The word of God may be sharper than a sword. But it is a scalpel designed to save us, not a weapon intended to destroy us.
An author named Tony Myles asked one of his teenage sons to sit down so that he could talk with him. “I’m going to say something to you that I don’t want you to deflect,” said Tony. “I’d like you to just receive this from my heart to yours.” The son nodded and prepared himself to receive whatever came next.
For the next two minutes, Tony offered as many words of encouragement and affirmation as he could. He explained what he thought of him as a son and as an emerging man. He told him how thankful he was that the teenager was trustworthy enough to watch his younger siblings. Tony said that he found him to be a real and inspiring person, the kind of friend that he would have wanted to have had in his own teenage years.
Reflecting on the moment, Tony says, “I literally watched his inner world enlarge with every word I uttered.”1 Words are powerful, aren’t they? They can build up or break down. Encourage or discourage. Heal or hurt. Express forgiveness or condemnation, trust or suspicion, love or hate. The Bible has tremendous respect for the power of words, especially the words of God, often referred to collectively in the singular — the “word of God,” used to mean the living voice of God. The Book of Psalms says, “let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of [God], for he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”2 In the Bible, words actually created the world that we live in.
A living and active word
The letter to the Hebrews was written to first-century Christians who had grown up Jewish, and it features elements that were connected to the ancient sacrificial system of Israel. According to Hebrews, Jesus Christ came to be “a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.”3 He entered “into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”4 Jesus “suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.”5 In chapter 4, the word of God is described as a “two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow.”
The recipients of this letter would have been familiar with the book of Genesis, which tells the story of the creation of the heavens and the earth. On the first day, God created the powerful light that was essential for life, using only the words, “Let there be light.”6 God saw that the light was good, and then God separated the light from the darkness. God used a set of words to bring order out of chaos — creative speech that God has continued to offer through all of history. God’s word is a world-building word.
All of this set the stage for the author of Hebrews to say, “Indeed, the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.”
So, the word of God was not only a world-building word, active on the first days of creation. It is also a world-changing word, one that “is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.” The word of God continued to be spoken through the words of the prophets, through the preaching of the apostles and most powerfully through the teachings of Jesus, the Word of God in human form. It judges “the thoughts and intentions of the heart” and reveals the truth of who we are to “the one to whom we must render an account.”
Although it might sound odd to describe a word as a sword, the prophet Isaiah said that God made his “mouth like a sharp sword,”7 and the apostle Paul described the word of God as “the sword of the Spirit.”8 To call the word of God a sword is to say that it is a powerful tool for achieving the changes that God wants to see in the world. In the book of Revelation, a rider on a white horse appears, and his name is The Word of God. “From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations .... On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords.’”9 So even Jesus, the Word of God in human form, speaks words that are as sharp as a sword.
Judging thoughts and intentions
The word of God is living and active, changing the world as it is into the world as God wants it to be. In the novel City of Peace, a Methodist pastor named Harley Camden speaks about the power of words. “I’m convinced that words create reality,” Harley explains. “It’s a very biblical idea. Think of God creating the world in Genesis, saying ‘Let there be light,’ and there is light. Jesus is described in the New Testament as ‘the Word.’ When Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘I have a dream,’ people began to see a vision of a new world of equality. Words create reality. Whether we say ‘I love you’ or ‘I hate you’ makes a huge difference.”10
Yes, words can change the world for the better. But only if we allow our words to be shaped by God’s words. Each of us is challenged to allow God’s sword to judge our thoughts and intentions, and to reveal where we are falling short. We can begin by listening to the word of God and following where the living God is leading us. Our Lord wants to guide us in the path that is best for us, giving us words designed to maximize our health and happiness. God’s word is really more like a scalpel in the hands of a skilled surgeon than a weapon in the hands of a soldier.
Listen to the words of Moses, “remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.”11 Be attentive to the counsel of Isaiah, “learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.”12 Pay attention to the command of Jesus, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”13 We may feel cut by these words, but notice how they are all meant to change us for the better. Keeping the Sabbath gives us time for rest and renewal, caring for the poor makes our community a better place, and loving our enemies breaks the cycle of violence and revenge. When we hear the word of the Lord, we are given guidance that is designed to heal us and help us. God’s word is a piercing message from God’s heart to ours.
Revealing the truth of who we are
Kate Bowler, a professor at Duke Divinity School, writes that “Americans love to say that they have ‘no regrets.’ From the trivial to the traumatic, it seems impossible to acknowledge that sometimes you wish you could just go back. The affair? No regrets. Giving up that career? Never let that bother me. Celebrities who are interviewed after an explosive scandal squirm their way through questions until they can deliver the final line: ‘But it made me who I am today.’”14 The problem is, we all have regrets. Sometimes we wish we could go back and change the past. We know that we have made mistakes, causing real damage to ourselves and others.
Fortunately, God’s word changes the world by revealing the truth of who we are. “The Word of God serves as the eyes of God,” says New Testament professor Fred B. Craddock, “seeing everything the heart devises and feels.”15 God looks carefully at us because God has a desire to help us, not hurt us. Jesus, the Word of God in human form, came not to condemn us, but to save us. When God’s word cuts into us and reveals the truth of who we are, we are “laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” Yes, that’s true. But it is not a bad position to be in. We can confess our sins and ask for pardon, and because Jesus died to bring us new life, we are assured of the gift of forgiveness.
Words can change the world, whether it is a father telling a son how much he loves him, or the Word of God saying, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”16 Both are examples of world-changing words. The former shows how a word of encouragement can make a teenager’s “inner world enlarge.” The latter shows how God’s word can reveal the truth of who we are, and then provide the help we need in order to move into the future with confidence. The word of God is a “two-edged sword,” for sure. But it is a scalpel designed to save us, not a weapon intended to destroy us.
1 Tony Myles, “Words Create Worlds,” Lifetree, 2016, www.mylifetree.com/words-create-worlds/.
2 Psalm 33:8-9.
3 Hebrews 2:17.
4 Hebrews 9:12.
5 Hebrews 13:12.
6 Genesis 1:3.
7 Isaiah 49:2.
8 Ephesians 6:17.
9 Revelation 19:13-16.
10 Henry G. Brinton, City of Peace (Occoquan, Va.: Mill Street Books, 2018), 227.
11 Exodus 20:8.
12 Isaiah 1:17.
13 Matthew 5:44.
14 Kate Bowler, No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) (New York: Random House, 2021), 146.
15 Fred B. Craddock, “Letter to the Hebrews,” The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 54.
16 John 3:16.
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