The Piercing Word Of God

A. Is living and powerful: Understanding this spiritual nature of the Bible, the writer to the Hebrews could confidently write this. The Bible isn’t a collection of merely old stories and myths. It has inherent life and power. The preacher doesn’t make the Bible come alive. The Bible is alive, and gives life to the preacher and anyone else who will receives it with faith.     

• Powerful (translated active in the KJV) reminds us that something may be alive, yet dormant. But God’s word is both living and powerful, in the sense of being active.

B. Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow: God’s word reaches us with surprising precision, and the Holy Spirit empowers the ministry of the word to work deeply in our hearts.     

• Often people wonder how a preacher’s message can be so relevant to their life. They sometimes honestly wonder if the preacher has secret information about their life. But it isn’t necessarily the preacher at all. It is the sharpness of the Word of God, delivering the message in just the right place.     
• “A sword with two edges has no blunt side: it cuts both this way and that. The revelation of God given us in Holy Scripture is edge all over. It is alive in every part, and in every part keen to cut the conscience, and wound the heart. Depend upon it, there is not a superfluous verse in the Bible, nor a chapter which is useless.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)     
• “While it has an edge like a sword, it has also a point like a rapier, ‘Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.’ The difficulty with some men’s hearts is to get at them. In fact, there is no spiritually penetrating the heart of any natural man except by this piercing instrument, the Word of God. But the rapier of revelation will go through anything.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)

Based on the Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik.