Focus: The Divine Critic

Text: Heb.4:12

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

The writer of Hebrews is making a great point here, which is that God's promised Sabbath of rest to His people is still standing. God has said it and will do it, and no force can hinder your good efforts to experiencing the reality of it. Simply put, the writer is saying that God is incapable of an unfulfilled promise, and the reason being that the word God speaks is absolutely full of life, active, capable, and result-oriented.

Let's go through the text before us in a moment. The word of God here is the 'logos' of God - the divine logic, the divine idea, the reason which is beyond reason, the thinking of God, the embodiment of divine conception.

The writer is saying that the logos of God is both living and dynamic. It is full of life and energy. It possesses the life-principle and the force of energy. In the logos of God we find vitality and reality, infinite potency and limitless possibilities. The whole universe functions by the operating system of the logos of God. It is the mechanism that makes happen whatever it says. In the Hebrew, the word is 'DaBaR', a word of three consonants: 'Daleth' for door, 'Beth' for house, and 'Resh' for head, mind, or beginning. The logos of God is a doorway into divine possibilities. The logos of God is a house - God's universe. We find rest inside it. The logos of God is the revelation of God's mind to us, and it is the first and last of everything. It gives beginning to every beginning and carries the force of finality.

The writer says that the logos of God is sharper… It is used in the comparative sense. The Greek is 'tomoteros', from 'tomos', and if you add the Greek prefix, 'ana', you will have the English word, anatomy. The logos of God is a divine scalpel, a surgical knife that has two mouths or faces. It cuts open and penetrates through the human anatomy, spiritually speaking. The logos of God as a surgical knife accurately divides the different parts of the human personality and gets to where the spiritual cancer or malady is domiciled or lodged in the soul.

The logos of God cuts rightly through, identifying and distinguishing between the different parts of our being, namely, the spirit and soul, joints and marrows - both the material and immaterial parts of our nature, the lower and upper parts of our inner being.

Another critical aspect of the logos of God is that it is a discerner, according to our author. The word is 'kritikos' in the Greek, and the English word 'critic' derives from it. The logos of God is the Divine Critic.

The writer of Hebrews is simply saying that the logos of God plays a vital role in our lives. It functions as the divine surgeon that brings you under its knife for thorough anatomical examination. The knife of the logos cuts through and penetrates every part of the human personality. It analyzes, criticizes, discriminates, and judges everything.

The logos knows how to tear us apart, section by section, and department by department, and knows also how to put us together again. It both discriminates and harmonizes our whole being for utmost performance and healthy relationship with God. It seeks to remedy the moral malady and aims at removing the spiritual cancers of self and sin. The logos cuts deep and direct to where the moral and spiritual issues are, with a view to taking them out, and restoring our spiritual health, vibrancy and functionality. The logos probes motives and penetrates the core of our being, separating every part and ultimately reintegrating the whole personality. The logos of God has creative and curative powers.

The logos, properly preached with deep insight and in the energy of the Spirit, cuts through our flaws, pretensions, biases and egoism. The logos exposes us to its brilliant light and refining fire. No one can escape the searching light and the surgical knife of the logos. Haven't we said at different times during sound preaching, 'That preacher was talking to me! He stripped my soul bare. He got me right there.'

At the end of Peter's preaching on the Day of Pentecost, Luke reports, "Now when they heard this, they were PRICKED in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do" (Act.2:37). Their hearts were cut open and their malady detected.

Ananias and Sapphira conspired to do evil. No one knew about it, but as soon as they arrived in church, Peter said, "Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?" The Holy Spirit in Peter uncovered his heart. Peter continued, "Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God" (Act.5:3,4). That is the Spirit of the logos at work in Peter, exposing evil for what it was.

In the case of Simon the sorcerer, who thought that the gift of Holy Spirit was for merchandise, Peter said to him, "For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity" (Act.8:23). His heart was dissected and exposed.

Paul dealt with case of Elymas the sorcerer. Luke says, "But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation ) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith." Paul would not let that happen, and he said to Elymas, "O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season," and Luke reports that "immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand" (Act.13:8,10,11).

Is it not interesting to know that in Heb.4:12, the logos is a two-edged sword, and in Eph.6:17, the rhema is the sword of the Spirit? The word as both 'logos' and 'rhema' are operated by the Spirit of God. They are swords in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and as the Surgeon of God, He operates keenly, finely and expertly, and gets the job perfectly done.

The logos of God works, and if you believe and act on it, it will surely work in you and perfectly work for you. The logos will secure your life and give you rest. Whatever God says, stands. It's a living and operative word. It is the best critic in the universe and conducts a constructive criticism that is aimed at making the best of us.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter