therefore, cannot be measured solely by those to whom we speak. If our audience is the sole judge of our character, then we might be tempted to compromise our message in order to gain a hearing. The ethos of Jesus himself, we will remember, was called into serious question by some. He was called a “Samaritan” and was accused of being possessed by a demon (John 8:48, 52). The measuring rod by which we judge the ethos of persuasion, then, must be something other than what our audience, be it many people or one person, might think; it must be Scripture itself.
