The Word of God is Living and Powerful

November 23, 2017

For the word of God is living and active. 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.– Hebrews 4:12

Now I am tempted to take every word here and probe into why it is used. Like, why mention joints and bone marrow? And what’s the difference between spirit and soul? And what precisely is the difference between thoughts and intentions? And so on. These are right questions, and they are worth meditating on for hours.

I wonder if we couldn’t all agree on this statement from verse 12: one of the functions of the Word of God when it comes into us, is that it penetrates very deep—like a sword through tough, hard layers—and makes judgments about what’s there.

Because God’s Word is authoritative to expose our sin and God Himself sees everything, we must be diligent to have our hearts right before Him.

There is no point in maintaining hypocrisy before God and His Son. We are known by Him inside and out. Only if we are going to be honest with ourselves before God, then we can find real understanding and help.