1. Overview: While the Word of God is able to judge, God is One before whom we will give an account. They are both more than adequate to do their job.
2. About the WOG: living and active (BDAG-to practical expression of capability, effective, active, powerful) and sharper than any double-edged sword,
About the degree of the living, active and sharpness: piercing (BDAG-to move through a three-dimensional space, pierce, penetrate) even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow;
The purpose of the sharpness: it is able to judge (BDAG-able to discern) the desires and thoughts of the heart
(EBC) Living and active” shows that there is a dynamic quality about God’s revelation...God’s Word can reach to the innermost recesses of our being. We must not think that we can bluff our way out of anything, for there are no secrets hidden from God. We cannot keep our thoughts to ourselves...What man holds as most secret he finds subject to its scrutiny and judgment.
(PNTC) It is because of (For) the character and power of God’s word that we should be eager to avoid the disobedience of the past generation and make every effort to enter God’s rest (v. 11)
3. About God: no creature is hidden from God
About the degree of impossibility to hide: everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him (PNTC-The word ‘helpless’ has often, on contextual grounds, been rendered as ‘exposed’ or ‘laid bare’, and therefore as synonymous with ‘naked’. But the verb employed here was used in wrestling for bringing ‘an opponent down by a decisive hold on the neck’. Metaphorically, then, the point is not so much that the person is exposed, though this is true, but that he or she is utterly ‘helpless’)
The purpose of the impossibility to hide: we must render an account.
(PNTC) there is a close connection between God and his word: to be exposed to the word of Scripture is to be examined fully by God himself, and therefore to be answerable to him
Reflection: On one hand, we are impossible to have any secret before the examination of the Word of God. On the other hand, we are totally naked and helpless in front of God. How fearful and earnest we shall face God? Only through the mercy and grace of JC.
Put this in another way, only when I know that I will be examined this way that I will know that there is no way out but run to the grace of JC.
Comments