Several years ago my family took a vacation out west, going as far as the Grand Canyon. During one of our stops in New Mexico, my father and I were in the motel office checking in. In the course of doing all you have to do to get a room, the clerk stopped, looked at us, and said, "You're not from around here, are you?" My father jokingly replied, "What gave us away?" The clerk answered, "Your speech. What part of the South are you from anyway?"
Our speech gave us away, or betrayed us. We were dressed like everyone else, but the way we talked was the identifying mark as to who we were. Please think about this notion of one's speech betraying him/her in view of some basic Biblical teaching.
In Judg. 12:6 we read of the difficulty of the Ephraimites in trying to pronounce a certain word. Under the leadership of Jephthah, the Gileadites were trying to capture and kill as many Ephraimites as possible. If an Ephraimite was captured and denied being one, he was asked to prove it by saying "Shibboleth." All he could say was "Sibboleth." Thus, his speech betrayed him and he was slain.
In Mt. 26:73, Peter is warming himself by the fire outside the house of Caiaphas while Jesus is inside being tried by the Jews. In his third denial of Christ, Peter is accused by some bystanders as being "one of them (followers of Jesus); for your speech betrays you" [NKJV]. Peter sounded like a Galilean because he was one.
Now, the application...
There is no linguistic dialect identifying whether or not one is a Christian. Christianity knows no geographical boundaries. However, that is not to say that Christianity does not have its own speech, and that a N.T. Christian should not be identified by the way he/she talks. Eph. 5:3-4 states, "But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks." In a world full of ungodly speech, can people tell you are a Christian by the way you talk? When one has been converted to Jesus Christ, unfit speech gives way to thankfulness. Does your speech betray you? Hmmm....
