The Word of God, Sharper than a Two-Edged Sword

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

When last I wrote to you, I spoke from the above verse and talked to you about the fact that the Word of God is living and active. Today, I would like us to consider that the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword.

The two-edged sword, in its day, was a monumental advance in the art of warfare. Simply stated, the two-edged sword cut both ways when swung by a Roman soldier. A single-edged sword required the soldier to draw back his arm, to reposition the sword that only cut with a forehand motion. This took time and also made the soldier vulnerable during this action. Where, a two-edged sword was able to cut on both the forehand and backhand motion. Upon its invention, the two-edged sword changed face of warfare and mighty was the army that possessed this weapon.

Now, the verse above, likens the Word of God to a two-edged sword, in fact, it goes on to say that it is even sharper than a two-edged sword. It is so sharp that it is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of one’s soul and one’s spirit. What does this mean?

The Bible reveals that we are a three-part being, body, soul, and spirit. Of course we understand that the body is an earth suit that carries the soul and spirit during one’s sojourn on this earth. The soul is the cognitive part, the reasoning part of one’s being. The spirit is the life-giving part of one’s being that was given at one’s birth and will live on forever, even after our physical body dies. The spirit is also the seat of our communication with God. The soul and the spirit are always interactive.

As a child of God in Christ, one is able to communicate with God as God communicates with them. The primary source of God’s communication with mankind is His Word, the Holy Bible. When one reads the Bible, they soon find that unlike any other book, the Bible speaks both to their soul and their spirit. For this process to happen, one must be born again, having moved from the realm of a natural man to a spiritual man. I Corinthians 2:14 says, “But a natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

So closely connected are the soul and the spirit that the writer of Hebrews compares them to the closeness of joints and marrow in the physical body. To separate, to dissect the joint from the marrow requires a razor-sharp knife. To discern whether the desires of a believer’s heart are from the soul or the spirit requires the razor-sharp blade of the Word of God.

At this point in my life, I have walked with Christ for fifty-three years, forty-eight of those fifty-three years have been spent in the service of my Master as a shepherd of His flock, the local church. During these years as I prayed and studied the Word of God, inspiration or ideas to proceed on some course of action or to speak to a certain subject would come to mind, it was the Word of God that identified whether or not the inspiration was merely one of my keen ideas or a prompting of the Spirit of God. As I would lay the matter before God and examine it through the microscope of His Word, He would bring discernment as to whether my thoughts and intentions were truly of Him or of my own imagination.

Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” It is God’s Word that is the light that guides the Christian in their earthly, spiritual journey. It illumines the path we are called to walk, it identifies the pitfalls along the path that are there to trip us up and will trip us up if we are walking in the dark. It is God’s desire that we walk in the light of Christ, just as He Himself is in the light (I John 1:7).

God’s Word is vital in the life of the believer. It guides us by its light, it helps us to discern the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the natural human heart is deceitful and wicked. Even after one is born again, natural instincts tug at the heart, longing for their own way. It is the Word of God that will keep us on the path of light and give us discernment on how to walk uprightly in this evil day.

“Great peace have those who love Your Word; nothing can make them stumble” (Psalm 119:165).