The Living Word

Hebrews 4:12 – “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged 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.”

There is nothing that compares to the Word of God. It is a miraculous Book because it is God’s Book. The phrase in our text “the word of God” is not just a cliche’. The Bible is the very Word of God. If we want to know what God has to say to us, we only have to turn to His Word. We have heard of missionaries in primitive cultures whose converts called the Scripture “God talk.” That is what the Bible is; it is God’s message to us; God talking to us. God speaks to us through the words of Scripture. It is supernaturally given.

When the Bible is said to be “quick,” it means it is a living message. The Bible is not a dead book; it is very much alive – working in the hearts of those who hear it and believe it. It is “powerful.” The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to change our very nature and being. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Peter 1:23). It will produce change in our hearts and lives. It cuts through our pride and stubbornness and is “sharper than any twoedged sword.” The Bible convicts us when we are wrong and encourages us when we are right. The Word of God opens the eyes of the spiritually blind, shows us we are undeserving sinners, convinces us that Jesus died for our sins, and assures us that we can be eternally born again through faith in Christ and all that He has done. Reading and receiving the Word of God will increase our faith. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). The Bible is able to show us things about ourselves that we would not be able to know otherwise, because it is “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Our hearts are deceitful, but the Word of God can make the truth known to those who are willing to accept it.

God speaks to us through His Word, and He uses preaching to manifest His truth. As we read and study the Bible, we are able to see things as they really are and understand spiritual reality. It is a wise person who purposes to spend time every day reading the living Word of God.