Chukwuebuka had begun using an artificial intelligence tool on his phone about a year earlier, and he had become quietly enthusiastic about it. He was the youth pastor at a growing church in Ikorodu and also, because the church could not yet afford a full-time administrator, the person who wrote most of its letters, reports and announcements. The tool helped him summarise long documents from the denomination’s head office. It tidied the minutes of meetings. It produced a first draft of the youth outreach flyer in Yoruba and Hausa, which he then gave to two members who spoke those languages to check and correct. He told his wife it had given him back three hours a week.
One night in August he came home at a quarter to midnight after a long planning meeting for the annual youth camp. As he sat on the edge of the bed, his phone lit up with a message from a widow in the church whose husband had died four months earlier. It was long, and it was raw. Her husband’s family were pressing her to leave the house. A debt she had known nothing about had surfaced. Her teenage son had stopped coming to church. Pastor, I don’t know if God still sees me.
Chukwuebuka was exhausted. He copied the whole message, with her name, her late husband’s name and every detail of the family dispute, and pasted it into the tool. He typed, Write a compassionate pastoral reply with Bible verses. In a few seconds a reply appeared. It was warm and beautifully phrased. It mentioned her grief and her son. It included three verses and an encouraging line near the end. He changed two words, sent it and fell asleep.
At seven the next morning she replied. Thank you, Pastor. Your words comforted me. But you wrote, “As the Bible says, God helps those who help themselves.” I have been searching since 5am and I can’t find it. Which book is it in?
He sat up and read his own message for the first time with real attention. The line was there. It is an old proverb, popular for centuries, and it appears nowhere in Scripture. Worse, the whole message, he now saw, said nothing that was really his. And as he looked at the screen, a second realisation came. He had given the private details of a grieving woman’s family crisis to a service whose terms he had never read, without asking her.
He did not throw his phone away. But he did not sleep well for several nights. He kept asking himself one question, and it is the question this teaching is about. When a tool produces the words, who is responsible for them?
A tool in human hands
Before we speak about responsibilities and boundaries, we should be clear that technology itself is not the enemy of faith. From the very beginning, God gave human beings a task that involves shaping the world:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
“Let them have dominion.” “Replenish the earth, and subdue it.” Humanity was created to work with what God made: to cultivate, organise, build and develop. Dominion here is stewardship, the delegated rule of those who represent the true King. It is never permission to exploit. But it plainly includes invention. A few chapters later, Genesis records the beginnings of human craft. Jabal was “the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.” Jubal was “the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.” Tubal-cain was “an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron” (Genesis 4:20-22). Tents, music, metalwork. The development of tools is part of the human story from early on.
Christians have often been among the first to use new tools for good. The printing press spread the Scriptures widely across Europe in the century of the Reformation. Missionaries used radio to reach villages no preacher could visit. Today, artificial intelligence, by which most people mean computer systems that can produce text, images, audio or analysis in response to a request, is the latest tool to arrive at our door.
There are real benefits. A student can ask for a difficult concept to be explained in simpler words, then explained again from another angle. A small business owner who struggles with formal English can get help drafting a letter to a bank. A pastor can get a rough translation of a passage or summary into a language his congregation speaks, though he should always have it checked by someone fluent. People with visual impairments or reading difficulties can have texts read aloud or described. A busy mother can organise the week’s tasks in a few minutes. These are gifts, and believers need not be ashamed to receive them with thanksgiving.
But a tool remains a tool. It has no conscience and bears no accountability before God. The person who uses it does. That is where our responsibility begins.
Made in His image
Much public talk about artificial intelligence swings between two moods. One is hype: the idea that these systems will solve every human problem and perhaps make human beings themselves less necessary. The other is fear: the idea that they will take every job, deceive everyone and slip beyond control. A Christian does not need to live in either mood. Our confidence rests on what God has said about human beings, and that has not changed.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.
David looked up at the night sky over Judah and felt small. “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” Then he answered his own question with wonder. God has made man “a little lower than the angels” and “crowned him with glory and honour.” Human beings are not great because of their cleverness. They are great because God has set His love on them and given them a share in His rule. The writer to the Hebrews applies this psalm finally to Jesus, the true Man, who was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death and is now crowned with glory (Hebrews 2:6-9). In Him, human dignity is secured.
This matters in at least three ways.
First, a human being is not a machine, and a machine is not a person. However fluent a system’s words become, it does not bear the image of God. It cannot love, repent, pray or be redeemed. We should resist language that blurs this, and we should never treat a tool as though it were a friend, a counsellor or an oracle.
Second, human worth does not rest on productivity. Many people worry that they will be replaced. That concern is understandable, and Christians should care about workers whose livelihoods are disrupted by change. But your value before God was never measured by how fast you could produce a report. A woman who can no longer work, a child who is slow to learn and a man whose job has disappeared remain crowned with the glory God gave them.
PunchlineThird, because people bear God’s image, what we do with these tools must serve people. We are not free to use them to deceive, exploit or dehumanise those for whom Christ died.
The responsibility stays with you
The oldest excuse in the book of Exodus is also one of the funniest. Moses came down from the mountain to find Israel dancing round a golden calf. He turned to his brother, who had been left in charge:
And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.
Listen to Aaron’s account. The people insisted. I asked for their gold. “Then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.” As though the calf had simply emerged by itself! Earlier in the same chapter we are told plainly that Aaron “fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf” (Exodus 32:4). He had shaped it with his own hands. But when he was called to account, he spoke as if the fire had done it.
We are very good at Aaron’s excuse. The system generated it. The app wrote that. I only pressed the button. But Scripture will not let responsibility pass to the instrument. Paul writes, “For every man shall bear his own burden” (Galatians 6:5), and, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). When you send words that a tool helped produce, they are your words. When you publish an image a tool generated, you have published it. When you act on advice a system gave you, the decision is yours.
That is why human judgement cannot be handed over along with the task. You can hand over the typing, the first draft, the formatting, the summary. You cannot hand over the responsibility to read it, weigh it, check it and decide whether it is true, fitting and kind. Chukwuebuka’s mistake was not that he used a tool. It was that he let the tool’s fluency stand in for his own attention. He delegated the judgement along with the writing.
You can hand a task to a tool. You cannot hand over your responsibility for the result. Whatever goes out under your name, you have said.
The simple believeth every word
The book of Proverbs has a sentence that every user of these tools should keep close:
The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.
The Hebrew word translated simple describes a person who is open in the wrong way, easily persuaded, without the habit of examining things. “The simple believeth every word.” He hears something confident and takes it as true. “But the prudent man looketh well to his going.” The prudent person watches where he is stepping. He considers before he moves.
That is exactly the discipline these tools require. They can produce words that sound authoritative and are simply wrong. They can invent a quotation, misstate a date, attribute a saying to the wrong person or, as Chukwuebuka discovered, place a popular proverb inside the Bible. They can do it smoothly, with no sign of hesitation. Fluency is not the same as truth. A polished paragraph can contain a fabricated fact as easily as a rough one.
For the believer, this calls for some simple habits. Check Scripture against Scripture. If a verse is quoted, open your Bible and find it. Check facts that matter against reliable sources. Be especially careful with medical, legal and financial information, and with anything you will pass on to others as true. Where a tool gives you a reference, look it up; do not assume it exists. Paul’s instruction to the Thessalonians applies here: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
This is also a word about the information we receive, and not only what we produce. Artificial intelligence has made it easier for others to create convincing false images, recordings and documents. A voice note can sound like your brother. A video can show a public figure saying something he never said. The prudent man “looketh well to his going.” Before you believe or share something dramatic, especially something that confirms what you already wanted to believe, slow down and look.
Speak truth with your neighbour
Paul’s instruction to the Ephesians is direct:
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
The reason Paul gives is relational. “For we are members one of another.” Lies tear at the fabric of the body. Truthfulness is not merely about avoiding false statements. It includes not creating false impressions.
That bears directly on how we use these tools. When a student submits an essay that a system wrote, as if it were his own work, he is not merely breaking a school rule. He is making a false claim about who did the work. The same is true of a job applicant who presents generated samples as his own, or a professional who passes off a machine’s analysis as his own expertise. Most schools and universities now have rules about what kind of assistance is permitted. A Christian student should know those rules and keep them honestly, even when no one would find out. Using a tool to understand a topic may be perfectly acceptable. Presenting its work as your own, where that is not permitted, is a form of lying.
Preachers and teachers face a particular temptation here. The prophet Jeremiah recorded God’s complaint against false prophets who borrowed one another’s dreams and presented them as a word from the Lord: “behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour” (Jeremiah 23:30). The setting is not identical to ours. But the principle is sobering. A minister who stands before a congregation with a message produced by a machine, presented as the fruit of his own prayer and study, is misleading the people who trust him. Tools can help with research, outlines and background. The message itself must pass through the preacher’s own heart before God.
Truthfulness also rules out using these tools to fabricate. Creating a fake image of a real person, generating a recording in someone’s voice that he never spoke, or producing a false document to deceive is lying with a new instrument. Sometimes it may also be a crime. Where there is a reasonable expectation that people will want to know a tool was involved, such as a photograph presented as real or a statement presented as personal, honesty means telling them.
Lawful, but not always helpful
The Corinthian believers had a question about eating meat that had been offered to idols. Some of them argued that because idols were nothing, they were free to eat anything. Paul agreed with their theology but challenged their reasoning:
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth .
“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.” Expedient means helpful, beneficial, profitable. “All things edify not.” Some freedoms do not build anyone up. And then the principle that governs the whole discussion: “Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.” Wealth in the KJV means well-being. The Christian asks, “How will this affect the people around me?” and not only, “Am I permitted?”
That question opens up several responsibilities.
The first is care for information entrusted to us. Chukwuebuka had every right to use the tool for his own work. He had no right to share a grieving woman’s private crisis with an outside service without her knowledge. Proverbs says:
A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.
“He that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.” Pastors, doctors, lawyers, teachers, human resources staff and church secretaries handle details that do not belong to them. Before you paste someone else’s information into any tool, ask whether they would be comfortable with it, whether your workplace permits it and whether you understand where that information goes. If in doubt, remove names and identifying details, or do not share it at all.
The second responsibility concerns dependence. A tool that saves time is a gift. A tool that replaces your ability to think, write, pray or remember may be a loss. Paul elsewhere says, “I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Corinthians 6:12). Students in particular should be careful. If a machine always writes the essay, the student never learns to reason. Parents and teachers should help young people use these tools to learn, rather than to avoid learning.
The third concerns our neighbours more broadly. A Christian business owner who uses automation should think about the people affected, including employees. A believer who creates content should think about whether it misleads anyone. “Every man another’s wealth.”
What cannot be handed over
NuggetThere is one more boundary, and for the people of God it may be the most important. Some things are not tasks. They are relationships. They cannot be delegated without being lost.
Isaiah describes the Servant of the Lord, whom the New Testament identifies with Jesus:
The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
“The tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.” What a beautiful description of pastoral care. A word in season, fitted to the moment, for a tired person. And notice where that word comes from. “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” The Servant speaks well to the weary because He has first listened to the Father. His comforting word grows out of a daily, personal attentiveness to God.
That is why prayer cannot be outsourced. A tool can suggest a written prayer, and written prayers have a long and honourable place in Christian devotion. But prayer itself is a child speaking to a Father. No system can do that for you. Discernment cannot be outsourced either. James writes, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). We may gather information from many places. Wisdom for the decisions of our lives comes from God, through His Word and His Spirit, often with the help of faithful people who know us.
And pastoral care cannot be outsourced. The widow who wrote to Chukwuebuka at midnight did not need a perfect paragraph. She needed to know that her pastor had read her words, felt their weight and was praying for her. A slightly clumsy message in his own voice, or even a short one saying, “I have read this. I am praying. Can my wife and I come and see you tomorrow?” would have given her more than the most eloquent text a machine could produce.
Wisdom for homes and churches
These principles become real in ordinary places, so it may help to think about two of them.
In the home, parents cannot simply ban these tools and hope for the best. Many schools now use them, and children will meet them anyway. Far better to sit with your son or daughter and use one together. Ask it a question about something you know well, and let your child see where it gets things wrong. Talk about the difference between asking for an explanation and asking for an answer to copy. Agree, as a family, on what kinds of help are honest for homework. Your children will learn more from watching you check a fact than from any rule you announce.
Families should also be alert to fraud. Criminals can now imitate voices and faces convincingly enough to fool relatives. A message that sounds like your daughter, saying she has been arrested and needs money sent immediately, may not be your daughter at all. Some families agree on a private word or question that only they would know, to be used whenever an urgent request for money arrives. Whatever you do, slow down, hang up and call the person back on a number you already have. Urgency is often the fraudster’s main tool.
In the church, leaders would do well to think ahead rather than react after something goes wrong. Who handles members’ personal information, and what may be done with it? May volunteers use these tools to prepare announcements, notes or translations, and who checks the result? How will the church respond if a fabricated recording of the pastor begins to circulate? A short, clear policy, agreed in advance and explained to workers, protects both the people and the ministry.
None of this requires fear. It requires the same things Scripture has always required of God’s people: truthfulness, faithfulness with what is entrusted, love for neighbour and the humility to keep learning.
Chukwuebuka phoned her that morning. He apologised for the line about God helping those who help themselves. Then he did something harder. He told her that he had been tired, that he had used a tool to write the reply, and that he had put her private details into it without asking her. He asked her forgiveness.
There was a long silence. Then she laughed softly. “Pastor, I thought it was too fine for you,” she said. “Your messages usually have spelling mistakes.”
That Saturday he and his wife visited her. They sat in her parlour for two hours. He did not say anything particularly eloquent. He listened. He read Psalm 34 with her. He agreed to go with her to see a lawyer about the house, and he spoke to her son after the youth service the following week.
He still uses the tool. It still summarises the denomination’s reports and helps with the flyers. But he has made himself a few rules. He does not paste anyone’s personal information into it. He checks every verse and every fact. He does not use it to write anything he would present as his own prayer, sermon or pastoral word. And when someone writes to him in pain, he answers in his own voice, even if that means answering in the morning.
PunchlineThe tool gave him back three hours a week. He decided that some hours are not meant to be given back.
Teaching Companion
For Reflection
- Where are you already using artificial intelligence tools, and what benefits have you found?
- Have you ever offered Aaron’s excuse, blaming the tool or the process for something that came out under your name?
- What habits of checking would help you “look well to your going” when a tool gives you information?
- What information has been entrusted to you at work, at church or in your family that you must guard carefully?
- What part of your life with God, or your care for others, are you tempted to hand over to a machine?
This Week
This week, write down how you use artificial intelligence tools and set two or three personal boundaries in writing: one about checking facts and Scripture, one about protecting other people’s information, and one about something you will always do in your own words. If you are a student, read your school’s policy on these tools and decide to keep it honestly. If someone writes to you in difficulty, reply in your own voice and offer to pray or visit.
A Prayer
Lord God, thank You for the gifts of skill and invention You have given to human beings, and for every tool that helps me serve You and others. Thank You that You crowned us with glory and honour, and that my worth rests on Your love and not on my output. Keep me from the simple faith that believes every word. Make me truthful in what I produce and faithful with what others entrust to me. Let me never hand to a machine the prayer, discernment and care that belong to my relationship with You and with Your people. Waken my ear morning by morning, so that I may speak a word in season to the weary. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.