“For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
Hebrews 4:12-13
This is a passage often quoted and considered in the study of the Word of God, and rightfully so, for it gives us deep insight into what the Scripture really is. Most, including myself for very many years, focus almost solely on verse 12, but verse 13 provides an important clarification. The pronouns here are especially important. The Word of God is the subject noun of verse 12, and there is no indication that the subject shifts in verse 13, but the Word of God then is given an unexpected (or expected) pronoun – “His.” “His” is referring to the “Word of God.” This personalizes and personifies Scripture in a way that we often miss. Some have slanderously said of reformed theologians that we consider the trinity to be Father, Son, and Holy Scripture. But this reference to the Word of God as a person is not the only one. John also tells us that Jesus is the Word made flesh. Christ is the embodiment of the Word. The Word is representative of Christ, spoken by the Spirit, through men. It is a living being because He is a living being. Scripture is alive – Scripturae vivi.
Now, make no mistake this is a great mystery, and I am not saying that the Scripture contains in some physical or abstract sense the person of God, but rather that its being alive is an expression of who God’s person – not merely words on a page but the literal living power of the Holy God. Hence the Word of God is not an “it” but a “He” in this case. The book is not God, but the Word therein contained is the perfect expression of God’s person as revealed through His son. This is what it means to say that the Scripture is living and active.
Another aspect of the living and active requires a quick jaunt to Genesis to understand the nature of God’s Word as a potent source of His power. Simply put, God spoke the world into existence and all things are sustained and upheld by the power of His Word, of Christ the logos. God’s power propagates by His Word, the creation of all things was the act of divine speech. Nothing more was required than His Word. So, when we speak of the things of Scripture, we are not speaking merely of a dead letter written by God to us, but a living and powerful Word that creates, sustains, and shapes actively. It also penetrates, divides, and discerns. Now, this is a profound mystery, but one I think we need to have a better grasp of and more intentional practice to overcome.
One of the great failings of our Biblical practice is when we think about it purely in terms of a studious discipline and not also in terms of spiritual discipline – of the fact that the Word is alive. It is easy to study the Bible in precisely the same way we would study a lesser text or topic, with skills and stances that are effective, perhaps empirical, maybe logical. None of those things are bad in and of themselves, but they fall short of the kind of spiritual discipline that is required for effective wielding of the Sword of the Spirit. The key to this is in the very fact that Paul says that the Word of God is the “Sword of the Spirit.” That means that the Word belongs to the Spirit, is wielded primarily by the Spirit, is empowered and guided by the Spirit. The Spirit is the swordmaster and we the poor students, novitiates at best in His schoolhouse. The word for Spirit is closely tied with breath in both the Hebrew (ruach) and the Greek (pneuma). The parallel I wish to draw here simply is that prayer is an absolute necessity for the wielding of the Word so that we may take part in the breath of God through His Spirit. Now that sounds very new age, but that is not the intent. Rather, the analogy is this. When swinging a physical sword we must breath with every strike, and control our breath through the movements and stances. Undisciplined breathing will tire you very quickly, and no breathing at all will tire you even faster.
When practicing with the Sword of the Spirit, prayer is the breathing that is required for the continued effective study of His Word that the life of the person of Christ who is expressed in and through Scripture may be understood, magnified, and glorified. Study of Scripture may be done in an academic manner, but so doing can generate the kind of intellectual pomp we warned of in the post on Tota Scriptura. Rather, academic principles must be submitted to the spiritual principles which seeks the Spirit of God as the guide for learning the Scripture, and the practical method for that given to us by the Lord is prayer.
When approached with the understanding that the Word is expressing Christ’s living Word we can further comprehend how to apply it to our lives. While the Scriptures are not exhaustive in that they will not explicitly address every issue, they are sufficient in that the principles, lessons, and insights can be applied to every situation through God honoring wisdom and discernment. When we approach the Scriptures with prayer, and in the trust that they still have direct application to our modern world, God is faithful to grant wisdom unto those applications. As it says in James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” So, approach the Word in faith, in prayer, and in recognition of its full sufficiency for today.
This then is the Third fundamental stance of Christian Swordsmanship that the Word of God is the perfect expression of the living person of Christ and is therefore living itself and must be approached with the breath and spiritual discipline of prayer to be applied to every aspect of life, explicit and implied.
A Man Under Authority
June 22, 2023 - 10:58 am ·To add, Jesus also called Himself the “bread of life” and explicitly told his followers they needed to eat His body and drink His blood. In the context of Him being the living Word of God, it adds depth to Jesus’ statement when He was tempted, “man does not live by bread alone, but by the Word of God.” So we must regularly consume the Word of God, Jesus. It’s amazing to me that the Word is not only alive, it–or rather, He–is so alive that He sustains the spiritual life of all those who feed on Him. He is the very source of all life, and yet we have His words a book that we can read whenever we want to. Amazing.
One other thought is just to expand on the idea of the Word being above human logic and rationality. Logic is good, a very useful tool God has given us, but we can see the contrast between a spiritually dead logic and a wisdom given by the Holy Spirit in Acts 4. The most highly educated men of the nation could not withstand the wisdom given by the living Word via the Holy Spirit, even when it was spoken by an uneducated fisherman from some rural, backwater town. 1 Corinthians 1:27-31 is another passage that applies.
A Man Under Authority
June 22, 2023 - 11:01 am ·I also wanted to add that we see Jesus regularly separating Himself in order to pray. A terrific example of the regular breathing in of the Spirit that’s necessary to sustain a faithful walk with God. Another analogy is Christ’s instruction to abide in Him. So good.
JD Wolfwrath
June 22, 2023 - 6:28 pm ·I love the inclusion here of Jesus as the Bread of Life and the connections to the Word of God and sustainment. I had thought about that a little last week too, but hadn’t thought to include it here. Brilliant!
As for the rationality discussion, I just want to clarify what I think you mean from what someone might take you to mean. I suspect you simply mean that the Word is not submitted to human systems of reason and rationality but is its own judge, in that sense it is certainly above. My only trepidation is with a dangerous strain of thought in modern churches that take the idea of “the Word is above reason” to claim it is “outside of reason” or rather they use it as an excuse to interpret Scripture in entirely unreasonable or illogical ways. Perhaps there could be a whole other post on the role of logic (there likely will be now), but I want to be careful that we don’t fall off the horse on the side of “Spirituality is fundamentally a-rational or even irrational” in an attempt to avoid falling off the horse on the “human reason can explain and comprehend all things, always and forever.” Vague spiritualism as an approach to the Scriptures is just as dangerous as strict intellectualism. This isn’t even about balancing the two though, in my mind. A Christian swordsman, submitting himself to the Word, ought to be exceptionally rational AND exceptionally spiritual – it is not the admixture of intellect and spirit but the positive tension between them that makes for great study in my mind.
That was long winded, but seemed like an important nuance to bring up – still, in essence I totally agree! As I said in the Second Stance – we must never submit the Word to human frailty – of mind, spirit, or body – but rather we submit to Him in the wholeness of our being.
A Man Under Authority
June 23, 2023 - 4:41 am ·Yes, what you said, haha. You’re more precise with your words, but I think we’re in agreement. I was trying to emphasize the Word being above logic in the sense that, although it’s perfectly logical (God is not the author of confusion), there are mysteries that can’t be discerned solely by logic. Because God’s thoughts and ways are higher than our own, we can’t impose our limited understanding on Him, and we have to rely on the revelation found in His Word.
There’s also the idea that we must begin with some premises in order to form a logical argument, and for that also we should begin with the direct revelation.
Also, I was rereading 1 Corinthians 1, and Paul pretty much says that there’s a human wisdom and a Godly wisdom that are at odds with each other, that God’s wisdom seems totally illogical and crazy to those who are perishing. So it sounds like intellect is further subservient to the Word because it can only operate based on what has been revealed to it as truth by the Spirit.
I definitely agree it’s an important nuance and that it’s not about getting the correct “balance.” We should just apply what God has given us. I have some reasoning ability and I can read, I can pray and listen for guidance from the Spirit, I can cross-check any thoughts or conclusions against the Word to make sure I’m not deceiving myself, and I can talk about it with other believers to see if I’ve forgotten or misunderstood anything. As a mature Christian, I should be doing all of those things, not jumping to weird, “spiritual” conclusions that fly in the face of logic. There’s a ton of verses about using logic, reason, and wisdom, but this comment is already long enough I think, haha.
And I’m glad you liked the comment about bread! You could probably take it even farther, looking at all the times bread comes up or Jesus did a miracle with bread. Ditto for seed, since in the parable of the sower, He explicitly says that the Word of God is like a seed.
JD Wolfwrath
June 24, 2023 - 9:46 am ·We could also take it in some fun biological directions and talk about how food actually gets metabolized in the body, and how even that process points us to God in so many ways. God is good, and thankful to have good friends like you to ponder His goodness with!