It is incumbent on all of us to give careful consideration of the Bible’s personal pronouns. They guide our interpretation of any given passage; they explain the collective and individual aspects of Christianity; and they serve as useful homiletical tools for the minister of the gospel to preach the word to himself and to the people of God.

Personal pronouns have been all the rage and debate in recent years. It’s amazing how important such short words are in our everyday speech and in our anthropology. That being said, personal pronouns are also some of the most important words to interpret when reading the Scriptures. One of my professors in seminary used to always challenge the students to give careful consideration to what pronouns (i.e., singular and plural; ‘I,’ ‘you;’ ‘we,’ ‘he, she, it,’ ‘they,’) are being used in the text of Scripture. Paying attention to these pronouns will help the reader better understand the meaning of any given passage. Personal pronouns guide the interpretation of a passage, they inform us of the individual and communal nature of the Christian life, and they aid the minister in the preaching of God’s word. However, it is not always easy to discern the last two of these.

It is not always clear in the English whether a biblical personal pronoun is singular or plural. We have to work with the text in the original languages. For instance, in the Greek version of Luke 22:31, the first “you” is plural (i.e., “Satan has asked for ‘you [all]'”), the second is singular (i.e., I have prayed for you – Peter). The English translations of Scripture fail to capture this.

Both personal pronouns and the voice of a verb play a significant role in understanding the individual and the corporate nature of the Christianity. We see this in the Savior’s addresses to the seven churches in Asia Minor (Rev. 2–3). In Revelation 2:2, Jesus addressed the members of the church collectively with the second person plural pronoun “your.” By so doing, He is acknowledging the collective nature of the people of God in a local church. The members of a particular church are subject to the collective criticism and commendation of the Savior. However, at the end of each letter, Jesus addresses individuals with the first-person plural aorist word ἀκουσάτω (i.e., the one who hears). By so doing, Jesus is calling individuals to respond personally to what He has said.

This paves the way for the consideration of what pronouns should be used in preaching. There has been no small debate over the past century and a half about this matter. The nineteenth century Anglican theologian, J.C. Ryle, in his little book, Simplicity in Preaching, made the following observation about why he believed that the use of the second person singular or plural pronoun “you” is a better option than the second person plural use of “we.” He wrote,

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