Revealing the power of God’s word

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. Let’s begin today with a question. What is the word of God of which the author is speaking? Since the verse begins with for, we know he’s continuing a line of reason. In the previous verses he admonished them not to be unbelieving and hard-hearted when they hear “His voice.” God has called them to enter His Sabbath rest. So one thing the author meant was this: Anytime we hear God’s voice through His Word (logos) we ought to be diligent to listen and obey. He could also mean something else. If we go all the way back to 1:3, the author said that Jesus upholds all things by the power of His word (rhema). Rom. 10:10 and 17 give insight, “For with the heart a person believes…So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word (rhema) of Christ.” So we may conclude that God speaks to us through His logos in print or stored in the mind as well as rhema, when the Spirit of God applies the logos to the circumstance at hand. I hope you’ll read and meditate on what I’ve just said. A second question is answered in this verse. What power does the word (logos) of God have? We learned in chapter 4, verse two, that it has no beneficial power if it is not united with faith. Therefore, I think the context implies that when God speaks and His word is united by faith through the working of the Holy Spirit, His word is always living and active and produces faithful obedience. More to the point, it is actively working to accomplish God’s purpose of revealing what God knows about the hearer, namely, the person is justified through the finished work of Christ. In short, God knows what He is doing when He gives His word to us and unites it in our hearts with faith. We can confidently obey His word! This is why we live to love with Jesus. We’ve heard His command to love, and God has given us faith to believe Him and obey because we know He will give us the grace to do it. If He’s given us His Son, how much more will He give us the faith and grace that are in Him. We reveal the work of God and the living and active power of the word of God as we live each day to love whoever He puts in our paths, for His glory.