A revealing exercise coming your way

Let’s look again at Hebrews 4:12-13. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Today, let’s look at the two-edged sword metaphor. A sword can pierce the body, but it is powerless to pierce the inner man. Some commentators believe we should take the divisions given not as separate entities, but another way of communicating the whole being. I don’t disagree that it could be so. However, I suggest otherwise. The author may have identified the separate entities to communicate a fundamental truth about the power of God’s Word and its effectiveness. It is able to reveal where God unites His word (a work in the soul of man entailing thoughts) with faith (a work in the spirit or heart of man entailing intentions) as mentioned in vs. 2. The problem with the Israelites was that His word was not united by faith in them. The soul is the part of us that relates to others and to our outer world. The spirit refers to our spiritual capacity to relate to God. Let’s think about this and be amazed at the wisdom of God. The author was encouraging them that as believers they have open access into God’s rest. What remains is for them to enter it. These verses are supportive and encouraging to that end. The word of God reveals whether we are living in our outer world, reacting and governed by our culture, circumstances, and relationships with others (that’s soul) or out of our relationship with God (that’s spirit—with Jesus). On the day when God speaks, whether in print or in circumstances (remember, He runs all things by the word of His power 1:3), He speaks with perfect knowledge. There’s nothing hidden from His eyes. We often think of God seeing the bad things that are hidden, but the implication of these verses is that God sees where faith unites with His word in the heart (which is also hidden). When He sees the word powerfully work in both soul (which is where we first engage with His word) and spirit (where faith is produced in the heart), immediately, access to God’s rest is opened. This is our encouragement today. We live to love (which is a logos command) with Jesus by faith (which comes by a rhema of God). God accomplished it through His word both written (logos) and spoken (rhema). The rest of this chapter bolsters my interpretation because He follows these verses by urging his readers to draw near to the throne of grace with confidence through Jesus, which is the same as entering God’s Sabbath rest through the door He has opened by working faith in the heart through His Word. So I will now thrust His sword once again! First the logos. Jesus said to His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you.” If you obey, and live to love with Jesus today, you’ll see faith at work through love. What a revealing exercise! The living and active word of God.