Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

REST AND WORD

May 15, 2009

Sometimes our favorite passages in the Bible surprise us because what they are talking about gets disconnected from the context. For example, the often-used "Love is patient, love is kind" passage from 1 Corinthians 13 is not talking about love and marriage, but love within the church, and how to get along. Here's another example.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing the soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart..

- Hebrews 4:12 TNIV

This famous quote from Hebrews clearly speaks of the Word of God, but it comes at the conclusion of a discussion on sabbath, rest, the cease the people of God need. So what? The Word of God cuts through the fog of our lives and reveals the truth, so it says. That truth is we need rest, sabbath, a cease. Yet then and now the Word of God cuts to the truth that we don't have that rest, that cease. We have plenty of entertainment, but little rest.

So when it says that the Word of God "judges," it's judging us. Then and now, regarding rest, we seem deaf to its words.
Joyfully,

Dale Patterson