come to church to hear a lecture, carefully annotated to satisfy the strict scruples of academics and publishing house editors. Yet we acknowledge that we must avoid real plagiarism, after carefully defining it, in ways that maintain the Christ-centered nature of preaching. You readers may have practical suggestions about how to accomplish this. Here is one of my own (Really. I did not get this idea from anyone else. Cross my heart and hope to die. And my fingers are not crossed behind my back—which according to 1950s folklore allows children to lie with impunity.) Place a written note in every Sunday bulletin, giving proper attribution where necessary, along with this note: “The speaker has learned from many other writers and preachers and is thankful to God for them. If any important acknowledgments have been missed, please let him know, and he will gladly correct the oversight.”

We have been hard on any practice that requires us to read reams of distracting acknowledgments from the pulpit. But we can lighten up a bit here. You do not lose your humanness in the pulpit. You can still thank God for particular writers you have learned from. You can even urge people to read this or that particular book, including the chapter and page number information for them. Just go easy on those things. Get back to your main task—proclaim the oracles of God to the people of God for the glory of God. As you do, you will behold the Spirit of God building up Christ’s church in love, in holiness, and in number.

Andrew H. Selle is a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and serves as a Teacher at Covenant OPC, Barre, Vermont. He is a biblical counselor and conciliator. Ordained Servant Online, March, 2024.