(12.) Soldier, Priest – The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God
(12.) Soldier, Priest -The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For this struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:10-20).
Roman Battle Sword: (Greek, “machaira”); This is actually a short dagger, about 18” long, intended for hand-to-hand, person-to-person combat. Both edges were sharpened like a razor, and the point of the dagger could easily penetrate the armor of the enemy. It was not meant to be swung wildly or at random, or thrown into the air like a javelin. The machaira was intended to thrust and stab, not produce little cuts, but deep wounds that maimed, or at least harmed the enemy so they couldn’t fight effectively. The Roman soldiers were said to practice more with their daggers than any other weapon.
The Dagger of the Word. This offensive weapon, the Spirit-Sword, is our reference point of truth, so sharp that it can help us cut between truth and deception. It can help us separate the substantive meat of God’s message from the fatty distractions. The Sword can cut away the foolishness that the devil tries to feed us, from the true wisdom if the Lord. The Word-Sword can help us divide the eternal knowledge of God from the lies of that ignorant devil. The Spirit-Sword can go far in helping us distinguish the righteous mind of God from the warped mind of Satan. The Word can reveal to us what is life-giving and what is death-dealing. The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of the Lord, is truly a “weapon of righteousness.” (2 Cor. 6:7). Our holy weapon of God’s Word can penetrate any type of resistance in the demonic realm. The Word of the Lord stands forever.
Misusing the Sword of the Lord. Yes, the Spirit-Sword is a weapon against the enemy, but we need to be reminded of just who that enemy truly is. We fight not against flesh and blood, so therefore God’s Word is not meant to humiliate or shame any human person. No one should be disrespectfully hit over the head with Scripture as if the Word is a club. The Word is meant to inspire and enlighten others, not hurt or demean or harm in any way. The Lord doesn’t “dominate” or “control” anybody, so neither should His Word. Sharing the Word at the opportune time is not to be done in pride, self-righteousness, or competitively, as if to reveal who is more knowledgeable or saintly. The Christian believer wields the Word of God the same way as Jesus at His Temptation… logically, aptly, shrewdly, righteously, mightily in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Violent Word of God. When we wield the word, we need to constantly be on guard against the enemy of our souls. In the spiritual warfare, having mercy on the demonic world is not in the battle plans of the Lord. The Spirit-Sword is an aggressive weapon against a merciless enemy in the demonic realms. We are instructed to “pull down strongholds” and ”cast down arguments” that are contrary to the knowledge of God. (2 Cor. 10:3-5). “Pulling down” is a violent action and “casting down arguments” means our minds need to be sharp, like the Sword of the Word. Jesus was not passive or uncertain or intimidated during His Temptation with the devil. He didn’t hesitate to thrust the Dagger of the Lord at the devil, the Scripture-Sword that can stand up to any kind of assault thrown at it. The devil didn’t stand a chance against the eternal Word of God. There is a righteous violence as we fight our evil and unseen enemy, as we repudiate their lies with the truth. When we refuse to accept the cruel deceptions of Satan, we are in effect pulling down strongholds and casting down arguments. In this spiritual warfare, it is good versus evil, and there is no room for compromise or passivity.
Spiritual Warfare in Psalm 91. This psalm is traditionally used as the nighttime prayer in the Orthodox Church. It details Satan’s weapons of darkness, and confirms the eternal fact that believers are spiritually protected, safe and secure, no matter the designs of the devil to undermine God’s will. There are many descriptions of Satanic attack in this psalm. Scholars have discovered that the great symbols of satanic power, the fiercest powers of darkness, are referred to in verse 13: lion, serpent, and dragon. Our eyes are opened here to the realm of spiritual darkness that would come against believers, and we are reminded of divine protection throughout whatever ordeal the devil puts us through. This psalm attempts to describe the intensity of spiritual warfare for followers of God, and as scholar Robert Alter put it, ”In this Psalm, life is imagined as a battlefield fraught with dangers.” Have no fear, brothers and sisters, God is our spiritual refuge and fortress in satanic attack.
‘You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High (Elyon), will rest in the shadow of the Almighty (Shaddai),
Saying to the LORD Yahweh, my refuge, my fortress, my God (Elohim) in whom I trust.
He rescues you from every hidden trap of the enemy, and from the deadly pestilence set on destruction.
He will cover you with His feathers, you will find shelter under His wings.
His faithfulness will be your protection, His truth shall encircle you with a shield.
You will not fear of demonic terror at night, the arrows of the enemy that fly in the daytime,
The plague of darkness coming against you, or the demon that lays waste at noonday.
Even in a time of disaster, with a thousand falling at your side and ten thousand at your right hand,
You will remain unscathed and unharmed.
You have only to keep your eyes open, and you will be a spectator as the wicked perish in judgment,
For they will be paid back for what they have done.
If you make the Most High your dwelling, and Yahweh your refuge and secret hiding place,
No disaster can overtake you, and you will be shielded from harm.
No scourge will come near your dwelling, no evil will prevail against you.
For He will command His angels with special orders to guard you wherever you go,
Tp protect you in all your ways.
The angels will carry you in their arms in case you might stumble over a stone.
You will walk unharmed among the fiercest powers of darkness, the wild beast, and the serpent, the great lion, and the dragon.
You will trample every one of them beneath your feet.
For this is what the Lord has spoken to me…
Because he clings to me in love, I will rescue him.
Since he knows my holy Name, I will protect him.
Because he calls to me, I will answer him, I will be present with him at his side.
When he calls out to me in a time of trouble and distress, I will deliver him and honor him,
I will satisfy him with long life, and grant him to see the fullness of my salvation.”
(This is a weaving together of the following translations: NIV, TPT, NJB, the Voice, and the Septuagint).
The Two Main New Testament Words for “Word:” Logos and Rhema. Jesus is the Living Word (Logos), the Scripture is the written Word (Logos), and the Holy Spirit is the spoken Word (Rhema).
LOGOS: “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, for God created everything through Him; not one thing came into being except through Him. In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.” (John 1:1-4).
The Greek Logos. The Greek term for “word” was logos. Logos evidently started in the centuries before as a mathematical term, meaning to count up or give an accounting for, as in bookkeeping. It was still used occasionally in that way, such as in Matthew 12:26. For the most part, the term logos evolved into a Greek philosophical term. Using their famous Greek logical thinking, many Greek thinkers looked at our reasonable, well-ordered world and concluded that there must be a universal principle of Reason that is behind the running of the cosmos. They thought, mostly as a logical necessity, that there is an Intelligence somewhere, a transcendent source for this order that is beyond man’s understanding. There must be something that provides the world with this amazing form and coherence and exquisite design. They called this rather vague ideal “Logos.” This invisible force of Reason unifies the world into order from the chaos from before the world became reality. This logos is able to speak aloud, and whatever truth, goodness or beauty it speaks in fact exists the moment it is spoken. In a sense the Greek logos is able to create truth and reality. The Greeks never dreamed that their logos would become an actual person. The idea that logos would take on flesh would be laughable and unthinkable, and would actually defeat the whole purpose of this ideal of an impersonal, governing force in the world. The Greek logos had many hints of the true faith, though, and has been called a “bridge-word” because of the many Greeks who baptized the Greek logos into Christian belief after finding Christianity a logical step forward.
The Gospel Logos. The term Logos in John 1 has been the most debated and discussed term in all the Greek New Testament, according to the biblical scholars. It has been described and amplified and studied and defined in any number of ways. But for our purposes in the Christian faith, Jean Vanier’s definition of Logos is as good as any other: “Logos has come to mean the spoken Word, the thought and idea behind that Word, and the wisdom that inspired that Word.” The term logos was not a foreign word in that part of the world during the time of Jesus and the early Christians. The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, was widely used for biblical reading and considered the Bible of reference of that time. John decided to adopt that term and baptize the Greek version with a more complete understanding of it from the Christian viewpoint. In the New Testament era, logos meant the expression of a thought of the Father through the Holy Spirit; an utterance or a word embodying a divine idea; a message through speech or in writing; or more generally, reasoning expressed by words. John’s logos would include these sorts of thoughts:
(1.) There is indeed a universal Reason that is behind the well-ordered and reasonable world. This powerful force of divine intelligence is the God of the holy Scriptures, Yahweh, the Sovereign God who put the cosmos together. This God is the Person who created the world with His spoken Word, and has sustained it ever since.
(2.) This personal Creator God, the eternal Lord of the cosmos, wanted to yet again use His spoken Word to start a new beginning. God’s Word would once again be in the act of creation, but this time would create salvation and renewal. God’s spoken Word was actually a divine Presence, His Son, Jesus Christ.
(3.) The Creator God expressed Himself with His spoken Word, and His ultimate self-expression was when He revealed Himself to the world in the form of His Son. In this way, God revealed His divine Reason and Wisdom, and His desire to personally share His presence in this world He created. So God, the invisible Source of Reason and Wisdom, sent forth His Son as His visible, eternal spoken Word. Jesus, the spoken Word, is thus the Voice of God.
(4.) Jesus Christ is the Logos, the living Word of God, the Word who once said, “Let there be light!” That creative Word has taken on flesh and is the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus is the physical representative of God’s existence, heaven’s Ambassador of the Godhead to bring messages from His home. Jesus is the Co-Creator of the cosmos and has been face-to-face with the almighty God for all eternity. The Word that spoke light into the world has now become the Light of that world.
(5.) So John declares that Jesus, the Son of God, is in fact the Logos…not only the spoken Word of God in the flesh in anew creation, not only God’s thought behind that living Word, but also the embodiment of the Wisdom that inspired God’s spoken Word. John presents Jesus as the absolute revelation and self-expression of God. Jesus is Yahweh spoken into flesh, the holy Scripture in the form of a Person. If we want to read God’s mind, we read Jesus.
The Hebrew Logos as the Ancient Sword of the Spirit. The Bible used during the time of Jesus and the early Christians was usually the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The original Old Testament was written in Hebrew, but Greek was the prominent language used during Jesus’ time. The Septuagint had been translated several centuries before Christ, and so it was commonplace for New Testament writers to quote the Greek version and not the Hebrew version of Scripture. For the most part, when we see a quote from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament, it is from the Septuagint. The Greek term logos was used literally hundreds of times in the Greek Bible, and was often used to highlight the Word of God. Logos was also used to translate “truth,” and implied thought, meaning, planning and design. It’s interesting that the Hebrew Bible’s logos was so similar to the Greek understanding. In many ways, the Greek Old Testament laid the groundwork for John’s use of logos. The Word of God in the Hebrew Bible (logos), as with John, signified the presence of the Lord. Logos suggested God’s self-expression, whether in creation, in the prophet’s message, or in the Torah itself. When a prophet declared “the word of the Lord,” the prophet’s words were considered coming from the mind and mouth of Yahweh Himself.
The Logos of the High Priest. A fascinating use of logos in the Hebrew Bible is found in Deuteronomy 32:45-47. Moses had just finished delivering the truth of the Torah to the Chosen People ready to enter the Promised Land. And logos was used a number of times in his final words to his people. Moses declared that logos is life itself, with supernatural power. “When Moses finished reciting all the words (logos) to all Israel, he said to them… ‘Take to heart all the words (logos) I have solemnly declared to you in this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words (logos) of this instruction. They are not just idle words (logos) for you – They are your life. By them, you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” When Jesus declared that He was “the Life” (John 14:6), I wonder if there were many listeners who made the connection to Moses’ reference to logos being life. Did any listeners of Jesus believe that with these and so many of His other words, He was the embodiment of the Hebrew Bible… not just its fulfillment, but its embodiment. The Greek Bible translated the term “the Ten Commandments” (Deut. 5, Ex. 20) into “the Ten Logos,” the Ten Word.” That’s why so many refer to the “Decalogue” when referring to the Ten Commandments. As outrageous as this might sound, Jesus wasn’t merely fulfilling the Word of God, He was embodying it. He wasn’t merely living in light of the Ten Commandments, He was a living, breathing version of them. Jesus was not merely unpacking the Torah in His teachings, He was the Torah. Jesus the living Word, Scripture in the flesh, Torah with a pulse.
RHEMA: … “Take the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word (rhema) of God.” (Eph. 6:17). The Greek term Paul used for “word” in his spiritual warfare passage was “rhema,” and we need to take a close look at this word in order to understand Paul. Rhema literally means “a word uttered by a living voice, a thing spoken that has a definite meaning,” and is used seventy times in the New Testament. The rhema word is different than logos, and in fact is based on logos. Rhema is the word that is inspired by the Holy Spirit that speaks to a specific situation. Rhema is a written or spoken word taken from Scripture by the Holy Spirit that speaks to a particular time. Rhema is a passage from the written Word that speaks truth that needs to be said at that time. Rhema is an inspired word from the Holy Spirit that is intended to be directly applied to a situation or a person. The rhema word is a wise and timely passage from the Bible that has special relevance at that moment. Paul is instructing us to be so familiar with Scripture that the Spirit can inspire us at any opportune time to apply a passage at just the right moment. If we don’t have the Word “dwelling richly” in us, then we won’t have the raw material that the Spirit can use for a rhema word. As unpacked by Rev. Bill Johnson, the word “nothing” in Luke 1:37 (“For nothing is impossible with God”) is actually the Greek words “no-rhema.” One translation puts the verse this way… “No word of God shall be devoid of power.” In other words, Rev. Johnson preaches, rhema words, the freshly spoken words from the Holy Spirit, will have the power to fulfill what the word says, and has the ability to accomplish God’s intention with that word. “No freshly spoken word is impossible. God equips us, as we ask Him, to wield the fruitful rhema word, which itself is based on the inspired logos Word. Paul tells us in Romans 10:17 that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the rhema word of God.” General biblical knowledge, Logos, is foundational, but the rhema words inspired by the Spirit of God are vital, because it is what God is telling us personally from Scripture. The rhema word is the Holy Spirit whispering to us an important application of the logos word.
LOGOS and RHEMA: Contrasting the two Greek words might be helpful at this point. We live by logos (Scripture), we speak by Rhema. Logos is the foundation of Rhema, so without logos, we would have no rhema. The Holy Spirit inspired Logos Scripture for our general benefit, and the Holy Spirit continues to inspire rhema for application. The Spirit-Sword is double-edged: the first sharp edge is Logos, and that is followed up by the second sharp edge, Rhema. When the two edges are wielded together, the devil is helpless. The Holy Spirit is the One who turns the logos word into a rhema word. The logos has potential application, the rhema has specific application. One anonymous writer put it this way: “Logos is speaking the Word of God, and rhema is speaking a Word from God.” It’s interesting that John uses both words, logos and rhema, in his passage here in Ephesians 6: in verse 17, ”the rhema word of God;” and in verse 19, “that logos utterance may be given to me.”
Digesting the Word. Without a steady diet of the Word of Life through Scripture, that all-important rhema word might not be happening. We all have a spiritual digestive system, and here is what that might look like:
“You cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Imagination. The Christian faith demands an active imagination. So much that is read in the Scripture is actually meant to be a picture of something that we need to acquire through the imagination, something that is done figuratively and not literally. A literal action in the Bible might instead be an invitation to consider what that action represents. Something done physically is sometimes meant to teach us a spiritual lesson. An example is the eating of Scripture. Three different characters in the Hebrew Bible were told to literally eat the Word, to ingest it, and they did. In these cases of John, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, their rather unexpected action of eating the Scripture is intended to symbolize the importance of taking in God’s Word, right into our innermost being, fully digested.
Spiritual Digestion. What are these three incidents telling us? Scripture seems to be implying that we all have a spiritual digestive system. God’s Word is something to consume like food, the nutrients of the Word chewed, swallowed, and broken down in such a way that the Word’s wisdom and life is spread throughout our whole being. We eat this spiritual food and we are nourished as it enters our blood vessels and spreads to our very nerve endings. Our soul hungers for the nutrients of the Word. When we eat God’s Word, we are participating in Scripture and not merely spectating from a distance. When we ingest the Bible, our spiritual life is full of life and growth and vitality. The Bible is intended to be assimilated to every cell of our spiritual being, giving us energy, purpose, spiritual substance. The Scripture is meant to be digested so that we can flourish in the Christian life. Swallowing the Word down our spiritual gullet is a far cry from simply sipping alphabet soup or munching on a word salad. Scripture is solid spiritual food.
A Balanced Diet. While we are feasting on Scripture, we need to maintain a balanced diet… Since we are children of Abraham (Galatians 3:29), we need to study the Hebrew Bible (the O.T.) seriously and regularly with its Torah and writings and prophets; and we need to delve deeply into the New Testament as well, remembering that the Gospels are our bread and butter. The Gospel story is the greatest story ever told. As Andrew Klavan once said, the Gospel is when myth meets history, when mankind’s most earnest and persistent hope becomes reality. The Gospels are our grid when considering theology. If a particular theology seems inconsistent with the Jesus we find in the Gospels, go with the Gospels. The Gospel Jesus trumps a theological Jesus, because the Gospel is God’s Word, and theology is man’s word. God’s Word is our reference point whenever discerning man’s word. While we’re at it, we need to remember that the Old Testament is actually the Hebrew Bible. Why do Christians continue to call the Hebrew Bible the “Old” Testament? This is very offensive to those believing Jews who dislike the Old in Old Testament. Why call it old, which could easily mean outdated, hobbled by age, past its usage date? The Scriptures that have been believed in by faithful Jews through the centuries has been called the Hebrew Bible. If only Christians could respectfully call it that. And why are there so many Christian translations of the Hebrew Bible? Aren’t the Jewish translations good enough? Christians should be reading the Tanakh from the Jewish Publication Society as often as all the Christian translations. Jewish scholarship is beyond reproach, and since the Hebrew Bible was written by Jews to Jews who were laying the groundwork for a Jewish Messiah, it would seem it would be helpful to receive the Jewish perspective first hand. By honoring the Hebrew Bible, we honor our spiritual roots.
Our spiritual digestive system might look something like this as we consume Scripture:
(1.) Open the mouth. Put your food on your plate, fill up your glass, be ready to dig in and enjoy the meal. Submit to the digestive process by placing the spiritual food within easy reach and lifting it to your soul’s mouth. We’ll never eat the Word if we don’t submit to the process and first open the Scripture for reading and consideration. We need to open our spirit to the Word like we would open our mouth for the food. As we open the Scripture to read, we open the spirit to eat. Remember Chesterton’s words, open your mind as you open your mouth, so you can close it on something solid. Like the Word of God, for instance.
(2.) Taste the Food. Enjoy the flavors, the aromas, the textures, the colors of the Word. Get a feel for the language, the way the words are put together and the scenes are prepared. Enjoy the vastly different personalities involved in Scripture, the history, the backdrop and setting. The process of eating is not meant to be painful or boring, but instead a wondrous meal to participate in. These are the words of the almighty God, and are important as well as interesting. Enjoy the reading as if you are at a healthy buffet. Notice the different flavors of writing: stories, songs, poetry, drama, humor, conversations, plotlines, demonstrations, visual aids and illustrations, imaginative metaphors. The Scripture has it all, just like one of those famous Swedish smorgasbords.
(3.) Chew the Food. Think about the words you read, ponder the ideas being expressed. Chew on it. The farmer’s term for a cow’s endlessly chewing its cud is ruminate. Process the spiritual food you are chewing like you would carefully chew on a tasty meal that you want to enjoy to the last tasty tidbit. One of the biblical words for chewing in Scripture is meditate. Eugene Peterson unpacks the meaning of meditate through its Hebrew word, “hagah.” That is the word used to describe a lion growling over its prey (Isaiah 35:4). To meditate on a passage is like a dog with its bone, a lion enjoying its meal, gnawing on it, getting everything he can out of that bone, “growling in pleasurable anticipation” over the Word. Meditating on Scripture is murmuring out loud as you process the words and ideas, working on it like a dog with a bone (Eat This Book, Peterson). Some thoughts to consider as we chew on the Word: Seek wisdom and understanding, not just facts and data; chew longest on that which will feed your soul; there is no expert in Scripture, so come as a child, teachable; don’t forget about your heart as you use your intellect and imagination; pray for the Holy Spirit as you are chewing. Pray and chew. Don’t limit yourself to letting others do your chewing of Scripture for you and then spoon feed you with it. Do as much of your own chewing as you can, guided by the Spirit. We find that the more we do our own chewing, the stronger our jaw muscles become and the longer we can chew for further passages.
(4.) Swallow the Food. At some point after the chewing, the Word has to be swallowed. Scripture needs to be accepted, believed, received into the digestive tract. Spiritual food requires a swallow of faith in order to be absorbed into the spirit. After all that thinking and chewing, we need to trust that the Bible is indeed the Word of God. Maybe the whole Bible doesn’t need to be swallowed at the same time. Perhaps a mustard seed of faith is all we need to digest the passage. As we find that a portion of Scripture has settled well and has proved truthful and trustworthy, our level of faith will take the next size up, from a mustard seed to a grapevine seed. And then, when we continue in this Word diet, we will discover that the nutrients from our spiritual food will nourish our soul and give us life, meaning, joy and a future. It all began with a swallow of faith. If someone asks you if we actually can swallow that Bible stuff, we can say, “Actually, yes!”
(5.) Exercise Daily. There are too many of us who are spiritually overfed. We don’t get outside and flesh out the Scripture. We need to put the Word into action, using the energy and insight that has been absorbed into our soul. Live out the Word. We cannot afford to be spiritual couch potatoes. Exercise the truth every day. Put some effort into letting the Word form your character and integrity and life purpose. Let the Bible affect your outlook on your life, your meaning for existence. Internalize the Word through spiritual digestion, and then externalize the Word by putting it into practice. We need to be doers of the Word, and not readers or hearers only. Maybe it’s time to turn off the religious podcast and love your neighbor. Perhaps we should file away those sermons and put the Scripture to good use. Instead of picking up another Christian self-help book, maybe we should put that book on the shelf and follow the light we’ve been shown. Christians are always in danger of being overfed and under exercised. Spiritual obesity only comes to those believers who gorge themselves on Christian input without practicing the truth that was just digested. Let the spiritual nutrition give you the energy to love the Word and live into the Word.
“Blessed Lord, who has caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 1662).
Random Thoughts on Scripture:
- The Bible is a prayer book. Pray the Word. Memorize those prayers. Use God’s own thoughts when in conversation with Him. The Psalms, the words of the prophets, the songs, the stories… They all contain prayer- worthy words that can be offered back to God. Praying God’s Word guarantees the prayers’ effectiveness. “As the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return before having watered the earth, fertilizing it and making it germinate to provide seed for the sower and food to eat, so it is with the word that goes from my mouth. It will not return to me unfulfilled or before having carried out my good pleasure and having achieved what it was sent to do.” (Isaiah 55:10-11, New Jerusalem Bible). Through Scripture, we not only can read God’s mind. We can speak His mind as well. And we can return His Word back to Him to complete the fulfillment of those words.
- The Bible is its own best commentary. Invest some of your money and purchase a few Study Bibles. They are worth their weight in gold as you study Scripture. They all have annotations, explanations, dictionaries, maps, concordances, charts, and cross-references to relevant verses in the Word. Different Study Bibles raise different points, and they focus on a variety of related topics. Each translation has a different Study Bible, and they will all help you gain insight and understanding. “Study to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15).
- Bible knowledge goes only so far. Do the Word. Become a practitioner of the Bible. Scripture is not merely a source of Bible trivia. The Word is not to be limited to knowledge and information. Knowing Scripture is not the end point. “Be doers of the Word.” (James 1:22). Listen and Hear anddo. Put into practice what you are beginning to understand. Follow the light you have been shown. Live into Scripture. Make the Word a lifestyle. Biblical scholarship is vital to understanding the Bible at a deeper level. But it didn’t help the scholars of Jesus’ day. Their learned spirits were not open to seeing God in their midst, and they remained hypocritical in the way they lived out their faith. The intended effect of Scripture is that it make a difference in your daily life. Make it a goal to flesh it out. Wisdom is truth-in-action. And wisdom is Scripture’s purpose.
- Jesus is hidden treasure throughout the Hebrew Bible. It pays to study the whole Hebrew Bible, from Genesis to Malachi. It contains important history and character development. It provides inspiring stories and songs. It is full of dramatic poetry and lament. It has words of eternal wisdom. It gives the alert reader prophetic words that still apply today. The Hebrew Bible is the necessary backdrop to Jesus, the context of Christ. It is necessary if one wants to grow in the Faith, not to mention the development of an educated mind. The Hebrew Bible is a two-stage rocket. In the first stage the reader learns from its contents. The second stage is that the reader learns from applying it to the Christian Faith. At first one learns from what is the truth of Jewish life and history, the roots of our Faith. And secondly one learns what that history grew into with Jesus. Remember that momentous Emmaus walk after the resurrection. “Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, Jesus explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about Himself… Then He told them, ‘This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, was destined to be fulfilled.’ He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures.” (Luke 24:25-27, and 44-45).
- The Gospels are the North Star. The life of Jesus is the reference point for everything. His words and deeds trump theology. In fact, if there is a point in some theology that seems to conflict with what we see in the Gospels, stick with the Gospels. Maybe the theological assertion will make more sense down the line. But I recommend studying theology in light of the Gospels, not the other way around. I dare to say that even if a verse or two in the epistles seems inconsistent with what you read in the Gospels, stick with the Gospels until the epistle seems to make more sense in accordance with the life of Jesus. There may even be an apparent contradiction between the Gospel accounts, such as the timing of events. Just hold those inconsistencies loosely. It’s doubtful that they are game-changers. Grow in your love of the Gospels, in simply loving the story of Jesus. You can’t go wrong with that. After the three disciples witness the Transfiguration, they saw “Jesus only.” Let that be your guiding light as you study theology and scripture.
- All the translations are helpful. I have grown to love all the commonly accepted versions, every paraphrase and every translation. If one goes to a live concert, everybody in attendance will share something a little different about that show. Same concert, different angles, different views, different voices. Using many different translations with the same Bible passage is really helpful, in that the reader gets the same idea put into different words. A Bible reader is provided a fuller picture of the passage. Try taking a Bible passage and writing down the various ways it is expressed in a variety of translations. Your study then becomes its own teaching on the passage’s meaning. The passage becomes amplified, expanded, deepened. Several versions only adds to the insight gained when studying scripture.
Thoughts on Scripture from an Amazing Bible Teacher. “The Bible is holiness in words. The words of the Bible are like dwellings made with rock. The Bible is the light of God given in the form of language. How is it conceivable that the Divine should be contained in such brittle vessels as consonants and vowels? It is as if God took these Hebrew words and breathed into them of His power, and the words became a live wire charged with His Spirit. Just as it is impossible to conceive of God without the world, so is it impossible to conceive of His concern without the Bible. If God is alive, then the Bible is His voice.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God In Search Of Man, 1955).
The Last Word from the Incomparable Blues Singer, Blind Willy Johnson: “I read the Bible often, I try to read it right. As far as I understand it, it’s nothing but a burning light.” (from his classic, ”Soul of a Man”).