“For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged
sword. It penetrates even to dividing
soul, spirit, joints, and marrow. It
judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” --Hebrews 4:12
Whenever I see or hear this verse, I
get the urge to start singing. See, I
memorized this verse at Church Camp one year by making up a song for it, so
it’s now forever ingrained in my memory.
But even though I’d memorized it, I never took much time to really think
about it until my pastor gave a sermon on the verse. By now, I’m sure you all know where that
statement leads… It’s time for “Look
Into the Nitty-Gritty of a Bible Verse With the Comma Queen!”
Lets take it one piece at a
time. First is “For the Word of God is living and active…” If you look at that in
the Greek, the word for “active” is “energae” from which we get the word
“energy.” So the Word of God isn’t just
active, it also renews our energy. Also,
the word order is actually a little different in the original Greek than it is
in our translations. It would actually be
“For living is the Word of God, and energizing.” It’s not just “living and energizing,” but it
is alive!, not just something
passive. (Isaiah 55:11)
The next phrase is
“For the Word of God is…sharper than any
two-edged sword.” In my article on
the Armor of God, I talked about a specific Roman sword called the “
makaira” – a sharp, two-edged
sword.
This was the absolute sharpest of
weapons at that time, but this verse says that the Word of God is even sharper.
“It
penetrates even to dividing soul, spirit, joints, and marrow.” This sentence is going on to describe just
how sharp the Word of God is. It cuts
straight through our body and clear to the thoughts of our heart. “It
judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Once there, it judges our thoughts and
attitudes – none of us can judge each other or know what’s really going on, but
God can. My pastor compared the Word of
God to a surgeon’s scalpel; it can be painful and cut us, but it ultimately
brings about healing.
If I were to go through and
re-phrase our translation of this verse, it would look something like this:
“For living is the Word of God, and energizing. Sharper even than the makaira, it cuts to the
deepest parts of our being to bring us healing.” --Hebrews 4:12 personalized
Comma Queen
