“Thy word is truth.” John 17:17
This question alone is an understatement of epic proportions. The Word … valuable? Is a detailed set of prints valuable to building a skyscraper? Is an understanding of aerodynamics valuable to piloting a plane? Does a brain surgeon value rigorous medical training? Is a constitution valuable to running a country? These concepts go without question. Yet, we stumble in assigning real value to God’s Word, both in assimilation and application.
We should be alarmed at lax, dismissive view of the Bible that has crept into the attitudes of many. Apostolics, the people who base their beliefs upon a literal rendering and practicing of scripture, must not permit this to happen. The Bible remains a timeless statement of God’s truth. But this position directly contradicts today’s increased sensitivity to human wants and desires. What if the Bible gets in the way of modern life? Not only do many people do what they want to do (as they always have), more of them are willing to cast off scriptural restraints in order to do it. The church also feels tremendous pressure to accept variant viewpoints in the interest of fairness and humility.
First, God’s Word is unique because it lives. “For the word of God is living…” (Hebrews 4:12 NIV). The life of God’s Word brings a singular dynamic to the world unmatched by any other literature. No Plato classic, no Clancy or Grisham thriller, no Catton history or even any Shakespearean drama, despite their considerable wit and brilliance, dispense life to its readers. The Word breathes, moves and inspires. It interacts with our thinking, both consciously and sub-consciously, and creates a new person within us. Its energy puts it on par with the very presence of Jesus, as we see in 1 John 1:1. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.”
Next, the Word is powerful, or active. (Hebrews 4:12 NIV). Many speak, but none speaks words with innate creative power. God’s Word becomes a viable force, fully capable of performing its purpose. He does more than suggest or muse. “So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11). The Word makes things happen.
The Word also discriminates. It is “Living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12. The Word of God cuts away fat and fraud and exposing the hidden things of the heart. This makes lots of people nervous, even angry. But remember, while one edge cuts clean going away, the other cuts just as clean coming back, judging both the audience and the speaker alike. Long before psychology, psychiatry or any of the mind arts ever existed, the incisive Word penetrated the heart of man.
Finally, the Word of God is truth. Vast, organized bodies of opinion float around out in academia, each one claiming or implying that it represents truth. It would totally exhaust our time, money and labor to fully investigate the plank and platform of their every claim. Forget it.
“Thy Word is truth.” All else is futile. Those who excuse scriptural commands as quaint, but out of touch aspects of the Word, tread on shaky ground. Simply put, we must read, believe and obey the Bible! Any departure from the verbal inspiration and the literal reading of the Bible undermines our insistence upon Apostolic doctrine. The Bible is living, powerful, discriminating and true. All of it. That’s the word on the Word.