Indeed the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joins from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Mostly this stopped me because I was wondering whether this was a literal reference to the word of God (i.e. - the Bible) or a reference to Christ, who is called the Word in the first chapter of John (vs. 1, and 14 primarily came to mind). I couldn't decide. It paints kind of a scary intense picture of Christ with the first part, but the second part is definitely true of His nature (not that He ISN'T sharper than a two edged sword). I just couldn't decide which I thought it was about. The verse stayed with me and I've memorized it over the past few days, yesterday adding the next verse, 13.
And before Him no creature is hidden, but all creatures are naked, laid bare before the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
If verse 12 is only talking about the Bible, then the "Him" referred to has to be God, but grammatically ( I know, I know) that doesn't work. "Him" is a pronoun referring to the subject, God is not the subject, the Word is the subject, implying that the Word is a Him. This made me lean again toward the idea that this verse is more speaking about Christ.
And then I thought: what if it's both.
I started thinking about what this might mean for me, in my own context. Here I am, trying to start the new year right by getting into my Bible everyday and being faithful. But why. What are my intentions? As previously admitted I have some competitiveness issue that I'm trying to address. Is spiritual growth really my only goal here? Or am I trying to best someone? Be a better Christian? A better person? I don't want to say my motives are all bad, I do want to be closer to God and I do want to continue to grow, but if I were to be truly honest with myself, I would admit that partly, I want to be holier than some people. I am competing.
I want these two verses to be the theme of my time with the Lord. I want Him to test my desires against His word and cut out of me anything that doesn't align with Him and fill that place with only Himself. I want to use Christ (the Word) and the Bible (the word) in my quiet times to rid myself of the thoughts and intentions of my heart that the Father can see and is displeased with. I want my devotional time to be a time of surgery and creation, cutting from me the things that are not of God, and creating in me a new desire every day to seek Him and hear His voice, and learn from Him.
So this verse is my theme of my devotional life. I want so much to receive what I read to be the promise in this verse.
And then I thought: what if it's both.
I started thinking about what this might mean for me, in my own context. Here I am, trying to start the new year right by getting into my Bible everyday and being faithful. But why. What are my intentions? As previously admitted I have some competitiveness issue that I'm trying to address. Is spiritual growth really my only goal here? Or am I trying to best someone? Be a better Christian? A better person? I don't want to say my motives are all bad, I do want to be closer to God and I do want to continue to grow, but if I were to be truly honest with myself, I would admit that partly, I want to be holier than some people. I am competing.
I want these two verses to be the theme of my time with the Lord. I want Him to test my desires against His word and cut out of me anything that doesn't align with Him and fill that place with only Himself. I want to use Christ (the Word) and the Bible (the word) in my quiet times to rid myself of the thoughts and intentions of my heart that the Father can see and is displeased with. I want my devotional time to be a time of surgery and creation, cutting from me the things that are not of God, and creating in me a new desire every day to seek Him and hear His voice, and learn from Him.
So this verse is my theme of my devotional life. I want so much to receive what I read to be the promise in this verse.
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