5 Days to Get Motivated to Read the BibleSýnishorn

Yesterday we looked at how the Bible is a lamp that guides us. Today, we’ll consider that the Bible is a sword that corrects us.

Recently, my youngest brother, Al, had surgery. There was a growing tumor on one of his kidneys, and the doctors thought it might be malignant. They waited for months before taking it out (which made us all a bit nervous), saying that the spot needed to get to a certain size before it could be removed and assessed. Finally, the day came for the surgery. The highly trained surgeon cut strategically into my brother’s body and cut away part of the kidney. The process was difficult, with care needed during recovery, but it was successful, and the months of distress and discomfort gave way to deep gratitude and hope for the future. The cut was the cure.

In his commentary on Hebrews, Harold Attridge calls Hebrews 4:12-13 “a rhapsody on God’s penetrating word.”[1] Here, too, we see that the cut is the cure.

In verse 12, the author may have had in mind a Roman gladius, a short sword about twenty inches long. The gladius had a sharp edge down both sides to cut both ways in close hand-to-hand combat. But the key to the image here, as Attridge notes, is penetration. The author of Hebrews presents God’s Word as “living”—a powerful force in the world (far more than just words on a page), a sharp word of discernment that actively penetrates the darkest corners of the human heart. It is “effective” in that it has the ability to bring about results, reaching down into our innermost being—the place of “soul and spirit, joints and marrow"—and judging “the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Like a surgeon wielding a scalpel to cut out the motivations, sins, and attitudes that can hurt us and others, God’s Word cuts to cure. God’s Word has the uncanny ability to correct us at the deepest, darkest levels of our thoughts and intentions.

As with my brother’s surgery, the spiritual correction of God’s Word may be painful, but it is an excellent gift. Things grow inside of us that can cause great damage to our spiritual health if not addressed. Verse 13 says that these dark corners of our hearts will be addressed, now or later: “. . . all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.” This then provides motivation to read the Bible. It addresses things in our lives that need to be addressed. It corrects us in ways that need to be corrected.

[1] Harold W. Attridge, Hebrews: A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, (Hermeneia: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible) (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989), 133.