For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
In
last Sunday’s sermon we meditated on Hebrews 4:12-13. I noted that the phrase, “Word of God,” has
at least three meanings in the NT. It
can refer to Jesus himself, to the preaching of the gospel, and to the
inscripturated or written word. I also
noted that in Hebrews 4:12 I think the Word of God refers primarily to
Scripture (especially given the context of reflection on Psalm 95:7-11 in
Hebrews chapters 3-4). In Hebrews 4:12,
the inspired author uses four terms to describe the Word of God:
1. The Word
of God is quick [living; Greek participle zon; like the name Zoe,
meaning “life”]. For the use of “quick”
compare the traditional phrasing of the Apostles’ Creed which says Jesus will
return to judge “the quick and the dead” (i.e., the living and the dead).
There
are many who would like for the Bible to be dead. They would like to officiate at its
funeral. There are those who would like
to place the Bible behind velvet ropes in a museum, like some religious
artifact, telling the curious, “People actually used to read this old book and
to follow its precepts.” There are some
who want to treat the Bible as a literary treasure to be perhaps admired and
studied but not taken seriously spiritually.
Like the Prodigal Son they would like to take some cultural inheritance
from the Bible while they run off to some far country to indulge in riotous
living.
But
the inspired author reminds us here that his Word is alive, and so is the
preaching that thunders from it. It is a
living Word, because it proclaims a living Christ and a living hope in the
gospel.
2. The Word
of God is powerful [the Greek word is energes, root for the English word “energy” and “energetic”; some
modern translations render the Greek term as “active” or “effective”]. The
opposite of this would be weak, limp, ineffective. Some have slandered the character of the Word
of God, but the inspired writer is standing up as a witness to give testimony
to the Word of God’s power to change men’s hearts and lives, to shape them into
conformity to Christ, and to preserve them faithful unto the end.
3. The Word
of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. The comparative adjective “sharper” here
comes from the Greek word tomos. It is also the root for the English word
“atom.” An atom is the basic building
block that cannot be cut or split without creating a great explosion of energy
(i.e., It is a-tomos]. The Word of God is sharp; it is cutting. It has the ability to cut that which seems
un-cut-able, to split that which seems un-split-able.
It is
sharper than a two-edged (literally a double-mouthed) sword. This was the weapon of the Roman soldiers. The Word of God is like a finely honed
weapon, like a well sharpened knife, that cuts to the heart spiritually
speaking. It cuts away pretense from
authenticity, the phony from the real. It
separates the meat from the bones, the joint from the marrow. It is like a surgical scalpel in the hand of
the Great Physician.
The
Word of God cuts to the heart of the matter.
It calls us to die to ourselves and to live for Christ. It calls us to deny ourselves, to take up our
cross daily, and to follow him.
4. The Word
of God is “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The noun for “discerner” here is the Greek word kritikos, an adjective meaning “able to
judge,” the root for the English word “critic.”
A
critic is not merely someone who is critical, or who simply gives criticism to
tear down. But a critic is one who has the
ability or expertise to pass an informed judgment or to give an accurate
evaluation. We need more than our own
subjective judgments about what is right and wrong, noble or ignoble,
praiseworthy or shameful, because “the
heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
We
need the authority of the Word of God in order to discern the appropriateness
or inappropriateness of our own subjective experiences and to tell us what is
godly and what is ungodly.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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