More than 'Just the word'
Jesus loves me this I know for the ________ _____ ___ ___. Did you finish it? You get a gold star!!!! Many of us have learned this truth since we were little. Jesus loves me. The Bible does say so. Have you ever thought about this though. . . Is the Bible enough? Or do we need more? In church culture we focus on giving our 1st graders Bibles, then send them straight into Bible drill, followed up with teaching about standing for your faith, and then onto apologetics so that you can defend that faith. All of these things come wrapped in informational teaching, hoping that transformation takes place. But isn’t this just setting us up for behavior modification? Why aren’t we seeing the world filled with passionate warriors for Jesus? Could it be that these concepts are just step one and we are treating them as the whole race of life?
Even in our church, we have taught that Jesus responded with scripture when being tempted and so our best response is scripture.
And Jesus does refute the devil by saying this:
4 But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Jesus uses Scripture here to refute the enemy, but we have created this “get out of jail free” concept that it is not what Jesus was doing. The Bible is not designed to be used by us as some sort of incantation or ritualistic statement. The words of God are relational. Scripture is a tool that reveals who God is, so if we stop at the words themselves we don’t enter into the best part of the whole deal. Jesus said “EVERY WORD THAT COMES FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD”. Not just any word but every word; and not just every word, but every word that comes from God. And not just every word that comes from Him, but every word that comes from His very mouth!!!! Near. Personal. Intimate. Relational. This is not hearsay. These are THE words coming from THE mouth of God directly to me. This reminds me of what James says:
21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
I think to fully understand this we need some context and to break down the Greek.
The relational context here is that James is the half-brother of Jesus. (“Half” only because Joseph wasn’t biologically involved with Jesus’s birth but was with James’s.) The book of James is also the earliest writing of the New Testament. James was written somewhere between 8-10 years after Jesus left the planet. So the context is an incredible firsthand account from Jesus’s own brother, and one of the writings that the first generations of the church leaned heavily on.
The Greek is important here as well. The word “put away” is the greek word ἀποτίθημι (apotithēmi) which means to lay down garments. It is also used when Stephen is killed and those stoning him “laid down their garments at Saul’s feet” (Acts 7:58). Then the other Greek word that stands out is ἔμφυτος (emphytos) which means “already planted”.
So there is a part of this verse referring to something we can take off and there is another part referring to something we cannot remove. When we put that inside the context of James, we can see from a very reputable source that is speaking to the early church an encouragement to lay aside our humanity and receive something that is already marked on our souls. What is that? It is the thing that man cannot live without. It is the thing that Matthew 4 says that life hangs on. It is the thing that brought us all into existence. It is the thing that comes out of the mouth of God. It is His word. But here is where we have twisted it: the collection of scriptures we have and call “God’s word” isn’t really what He refers to as the word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
The Word of God is Jesus! The Word of God is relational! The scriptures are meant to reveal the Word and it has been implanted in us. But just like any other plant, it must have water, light, and air to grow into what it was made to be. All seeds are dependent upon their relationship with water, light, and oxygen. We are DESIGNED to be relational. The whole reason Jesus came was to reconcile our relationship with the Father. This word implanted in every human being is a seed that must be watered. But full grown trees need water too. We are designed for an intimate relationship with the Father and we must not stop with just the words written on the page. Sure the Bible tells me all kinds things - this I know, but friends, I know Jesus loves me because He told me so this morning!