The Word of God in the Word of God
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 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 of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 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.
A recurring theme we’ll see in Hebrews is this encouragement to hold on, continue to be faithful, and persevere through troubles. The people reading this letter were Christians that grew up as Jews. They had come to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, therefore equal to Him, which would be considered idolatry by all of their families and the community around them. We may be tempted to give up our faith from doubt or circumstances today, but it was generally much more severe for such Christians in 1st-century Jewish Jerusalem!
You can also see how the theme of Joshua and Caleb among a zillion former Egyptian slaves can fit. When everyone around you has been cursed to fall in the wilderness for their lack of faith, it’s easy to give up and join them.
But we don’t have to fall in the wilderness. We can strive to enter the perfect and complete rest that Jesus offers us every single day – one day of rest at a time.
And we can do that together as we experience the word. The “WORD” isn’t the Bible, though.
Whut?!
The writer of Hebrews most likely didn’t have a written copy of the Gospel of Mark in mind when they said “the word of God is living and active.” He certainly didn’t have in mind the Torah. We’ll read more about that next month.
So what are they talking about? The word “word” here is our good old friend logos that we’ve seen elsewhere in scripture. In John 1, the WORD is creating everything. He was with God in the beginning. (Wait, the WORD is a He?!)
A Greek poet-philosopher first coined the term logos to describe the divine reason or plan that makes the universe make sense around 600 BC. I’m not saying it’s time to go get a Heraclitus tattoo. I’m just saying that he introduced a word and it pretty much held that meaning into the next century when John and the Hebrews writer would use it.
So read that into it.
The reason and plan of God is living and active. God’s meaning and sense of things reveal truths and lies deep in our soul.
So it would be good to experience that as often as we can, right? So while that shows us that the Bible isn’t what the logos is, one way we can experience that logos is by reading the Bible, prayer, discussion with others, service to others, and singing worship songs.
The Logos of God is living and active, and He responds with us when we are living and active with Him.
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