Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 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.

12. For the word of God is quick ] “Quick” is an old English expression for “living;” hence St Stephen speaks of Scripture as “the living oracles” (Act 7:38). The “word of God” is not here the personal Logos; a phrase not distinctly and demonstrably adopted by any of the sacred writers except St John, who in the prologue to his Gospel calls Christ “the Word,” and in the Apocalypse “the Word of God.” The reference is to the written and spoken word of God, of the force and almost personality of which the writer shews so strong a sense. To him it is no dead utterance of the past, but a living power for ever. At the same time the expressions of this verse could hardly have been used by any one who was not familiar with the personification of the Logos, and St Clemens of Rome applies the words “a searcher of the thoughts and desires” to God. The passage closely resembles several which are found in Philo, though it applies the expressions in a different manner (see Introduction).

powerful ] Lit., effective, energetic. The vital power shews itself in acts.

sharper than any twoedged sword ] The same comparison is used by Isaiah (Isa 49:2) and St Paul (Eph 6:17) and St john (Rev 2:16; Rev 19:15). See too Wis 18:15-16 , “Thine Almighty Word leaped down from heaven and brought thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword.” Philo compares the Logos to the flaming sword of Eden (Gen 3:24) and “the fire and knife” ( ) of Gen 22:6.

piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow ] The meaning is not that the word of God divides the soul (the “natural” soul) by which we live from the spirit by which we reason and apprehend; but that it pierces not only the natural soul, but even to the Divine Spirit of man, and even to the joints and marrow (i.e. to the inmost depths) of these. Thus Euripides ( Hippol. 527) speaks of the “marrow of the soul.” It is obvious that the writer does not mean anything very specific by each term of the enumeration, which produces its effect by the rhetorical fulness of the expressions. The or animal soul is the sphere of that life which makes a man , i.e. carnal, unspiritual; he possesses this element of life ( anima) in common with the beasts. It is only by virtue of his spirit ( ) that he has affinity with God.

a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart ] These words are a practical explanation of those which have preceded. The phraseology is an evident reminiscence of Philo. Philo compares the Word to the flaming sword of Paradise; and calls the Word “the cutter of all things,” and says that “when whetted to the utmost sharpness it is incessantly dividing all sensuous things” (see Quis Rer. Div. Haeres & 27; Opp. ed. Mangey i. 491, 503, 506). By enthumseis is meant (strictly) our moral imaginations and desires; by ennoiai our intellectual thoughts: but the distinction of meaning is hardly kept (Mat 9:4, &c).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For the word of God – The design of this and the following verse is obvious. It is to show that we cannot escape the notice of God; that all insincerity, unbelief, hypocrisy, will be detected by him; and that since our hearts are perfectly open before him, we should be sincere and should not attempt to deceive him. The sense is, that the truth of God is all-penetrating and searching, and that the real thoughts and intents of the heart will be brought to light, and that if there is insincerity and self-deception there can be no hope of escape. There has been a great variety of opinion here about the meaning of the phrase the Word of God. Some have supposed that it means the Lord Jesus; others, the whole of the divine revelation; others the gospel; others the particular threatening referred to here. The Word of God is what God speaks – whether it be a promise or a threatening; whether it be Law or gospel; whether it be a simple declaration or a statement of a doctrine. The idea here is, that what God had said is suited to detect hypocrisy and to lay open the true nature of the feelings of the soul, so that there can be no escape for the guilty. His truth is adapted to bring out the real feelings, and to show man exactly what he is. Truth always has this power – whether preached, or read, or communicated by conversation, or impressed upon the memory and conscience by the Holy Spirit. There can be no escape from the penetrating, searching application of the Word of God. That truth has power to show what man is, and is like a penetrating sword that lays open the whole man; compare Isa 49:2. The phrase the Word of God here may be applied, therefore, to the truth of God, however made known to the mind. In some way it will bring out the real feelings, and show what man is.

Is quick – Greek zon – living. It is not dead, inert, and powerless. It has a living power, and is energetic and active. It is adapted to produce this effect.

And powerful – Mighty. Its power is seen in awakening the conscience; alarming the fears; laying bare the secret feelings of the heart, and causing the sinner to tremble with the apprehension of the coming judgment. All the great changes in the moral world for the better, have been caused by the power of truth. They are such as the truth in its own nature is suited to effect, and if we may judge of its power by the greatness of the revolutions produced, no words can over-estimate the might of the truth which God has revealed.

Sharper than any two-edged sword – Literally, two-mouthed sword – distomon. The word mouth was given to the sword because it seemed to devour all before it. It consumed or destroyed as a wild beast does. The comparison of the Word of God to a sword or to an arrow, is designed to show its power of penetrating the heart; Ecc 12:11, The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies; compare Isa 49:2. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; Rev 1:16, And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword; Rev 2:12, Rev 2:16; Rev 19:15. The comparison is common in the classics, and in Arabic poetry; see Gesenius, on Isa 49:2. The idea is that of piercing, or penetrating; and the meaning here is, that the Word of God reaches the heart – the very center of action, and lays open the motives and feelings of the man. It was common among the ancients to have a sword with two edges. The Roman sword was commonly made in this manner. The fact that it had two edges made it more easy to penetrate, as well as to cut with every way.

Piercing even to the dividing asunder – Penetrating so as to divide.

Soul and spirit – The animal life from the immortal soul. The former word here – psuche – soul – is evidently used to denote the animal life, as distinguished from the mind or soul. The latter word – pneuma – spirit – means the soul; the immaterial and immortal part; what lives when the animal life is extinct. This distinction occurs in 1Th 5:23, your whole spirit, and soul, and body; and it is a distinction which we are constantly in the habit of making. There is the body in man – the animal life – and the immortal part that leaves the body when life is extinct. Mysteriously united, they constitute one man. When the animal life is separated from the soul, or when the soul leaves the animated body, the body dies, and life is extinct. To separate the one from the other is, therefore, the same as to take life – and this is the idea here, that the Word of God is like a sharp sword that inflicts deadly wounds. The sinner dies; that is, he becomes dead to his former hopes, or is slain by the Law; Rom 7:9, I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. This is the power referred to here – the power of destroying the hopes of the sinner; cutting him down under conviction; and prostrating him as if a sword had pierced his heart.

And of the joints and marrow – The figure is still continued of the sword that takes life. Such a sword would seem to penetrate even the joints and marrow of the body. It would separate the joints, and pierce through the very bones to the marrow. A similar effect, Paul says, is produced by truth. It seems to penetrate the very essence of the soul, and lay it all open to the view.

And is a discerner of the thoughts – It shows what the thoughts and intentions are. Prof. Stuart, Bloomfield, and some others, suppose that the reference here is to God speaking by his word. But the more natural construction certainly is, to refer it to the Word or truth of God. It is true that God searches the heart, and knows the thoughts, but that is not the truth which is prominent here. It is, that the thoughts and intents of the heart are brought out to view by the Word of God. And can anyone doubt this? see Rom 7:7. Is it not true that people are made to see their real character under the exhibition of the truth of God? That in the light of the Law they see their past lives to be sinful? That the exhibition of truth calls to their recollection many long-forgotten sins? And that their real feelings are brought out when the truth of God is proclaimed? Men then are made to look upon their motives as they had never done before, and to see in their hearts feelings whose existence they would not have suspected if it had not been for the exhibition of the truth. The exhibition of the truth is like pouring down the beams of the sun at midnight on a dark world; and the truth lays open the real feelings of the sinner as that sun would disclose the clouds of wickedness that are now performed under cover of the night. Many a man has a deep and fixed hostility to God and to his gospel who might never be sensible of it if the truth was not faithfully proclaimed. The particular idea here is, that the truth of God will detect the feelings of the hypocrite and self-deceiver. They cannot always conceal their emotions, and the time will come when truth, like light poured into the soul, will reveal their unbelief and their secret sins. They who are cherishing a hope of salvation, therefore, should be on their guard lest they mistake the name for the reality. Let us learn from this verse:

(1) The power of truth. It is suited to lay open the secret feelings of the soul. There is not an effect produced in awakening a sinner; or in his conviction, conversion, and sanctification, which the truth is not adapted to produce. The truth of God is not dead; nor suited to make people worse; nor designed merely to show its own weakness, and to be a mere occasion on which the Holy Spirit acts on the mind; it is in its own nature Fitted to produce just the effects which are produced when it awakens, convicts, converts, and sanctifies the soul.

(2) The truth should be preached with the feeling that it is adapted to this end. Men who preach should endeavor to understand the nature of the mind and of the moral feelings, as really as he who would inflict a deadly wound should endeavor to understand enough about anatomy to know where the heart is, or he who administers medicine should endeavor to know what is adapted to remove certain diseases. And he who has no belief in the efficacy of truth to produce any effect, resembles one who should suppose that all knowledge of the human system was needless to him who wished to perform a surgical operation, and who should cut at random – piously leaving it with God to direct the knife; or he who should go into a hospital of patients and administer medicines indiscriminately – devoutly saying that all healing must come from God, and that the use of medicine was only to show its own weakness! Thus, many men seem to preach. Yet for aught that appears, truth is just as wisely adapted to save the soul as medicine is to heal the sick; and why then should not a preacher be as careful to study the nature of truth and its adaptedness to a particular end, as a student of the healing art is to understand the adaptedness of medicine to cure disease? The true way of preaching is, to feel that truth is adapted to the end in view; to select what is best suited for that end; to preach as if the whole result depended on getting that truth before the mind and into the heart – and then to leave the whole result with God – as a physician with right feelings will exert all his skill to save his patient, and then commit the whole question of life and health to God. He will be more likely to praise God intelligently who believes that he has wisely adapted a plan to the end in view, than he who believes that God works only at random.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Heb 4:12-13

The Word of God is quick and powerful

The Word a sword

It may be most accurate to interpret this passage as relating both to the Word of God incarnate, and the Word of God inspired.

Christ and His Word must go together. What is true of the Christ is here predicated both of Him and of His Word.

I. First let me speak CONCERNING THE QUALITIES OF THE WORD OF GOD. It is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.

1. The Word of God is said to be quick. It is a living Book. Take up any other book except the Bible, and there may be a measure of power in it, but there is not that indescribable vitality in it which breathes, and speaks, and pleads, and conquers in the case of this sacred volume. It is a living and incorruptible seed. It moves, it stirs itself, it lives, it communes with living men as a living Word. That human system which was once vigorous may grow old, and lose all vitality; but the Word of God is always fresh, and new, and full of force. Here, in the Old and New Testaments, we have at once the oldest and the newest of books.

2. The Word is said to be powerful, or active. The Word of God is powerful for all sacred ends. How powerful it is to convince men of sin! How powerful it is for conversion!

3. Next, the apostle tells us that this Word is cutting, A sword with two edges has no blunt side: it cuts both this way and that. The revelation of God given us in Holy Scripture is edge all over. It is alive in every part, and in every part keen to cut the conscience, and wound the heart. Depend upon it, there is not a superfluous verse in the Bible, nor a chapter which is useless. Doctors say of certain drugs that they are inert–they have no effect upon the system one way or the other. Now, there is not an inert passage in the Scriptures; every line has its virtues.

4. It is piercing. While, it has an edge like a sword, it has also a point like a rapier. The difficulty with some mens hearts is to get at them. In fact, there is no spiritually penetrating the heart of any natural man except by this piercing instrument, the Word of God. Into the very marrow of the man the sacred truth will pass, and find him out in a way in which he cannot even find himself out.

5. The Word of God is discriminating. It divides asunder soul and spirit. Nothing else could do that, for the division is difficult.

6. Once more, the Word of God is marvellously revealing to the inner self. It pierces between the joints and marrow, and marrow is a thing not to be got at very readily. The Word of God gets at the very marrow of our manhood; it lays bare the secret thoughts of the soul.

II. SOME LESSONS.

1. Let us greatly reverence the Word of Cod.

2. Let us, whenever we feel ourselves dead, and especially in prayer, get close to the Word, for the Word of God is alive.

3. Whenever we feel weak in our duties, let us go to the Word of God, and the Christ in the Word, for power; and this will be the best of power.

4. If you need as a minister, or a worker, anything that will cut your hearers to the heart, go to this Book for it.

5. If we want to discriminate at any time between the soul and the spirit, and the joints and marrow, let us go to the Word of God for discrimination.

6. And lastly, since this Book is meant to be a discerner or critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart, let the Book criticise us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The power of the Word of God

I. ITS JUDGING POWER.

1. It is living and energetic.

2. It cuts both ways.

(1) With the one edge it corrects and converts.

(2) With the other it condemns and destroys adversaries.

II. ITS DIVIDING POWER.

1. It divides the soul from the spirit, i.e., the lower animal nature from the higher, spiritual and eternal.

2. It divides so closely as to lay bare everything in mans composite nature.

III. ITS DISCERNING POWER.

1. It shows the moral nature of what is interior and hidden in mental operations.

2. It shows the moral nature of what is revolving in desire, and forming itself into volition and action.

IV. REFLECTIONS.

1. The Word of God enters the conscience to convert or to smite.

2. It searches out what has hitherto lain buried in the heart, and uncovers the false and transient from what is true and eternal.

3. It opens a man to himself, so that he may know himself in his moral actions and accountability.

4. Since its powers are so peculiar, let us not resist the Word of God.

5. No one can for ever despise it with impunity. (L. O. Thompson.)

The self-evidencing power of the Bible

We may affirm of the Bible, that he who reads it with attention, will find his own portrait given with so much accuracy, his heart so dissected and laid bare for his inspection, that there will be nothing left for him but to confess that the Author of the Bible knew him better than he knew himself; knew him better than he would have been known by any being who could not read the thoughts and search the spirit. Is there any one of you who has read so little of the Bible, or read it with so little attention, that he has never found his own case described–described with so surprising an accuracy, that he felt as though he himself must have sat for the portrait? When Scripture insists on the radical corruption of the heart, on its native enmity to God, and on all its deceitfulness, is there any one of us who will fail to allow that the affirmations are every way just, supposing his own heart to be that of which the affirmations are made? And when over and above its more general statements the Bible descends, as it often does, into particulars; when it speaks of the proneness of man to prefer a transient good to an enduring; the objects in sight, however inconsiderable, to those of faith, however magnificent; when it mentions the subterfuges of those whose conscience has been disquieted; when it shows the vain hopes, the false theories, the lying visions with which men suffer themselves to be cheated, or, rather, with which, they cheat themselves, who is there amongst us who will venture to deny that the representation tallies most nicely either with what he is, or with what he was–with what he is, if he have never repented and sought forgiveness of sin; with what be was if his nature has been renewed by the operations of Gods Spirit? If there be anything like honesty in the mind of the student of Scripture, he must, we are persuaded, be continually startled in his pursuit, in finding his ,own thoughts and motives and designs set in order before him. And if this be true, then, as is very evident, there belongs to the Bible the character which is assigned to it in the words of our text. And though it may seem somewhat extraordinary that notwithstanding the confessed diversity in human character, we should thus make a simple description serve as the moral portrait of countless individuals, you will remember, that practically, all men are alike; the differences are only superficial, so that Solomon could affirm that–as in water face answers to face, so the heart of man to man. The face in the water is not a more accurate copy of the face of the beholder, than is the heart of one man a copy of any other mans. And, therefore, with all the differences which there may be amongst men, differences in dispositions and tempers, partly from nature and partly from education, we still take the Scriptural characteristic as actually belonging to every one; and holding up this characteristic, we affirm that we hold up the perfect image or likeness of each man or each woman, without a solitary exception; and we boldly make our appeal to every hearer of the Word, and demand of him whether the preacher do not morally affect such an exhibition of him to himself, that that Word may most justly be described as–a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart? But, now, there remains a most important question–how comes it to pass that if the Word of God possess this dissecting power, so that it lays man bare and exposes to his own eye all the secrecies of his soul–how comes it to pass that so little effect is actually produced? This is only because the hearers are utterly inattentive; because they give no heed whatever to the statements of the preacher; but go through the business of the sanctuary as a matter of form, in which they have no interest. It is no marvel if to such as these the Word of God should not be as a sword. They may be said to clothe themselves in that thick armour, the armour of indifference, and though dissection may be going on all around, they ward off from themselves the knife of the anatomist. But there is another class of hearers on whom considerable impression is often made by the preaching of the gospel, who, while they remain in church, and are actually hearkening to the solemn truths of religion, feel an interest in what is said, feel its power, and wish to use it for their guidance; and in whom there seems the best moral promise presented of such an attempt at amendment of life, as would issue in genuine conversion. Are there not some who would be ready to own that sermons have occasionally had on them a mighty and almost overcoming effect; so that they have felt constrained to give full assent to the truths uttered in their hearing, though these truths have convicted them of heinous offences, and proved them placed in terrible danger. If the man thus exhibited to himself, startled with the moral deformity which he has been forced to behold, would strive at once to act on the disclosure, and set about procuring a renovation of his nature, he would be immeasurably advantaged by the spectacle of his own sinfulness–soul and spirit will have been divided by conviction of sin, only to the becoming united in the blessed hope of forgiveness through Christ. But if he contents himself with having heard, and do not immediately and intently strive to act on its requirements, what is to be looked for, but that he will speedily lose all those feelings which have been excited within him, as the process went forward of dissecting the inner man? And then there will be no conversion, though there have been conviction, and that, too, through his own listlessness, his own indifference, and not through any want of truth in this emphatic declaration–The Word of God is quick and powerful, &c. Now, let us recur again to that very important and interesting matter, the self-evidencing power of the Bible. We send a missionary to a barbarous tribe; he settles down amongst the savages; but he can employ no miracle; he can work no wonders to fix the attention, and win the confidence of his wild auditory. You would think there was no chance of his making any way with these barbarians. He seems to have nothing at his disposal by which the pretensions of Christianity may be substantiated. If he could heal the sick; if he could hush the elements; if he could raise the dead; then, indeed, the wild denizens of the distant land might be expected to give ear to him as a messenger from heaven; but just standing as a defenceless stranger on their shores, what probability is there of success when he proceeds to denounce their ancestral superstitions, summoning them away from idols that they had invested with all the sacredness of Divine, and declaring as the alone Saviour of mankind, a Being who died centuries back as a malefactor? But experience is all against you when you would conclude that Christianity cannot make way without miracle. The simple preaching of the sinfulness of man, and of the sacrifice of Christ, has proved a mighty engine in the hands of the missionary; and though he have done nothing but faithfully deliver his message, making no attempt at supporting its authority by an appeal to external evidence, yet have converts flocked in from the mass of idolators, and a moral regeneration has gone out over the long degraded territory. And what account do we give of this phenomenon? Shall we say that Christianity has been admitted without proof? The matter of fact is, that the gospel of Christ carries with it its own credentials. Wherever it is preached, there is a conscience to act upon; amid all the derangements of humanity, a sense of right and wrong is never wholly extinguished, but even where that nature is most sunken, the principle is in action which applauds the cause of virtue and utters a protest against vice; and which, stirring up forebodings when the mind looks onward to death, witnesses powerfully to our living under a retributive government. Conscience is everywhere mans attribute; therefore Christianity has everywhere an evidence. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The Word of God

The Word of God may here mean the gospel revelation in all its fulness, especially as contrasted with that under the law; the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ.

1. The Word of God is quick. This is an ancient expression that signifies living: it occurs in our Creed and in our Advent Collect, the quick and the dead. This use of the word is frequent in Scripture (see Joh 5:21; Rom 8:11). Stephen, in Act 7:1-60., describes the ancient Scriptures as the lively (or living) oracles, those testimonies from God, by which at that time the means of life were communicated. We now inquire, what is the meaning of the Word of God giving life. And clearly it relates to an operation upon the soul of man, to some new state of being generated and produced. A new store of knowledge is brought to the understanding; a flood of light is poured in which arrays every object in a new colour; an influence works upon the affections by which they are refined and changed, made to delight in new purposes and pursuits, to flow in a new channel, and raised from earth to heaven. The Word and its accompanying grace, with its doctrines, and promise, and ordinances, with the manifold ministrations of the Spirit, brings the mind altogether into a new condition. And by the hearing of the Word, and the deep study of the Word, and by the willing and faithful acceptance of all that it reveals, this life of God in the soul is maintained; renewed as it languishes from its corrupt communication with earth, and daily carried on to further advancement and strength. The Word is quick and powerful: energetic, active. It has the power because it has life. The life is such as to exert a perpetual energy within us: we might say, powerfully alive. It will move upon the mass of corruption; it will convince of sin; it will change the love of sin into the love of holiness; and will, if applied and carried out by the Churchs wisdom, bring the wayward and ungodly affections into a stale of self-denying discipline, into humble submission to the Divine will.

2. The text moreover declares that the Word is sharper than any two-edged sword. This figure seems to be borrowed from the prophets Isa 49:2; Hos 6:5). St. Paul in Eph 6:1-24. speaks of the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. The Word of God has always been found, from the beginning, capable of penetrating deeply into the heart of a sinner; of producing a sudden and terrible alarm in the conscience, of striking conviction into the trembling frame, and lowering the rebel to the ,lust. To the humble, pious, faithful disciple also the Word of God is a sharp instructor, a penetrating sword; often bringing truths to remembrance, which in mortal weakness had been forgotten; often giving a new colour and force to truths already in the mind. And how quick, and mighty, and prevailing are the truths of the gospel for the furtherance of grace, and the increase of heavenly comfort in the soul; depths of wisdom newly discovered; rays of consolation beaming forth; lights of unearthly brightness successively rising to the eye of faith. (J. Slade, M. A.)

The sword of the Lord

I. THE QUALITIES OF THE WORD.

1. Divine.

2. Living.

3. Effectual.

4. Cutting.

5. Piercing.

6. Discriminating.

7. Revealing.

II. THE LESSONS WHICH WE SHOULD LEARN THEREFROM.

1. That we do greatly reverence the Word, as truly spoken of God.

2. That we come to it for quickening for our own souls.

3. That we come to it for power when fighting the battles of truth.

4. That we come to it for cutting force to kill our own sins and to help us in destroying the evils of the day.

5. That we come to it, for piercing force when mens consciences and hearts are hard to reach.

6. That we use it to the most obstinate, to arouse their consciences and convict them of sin.

7. That we discriminate by its means between truth and falsehood.

8. That we let it criticise us, and our opinions, and projects, and acts, and all about us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The power of the Divine Word

I. THE MIGHTY EFFECTS OF THE DIVINE WORD AS THEY ARE HERE DESCRIBED.

1. The characteristics of the Divine Word, as quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, are illustrated by its effects upon the intellect of man. The carnal mind rebels against, and, by subtle sophistries, attempts to deny its truth; but it has a powerful influence upon the understanding, spiritualising that understanding, and enabling it to discern spiritual things. It carries with it undoubtable credence, and forces the reluctant will and judgment. Its doctrines, how heavenly! its precepts, how holy!

2. The effect of this Word upon the conscience, in convincing of sin and producing godly sorrow, is an illustration of the description in this passage. It is common to view sin, even when it is acknowledged and condemned by the transgressor, in the light simply of its effects on society, or the injury it inflicts on a mans own reputation, property, or health; but when the Divine Word penetrates the soul with a convertine power, it is no longer regarded with reference only to its personal or temporal consequences, but as an atrocious violation of the law and an insult to the glory of God. Against Thee, and Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight. Then again, with regard to the conscience, the Word of God is quick and powerful, for it annihilates the spirit of self-defence, extenuation, and apology, together with those self-righteous principles which exist in the unregenerate man.

3. The characteristics of this Divine Word are manifested in the effects of it upon the heart, in producing sanctification. This, too, is a severe progress, involving much struggle and self-denial. Hence the Word of God is not only a two edged sword in respect to conviction, but in respect to its operations in perfecting religion and preparing us for eternal glory.

4. The operation of truth is sometimes remarkably quick as well as powerful. A remarkable instance of its quick and mighty operation is recorded in the conversion of Paul.

5. The potent influence of the Word is often for a long period concealed from the outward world in the depths of the soul. It is thus a discerner of the thoughts.

II. THE CONCLUSIONS TO BE DRAWN FROM THESE STATEMENTS.

1. The representation of the text ought to enhance our estimation of the Divine Word. It is doing what all the philosophy in the world could never do. How ought we then to estimate it?

2. We should be induced to employ the most zealous efforts for the circulation of the Divine Word by means of printed copies, and the support of Christian ministrations, both at home and abroad.

3. The characteristics of the Divine Word as given in the text, which we have endeavoured to illustrate, should induce the individual inquiry, What am I doing to obstruct or to sustain its influence in my own soul? You must by the very necessity of the ease, having heard the Word, either receive or reject it. (F. A. Cox, D. D.)

The Word of God likened to a sword

The same illustration is used by St. Paul, by Philo, and in the Book of Wisdom, but with a different application in each case. St. Paul likens the Word of God to the sword of the warrior, used as a weapon of the faith (Eph 6:17); the Book of Wisdom compares the almighty Word of God to a sharp sword, but uses a different word for sword, evidently designating the sword of the destroying am, of, which executed Gods mandate on the first-born of Egypt (Wis 18:16). Philo dwells on the searching and penetrative power of the Word as that which severs all things. In this passage the ideas of the two last authors are combined by way of warning to the disobedient; the Word of God is compared to the sword of the executioner, piercing with its double edge the very heart of the victim. Like the sword, it searches out evil and destroys it; but it is sharper than the sword, because it penetrates into the region of spiritual life, whereas the sword can only divide joints and marrow, and its power is limited to the animal life. The images are borrowed from a court of justice, where the guilty is brought before his judge, convicted, and executed: (F. Rendall, M. A.)

Quick and powerful

The latter word explains the former; for those things that are living are said to be active in opposition to such things which are dead, which have lost their power; and to be lively and very active are many times the same; and this signifies the efficacy and active power of this law. This active vigour and efficacy is illustrated by a similitude. For the law is compared to a two-edged sword, which, being used by a powerful and skilful hand, doth manifest how sharp and cutting it is; for it pierceth quickly into the inward parts, and divideth between soul and spirit, and the bones and marrow, which are most nearly united, and more hidden and secret in living bodies. So that in the similitude we have two acts of a sword, or any such cutting instrument. The first is, dividing things most nearly united. The second, discovering things most secret. There cannot be any more perfect division or discovery in any dissection or anatomy than is here expressed. (G. Lawson.)

The living Word of God

The Word of God is living, because He who speaks the Word is the living God. It acts with mighty energy, like the silent laws of nature, which destroy or save alive, according as men obey or disobey them. It cuts like a sword whetted on each side of the blade, piercing through to the place where the natural life of the soul divides from, or passes into, the supernatural life of the spirit. For it is revelation that has made known to man his possession of the spiritual faculty. The word spirit is used by heathen writers. But in their books it means only the air we breathe. The very conception of the spiritual is enshrined in the bosom of Gods Word. Further, the Word of God pierces to the joints that connect the natural and the supernatural. It does not ignore the former. On the contrary, it addresses itself to mans reason and conscience, in order to erect the supernatural upon nature. Where reason stops short, the Word of God appeals to the supernatural faculty of faith; and when conscience grows blunt, the Word makes conscience, like itself, sharper than any two-edged sword. Once more, the Word of God pierces to the marrow. It reveals to man the innermost meaning of his own nature and of the supernatural planted within him. The truest morality and the highest spirituality are both the direct product of Gods revelation. But all this is true in its practical application to every man individually. The power of the Word of God to create distinct dispensations and yet maintain their fundamental unity, to distinguish between masses of men and yet cause all the separate threads of human history to converge and at last meet, is the same power which judges the inmost thoughts and inmost purposes of the heart. These it surveys with critical judgment. If its eye is keen, its range of vision is also wide. No created thing but is seen and manifest. The surface is bared, and the depth within is opened up before it. As the upturned neck of the sacrificial beast lay bare to the eye of God, so are we exposed to the eye of Him to whom we have to give our account. (T. C. Edwards, D. D.)

Gods Word to us, and our word to God

We are here at the end of a long argument. Close attention is required to follow the steps of it. But the general idea is simple. There is a rest of God which is the goal of the long race of the human creation. It has been so from the beginning. It was realised by the old patriarchs as their true city and country, while they lived the tent-life here. It was typified in the promise of Canaan–typified, but certainly not fulfilled–more certainly not exhausted. Long ages after the entrance of Israel into Canaan, a psalmist speaks (by clear implication) of Gods rest as still open, still liable to be forfeited, therefore still capable of being attained. Nothing certainly has occurred since the psalmists day which could be supposed to have cancelled promise by performance. The rest of God is still in reserve for His true people. Let us give diligence to enter into it. Let us not forfeit it, as one whole generation forfeited Canaan, by unbelief. Thus we reach the double text, which tells of the impossibility of eluding Gods judgment by any differences of circumstance, or by any counterfeits of character. The Word of God, His utterance in judging, His discernment of character, His estimate of conduct, is no dead or dormant thing; it is living and active; it is sharper than any two-edged sword; it divides and discriminates where man sees only the inseparable; soul and spirit, the immaterial part of us in one aspect and the same immaterial part of us in another aspect, it can cleave in twain; thoughts and feelings, exercises of intellect and exercises of affection, it is apt and quick to distinguish between and to pronounce upon. No created being can wear mask or veil in that Presence; all things are bare and naked, all things are exposed and opened; the head that would bend and bow itself, in conscious guilt and shame, before the fierce light of the Presence, is lifted (such perhaps is the figure) and thrown back in full exposure before the eye of the Examiner and the Judge, unto whom, so the sentence ends, our word is; with whom–according to the beautiful paraphrase which no later version will wish or dare to improve away–with whom we have to do.

I. THE WORD OF GOD. There are many such words. There is a Word of God in Nature. Order diversified, which is a true description of Nature, tells of a power which is no brute force; in other words, of a mind at work in its exercise. There is a Word of God in Providence. Consequence modified, which is a true description of Providence, tells of a power working which is no mechanical agency; in other words, of a mind purposing, and realising that purpose in ceaseless processes of adaptation. There is not sound only, but voice in both these–a voice implying a personality, and a voice presupposing an auditor. The Epistle from which the texts come carries us beyond this vaguer and more general Divine utterance to another of which the very differentia is the personality. God, it says, having of old time spoken in the prophets–utterers of His truth in sundry modes and manifold particulars–spoke to us at the end of these days–at the dividing line, as it were, of present and future, of time and eternity–in One, of whom the title–the unique, incommunicable title–is Son. The Word of God, if not a person, is yet a personalcommunication, as much in the voice that utters as in the ear that hears. This Word was a voice before it was a Book. The living Life wrote itself upon other lives; they in their turn wrote it upon others, ere yet a page of Gospel Scripture was written–on purpose that the distinction between , letter and spirit might be kept ever fresh and vital, on purpose that the characteristic of the new revelation might never fade or be lost sight of, how that it is God speaking in His Son, God speaking, and God bidding man to make reply. But where would the Word have been by this time, left to itself–left, I mean, to echo and tradition? It pleased God by His holy inspiration to move and to guide the pen of living men; and it pleased Him by His Providence wonderfully to watch over the thing written; and it pleased Him in days when there was neither scholarship to revise nor machinery to multiply the writing, to put such love into hearts for those perishable fugitive scrolls of rude, almost hieroglyphic, manuscript, that they were treasured up in cells and churches as the most precious of heirlooms; and it pleased Him at last to stimulate into a marvellous inventiveness His own gift–grace we might well call it–of human reason, so that the completed volume of the once scattered Biblia was multiplied by the new miracle of the printing press into the myriad Bibles, which are now sown broadcast over the surface of the inhabited globe. There are, St. Paul says, so many kinds of voices in the world–say a hundred, say a thousand–and no one of them is without signification. Even the Divine voices are many. There is a word of God in nature, and there is a word of God in providence; there is a word of God in science, and there is a word of God in history; there is a word of God in the Church, and there is a word of God in the Bible. And yet all these are external, as such, to the very spirit of the man that is in him. The Word of God, which is the real speech and utterance of all these voices, comes at last to the man himself in conscience. I speak not now of that more limited sense of conscience in which it is the guiding and warning voice within, saying, This is the way of duty, walk thou in it. The word of God in conscience is more, much more, than this. It is that of which our Lord said, in reference to the volume of His own evidences, Yea, and why even of yourselves, without waiting for sign or portent, judge ye not what is right? You can discern the face of the earth and of the sky; you can infer from certain indications the approach of shower or heat. Bow is it that ye cannot infer Deity from the Divine–the Emmanuel presence from the Emmanuel character? The appeal was to conscience, not so much in its sensitiveness to right and wrong, as in its appreciativeness of the false and the true, of God speaking this and God not speaking that. Thus it is that the Word of God, as it at last reaches the spirit and soul of the man, is the net result of a thousand separate sayings, no one of which by itself is the absolute arbiter of the being. It cannot become this till it has made itself audible to the conscience. Till then it is suggestive, it is contributory, it is evidential, it is not the verdict, nor the judgment, nor the sentence, nor the Word. There is no encouragement to the dallying, to the procrastinating, to the fastidiousness and the waywardness, which is characteristic of the generation. On the contrary, it is a trumpet call to decision. It says, there is a word of God somewhere. The Word of God is a personal word–it speaks to the personal being, as God made and as God sees him. We seem yet to lack one thing. The Word speaks in con-science–speaks to the consciousness–but who speaks it? The Word itself, tobe audible as such, must have become the Spirits voice; then it takes of the things of God and speaks them into the conscience, which is the consciousness of the man.

II. THESE IS ALSO A WORD OF OURS TO GOD. Unto Him our word is. The particular point in the view of the holy writer was that of accountability. God speaks in judgment, and we speak to give account. The first readers were on the eve of a terrible crisis. They had to choose between Christianity and Judaism, between religion and patriotism, almost therefore between duty and duty. It was reasonable to speak to them of the Word which is a two-edged sword in discriminating, and of the word which pleads guilty or not guilty at the bar of judgment. We also are passing through a great crisis. You will think that I speak of some political or national crisis. But I do not. I speak of a crisis greater even than these–greater (shall I dare the paradox?) because less great–greater because individual. The crisis of which I speak is that life-long trial, in which each one of us is standing before Gods judgment-seat, and upon the decision of which depends for each one a future not to be measured by years, and not to be told in terms of human speech. The text says of this crisis, of this trial, that it is the interchange, so to speak, of two words–the dialogue, I had almost said, of two speakers–the word of God judging, and the word of the man making answer and giving account. With whom we have to do. Our word of account is to God. Oh, if we could take the thought home, what an effect would it have upon the life! What an independence, what a dignity would it give to it! How would it put an end to that running to and fro to give in our account, which makes so many lives so servile and so contemptible? What pains do we take to please, to give satisfaction, to win applause, to be admired if it may be so, at all events to avoid censure one of another. What haste do we make to explain, to excuse, to apologise for, to daub with obtrusive whitewash, our little dubious acts, our little unfortunate speeches. What a forgetfulness do we see everywhere, and first of all in ourselves, of the great principle of the Godward Word, of the with whom we have to do of this text. What a weight, what an influence, what a sanctity, what an inspiration, would be given to our common words, to our every-day remarks and comments upon men and things, if we carried about us that indefinable something, which says, in tones more persuasive in proportion as they are less obtrusive, This man knows and feels that he has to do with God! And all this sets in strong light the duty of doing it. It shows us what is meant by self-examination, what is meant by confession. With Him, directly and personally, we have to do. Just to carry to God Himself, in the nightly confessional where we meet the one Judge, just the very thing itself which we did wrong, which we said wrong, just in so many words, that very day which is now being gathered to its parent days–|hat is the Christian evensong. So judging ourselves, we shall not be judged. The Word of account was the first thought of the text. But it is not the only one. It is not perhaps the most beautiful or the most attractive. The spirit of the man has other words besides this to utter in the ear with which it has to do. The speech of God is to me, and my speech is to Him. Might we but enter into this conception, what an elevation, what a grandeur would it give to the life! The speech of God is to thee–His discourse, His self-disclosure, His mind uttering itself, His Spirit breathing itself in converse. And my speech is to Him–my discourse, my self-disclosure, my uttered mind, my soul expressing itself in audible thought. What is this but to give to the life itself a new Christian name, at the font of a spiritual baptism, and to send it forth afresh into all the relationships and all the occupations of the being, having this for its title–Conversation with God? As a man talketh with his friend, was Gods own account of His communication with the hero-saint of Israel–then it was the privilege of the one or two, now it is the very birthright and citizenship of the promiscuous world of the redeemed. There is yet one condition more–we will end with it. The speech of the man to his God must presuppose and proceed upon the speech of God to the man. The two words of which the texts tell are not independent words. The conversation is not between two equals, either of whom must contribute his share to the instruction and enjoyment of the meeting. The incommensureableness, in nature and dignity, of the two speakers, while it forbids not freedom in the inferior, forbids presumption; nay, precludes it as a tone and a feeling which would jar upon, and jangle out of tune, the very melody and harmony of the converse. God speaks, and man makes reply. It is not that on equal terms and with equal rights God and the man meet together to think out and to talk out the thing that was, and that is, and that shall be. The world by its wisdom knew not God. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. The Word of God came, and the word of man made reply on the strength of it. This consecrates for him the new and living way, by which, not in hesitation, not as a peradventure, but in calm faith and trust–not forgetting the realities of sin and the Fall, but seeing them at once recognised and overborne by a mightier revelation of love–the word of the man meets the Word of his God, on the strength of that Word made flesh, which is the reconciler and the harmoniser of the two. (Dean Vaughan.)

The mighty power of the Word

Goliaths sword not like to this. David said of that, none to it; but none to this. Lord give it to us. This sword can hew in pieces the most stony heart in the world; to see what blindness in the understanding, what frowardness in the affections. It will lay the heart open, and betray the secret filthiness, and all the sluttish corners of sin that be in it. When the preacher is speaking, the Word doth so pierce the hearts of the hearers, as that many in the church imagine that the preacher is acquainted with their sins. You shall find it to be a lively and mighty Word, one way or other, either to save you or to condemn you. It is lively and mighty in the godly, to kill sin within them, to raise them up unto newness of life. Was it not mighty in David, making him cry, Peccavi? in Josiah, making his heart to melt? in Manasseh, when, of the most horrible idolator that was ever heard of, it made him a zealous worshipper Of the true God? in Zaccheus, when it made him to forsake his oppression and to restore fourfold? in Mary Magdalen, when it cast out seven devils out of her? in those three thousand souls, when, pricked in their hearts, they went to the apostles? in the city of Samaria, when it made them to abjure Simon Magus and to listen to St. Philip? Was it not mighty by twelve men, over all the world, when it subdued by their ministry all nations to Christ? There may be a dark and misty morning; the sun comes, scatters the mist, clears the air, and makes it a bright day. So the whole world was shadowed with the mist of blindness, and the fog of sin. The Word comes forth like the sun, and introduces the knowledge of Christ and of His gospel into all the world. O mighty Word! Let us all acknowledge the power of this wonderful Word. Who is able to stand before this might, Word? It is lively and mighty too, even in the very reprobate. Sometimes they may be senseless, and have no feeling of the cutting of the Word, as those in Jeremiah; nay, they may even scoff at the Word preached, as the Pharisees Luk 16:14); their consciences may be seared up, and feel not the sword when it cutteth; as they that be in a lethargy, they may inwardly fret and fume, be in a pelting chafe with the preacher for reproving sins, as Ahab with Micaiah, and Jezebel with Elias, yet but like mad dogs, that sit biting of the chain wherewith they are tied, but not break the chain. So they may snap at the preacher and the Word, but they themselves have the hurt; yet for all that, at one time or other, God will make them to feel the power of His Word and the strength of this mighty arm of His. (W. Jones, D. D.)

The Divine Word

We are familiar with the Word of God. Like Israel, we possess this treasure in our country, in our families. But, thankful as we ought to be for this great privilege, do we know also the majesty and the power of the Word of God? Do we know that, in possessing, reading, and knowing the Scripture, we are under a mighty, solemn, and decisive influence, and that this Word judges us now, and will judge us at the last day? The expressions which are used here of the Word of God are all applicable to Christ Himself; for He is living, He is the power of God, He came for judgment into the world, He is the Searcher of hearts, His eyes are like a flame of fire. But the reference is to the spoken and written Word. The Scripture, as the written Word, is according to Christ and of Christ; and by it Christ is heard, received, and formed in the soul. Of this written Word, of which Christ is centre and end, as well as author and method, which is inspired by the Holy Ghost and sent by God, the gospel message is the kernel. And hence it is this gospel which especially is called the Word.

1. The Word is living (Rev 1:18, Greek; Joh 5:21; Joh 5:24; Joh 5:26; Joh 6:63; Joh 6:68). God is called the Living One; and Christ the Lord calls Himself the Living One. He is the life, He has life in Himself, and He came to quicken and to give us life abundantly. And the Word which proceedeth out of the mouth and heart of God, the Word of which Christ is the substance, and which is given and watched over by the Spirit, is also living; for Gods words are spirit and life. The Word is the seed, which appears insignificant, but which if received in good ground shows its vitality. Hence it is by this Word that souls are born again unto eternal life.

2. The living Word is powerful or energetic. It is compared to the seed which possesses vitality and power. We can see the power or energy of the Word when it fills those that hear and receive it with strong emotions, filling them with fear and terror, with grief and contrition; we can see its power in the sudden and striking changes it produces, when the thoughtless and worldly, the selfish and depraved, are arrested and quickened by its mighty power. But while the earthquake and the fire declare the approach of the Lord, it is in the still small voice that the Lord at last appears to take up His permanent abode. There are the hidden flowers of humility, of forgiving love, of patience and meekness; there are the unseen and unknown daily conflicts and victories; there is the crucifixion of the old man, and the constant renewal of the resurrection-life; and these are especially the triumphs of the power of the Word.

3. The Word cannot be living and energetic without being also a sword, dividing and separating, with piercing and often painful sharpness, that which in our natural state lies together mixed and confused. It comes not to flatter and to soothe; it comes not to encourage us with half-true, half-false encomiums; it does not call the flesh Spirit, but condemns it as flesh and enmity against God. It leads you into the lower Christian life (Joh 3:30); it discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart, the hidden self-complacency, the hidden ambition and self-will; it enters into the very joints and marrow, the energies and sentiments, the motives and springs of our actions, the true character of our rejoicing and mourning, our elevations and depressions; and then you say with the apostle: I have no confidence in the flesh, in my old nature, in me, body, soul, and spirit, as I am of Adam. I dare not trust the sweetest frame. I cannot call my holy things holy, for they are full of sin. The Word of God enters into my inmost soul and heart-life, and as a judge both unveils and condemns; what hitherto was hidden, is uncovered; what was disguised, unveiled; what was falsely called good and spiritual, appears now in the bright light of Gods countenance; the thoughts and intents of the hearts are discerned. Thus am I brought into Gods presence, as when I first was convinced of my sin and my guilt; but I feel more abased, and with a deeper knowledge and sorrow I exclaim: I am vile, and abhor myself in dust and ashes. On, where is Christ? I wish to be found in Him. I wish Him to live in me. What is there in me pleasing to God? Oh that Christ would sing, pray, love, live in me! When the Word thus dwells in us, we give glory to God, and we are spiritually-minded. We live not on mere notions and impressions; we begin to apply our knowledge to our actual state and to our daily walk: we are delivered from hypocrisy, which is since the Fall the great disease of mankind. (A. Saphir.)

It finds me

It was Coleridge, if we remember aright, who, in giving one of the grand internal evidences of the inspiration of the Blade, as derived from his own experience, use t the idiomatic and significant expression, It flints me.

Effects of the Bible

A dealer in low publications taunted me about the Bible. I begged her to take a copy and read it. She said, I shall sell it. That is your affair, I replied. I lost sight of her for three weeks. When I returned to her kiosk all her immoral publications had disappeared. Oh! she cried, on seeing me, I am delivered; this book has saved me from dishonour. No, no, I will not sell it. I and my husband now read it together, and with the children. This morning this dear old woman told me that in two neighbouring families the Holy Bible is read, And, says she, it has absolutely had the same effect with them as with us. (Pasteur Hirsch.)

The Word self-revealing

The Word will turn the inside of a sinner out, and let him see all that is in his heart. (M. Henry.)

Conviction by the Word

The Bechuanas are excellent patients. There is no wincing. In any operation even the women sit unmoved. I have been quite astonished, again and again, at their calmness. In clotting out a tumour, an inch in diameter, they sit and talk as if they felt nothing. A man like me never cries, they say; they are children that cry. And it is a fact that the men never cry. But when the Spirit of God works on their minds they cry most piteously. Sometimes in church they endeavoured to screen themselves from the eyes of the preacher by hiding under the forms, or covering their heads with their karosses, as a remedy against their convictions. And when they find that wont do they rush out of the church and run with all their might, crying as if the hand of death were behind them. (D. Livingstone.)

The Word of God

The Word of God is too sacred a thing, and preaching too solemn a work to be toyed and played with, as is the usage of some who make a sermon but matter of wit and fine oratory. If we mean to do good we must come unto mens hearts, not in word only, but with power. Satan moves not for a thousand squibs and wit-cracks of rhetoric. Draw, therefore, this sword out of your scabbard and strike with its raked edge; this you will find the only way to pierce your peoples consciences and fetch blood of their sins. (William Gurnall.)

The eyes of Him with whom we have to do

God over all

I. We have to do with God fundamently and pre-eminently as our CREATOR Whence came we? How are we? What are we? Who made us? He made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Now, if God made us, and not we ourselves, if the faculties of our mind, if the energies of our heart, if the wondrous proportions of our body, are all from Him, then can we ever be separate from God? can we ever cease to have that relationship to Him that the creature has to the Creator, the relationship that a child has to a parent? A parent has a claim upon a child as long as it lives. We have to do, then, with a God of love as our Creator.

II. We have to do with God as our PRESERVER. Strange that men live on year after year and go up and down, sleeping and waking, toiling and resting, mourning and rejoicing, and yet they can forget how it is that they live and continue in life; how it is that reason still holds its seat; how it is that the heart still throbs; how it is that the harp strings are kept in tune; how it is they are not continually tormented with anguish, distemper, and distress: can any man account for this? If we did not make ourselves, if we did not string the harp, we cannot keep it attuned; if we did not form the mechanism we cannot keep it from decay and dissolution. There is no independent life but in the one Fountain of all life, and all other life is a life of dependence–a dependence of the creature on the Creator, of the thing made upon the Maker, of the thing living on Him that gave it life. We have to do with Him as our Creator; we must have to do with Him in sickness and health, in peril and in safety, in life and in death, in madness and in reason, in the lunatic asylum or the house of prayer; we must have to do with Him as our Creator. Sir, said a poor maniac, that had escaped from bedlam, and was passing along the streets of London, to a gentleman he met at the angle of one of the streets, did you ever thank God for reason? The man stared, and said, I cannot say that I ever did. Then do so now, for I have lost mine I said the poor man. And well I remember, when attending the deathbed of one who died of that most fearful disease, hydrophobia, as, in the agony of the spasms of disease, she grasped my hind until it ached, I repeated to her many of those beautiful prayers of ours, in one of which you have, or ought to have been joining, the thanksgiving, We bless Time for our creation, preservation; and she said, with a shriek, Oh preservation, preservation, how we forget it; look at me, and let none who know it ever forget it again! Yes, preservation.

III. We have to do with Him as our bounteous BENEFACTOR, our gracious Attender, and the Fatherly Provider of all we have. Whether a man is racked with pain all his life, or disordered, as some are, from their mothers womb; whether he is blessed with health and a cheerful mind, or if he has anything that relieves him in this vale of tears, any flower that blooms in the desert, any star that brightens the dark sky of our fallen lot; is it not all from God? It is a terrible thought that men have to do with God in all that they have, and abuse, and prostrate to their own destruction; it is all from God, and they cannot say in one thing they have that it is not from Him. How this should make us reconciled, however He may deprive us; how we should be grateful for anything we have, for anything short of hell is the gift of his grace, to us who are deserving of hell; and, therefore, we ought to say, oh! how often, Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

IV. We have to do with God as our RULER AND GOVERNOR. Does any man suppose that, because we talk of laws, there is no lawgiver? What is law without the power of enforcing it? What is government without a governor? Without the Divine and mighty Ruler of all, what would take place? Universal anarchy, chaos, and desolation.

V. Ah! we have to do with Him as our LAWGIVER. He has given a law; and all things–the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars–have laws; summer and winter, autumn and spring, have all their laws and appointed times–the clouds have their laws, and the light above–everything has its laws; and do you Suppose the moral world hath no law, that the great God hath left the mind and spirit without anything to control or guide it? I tell you no. In man, at the first, there was a perfect law en-graven on the tablet of his heart, and it is there still; and though shattered the tablet, and blotted is the writing, man knows far more than he fancies; he knows more what he ought to do, and what he ought not to do, than he will admit; he has a conscience within him, and this is from God. And then we Christians–professing Christians–we have the law of God written again, republished by the Divine Registrar; the law so plain and so simple that any man that has a heart can understand it, and so beautiful, and bountiful, and benevolent, and perfect, that no man with any right moral sense can find fault with it or deny it. It is diversified according to circumstances, but the whole is based upon this principle–love to God and love to man.

VI. We have yet further to do with this great God as our JUDGE. A man may refuse to have to do with God in obedience and submission to His will; he may set it at nought and forget it; be may lose all sense of it, by imbruting his moral being and becoming seared as with a hot iron, hut he cannot refuse to have to do with his Judge. And judgment is not all in a future world–it begins here; the conscience of a man passes a kind of judgment upon him as long as he reads it until he blots it out, or drowns it in mirth, in unbelief, in crime, in debauchery, in drunkenness, and so seals it. Not only so, judgment has begun in this world in present punishment, often in present comfort and joy and peace.

VII. We have all of us to do with God as SAVIOUR–a just God and a Saviour. I believe in the beautiful summary of our Creed, and in the scriptural voice of our Chinch, first, I learn to believe in God the Father, who made me and all the world; secondly, in God the Son, who hath redeemed me, and all mankind; thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the elect people of God. I believe, therefore, that God laid on His own Son the iniquity of us all. He did not become simply the Son of man, but the Son of men–the Son of mankind. He did not take the nature of one race, or of one people, or of one colour, or of one clime; but He took upon Him the seed of Abraham: He took upon Him our nature and became the Son of man, so that none can claim Him exclusively, and say, He did not die for you; nor can any one say, He died for me alone. He is the Saviour of all men, and especially of them that belong to the household of faith. If any of you perish, you perish, not as heathen, bat as professed and baptized Christians; and how this will turn into a source of remorse and the worm that never dies, if you perish with the name of Christian, with the Cross of Christ, upon your brow! See to it, for to whom much is given, of him shall be much required.

VIII. We have to do with God, or, at least, we may have to do with Him–we have if we are wise, we have if we are saved–as OUR RECONCILED FATHER, the Lord our Righteousness, in whom we are chosen, in whom we are sealed, in whom we are at peace with God. Oh I to have to do with God in peace, and reconciliation, and adoption; to have to do with God, not because we must, but because we would be made willing in the day of His power, to have His love constraining us so that we yield ourselves to Him as those that are alive from the dead, and our poor members as instruments of righteousness unto God. We have to do with Him, groaning within ourselves, and waiting for the adoption: to wit, the redemption of our bodies; and we are able to testify that it is through His grace that He has made us His children.

IX. Then how sweet to have to do with Him as our SANCTIFIER–Our portion for ever; our Sanctifier, restoring us from the ruins of our fallen race, and raising us again to be a temple meet for His own habitation; beautifying us with grace that shines in the Adam here, and that will shine more brightly in the Second Adam. We have to do with Him in anticipation, that we may be like Him for ever. (H. Stowell, M. A.)

Our relation to God

I. WITH GOD WE PRE-EMINENTLY HAVE TO NO. We stand in a very intimate connection with Him. To the Being who, in Himself, is infinitely great and glorious, we bear a very close and momentous relation. He is our Creator, Proprietor, Governor, Benefactor, and Judge, and therefore has claims upon us manifold and mighty. In the services of religion, the common business of life, the mysteries of death, the solemnities of judgment, and the issues of eternity, we have to do with him. We must have to do with Him, whether we will or not. And oh, surely, we should transact with Him as a Saviour since we shall have to transact with Him as a Judge.

II. THERE IS NO CREATURE THAT IS NOT MANIFEST IN HIS SIGHT; yea, all things are naked and open to His eyes. Angels and men–saints and sinners–are alike the objects of His scrutiny. To Him the actions of all hands and the secrets of all souls are intimately known. The phrase all things indicates the universal range which the eye of Jehovah takes. The words manifest, naked, opened, express the intensity and clearness of the vision which He exerts throughout the vast and varied sphere. With what reverence should we think of Him whose eyes are ever fixed on us, and with whom, far more than with father, husband, brother, bosom-friend, we have to do! With what vigilance should we guard our hearts! and with what circumspection should we regulate our lives! (A. S. Patterson.)

Watched by God

Can we indulge in sin since the eye of God is ever resting upon us? It was enough to cause the ancient Roman to be circumspect, if the words Cato sees you were whispered in his ear. It is said that when the Doges of Venice had degenerated into imperious and oppressive rulers, if only four of the inquisitors whom the State secretly employed were present at any of the great processions or festivals for which that city was famous, it was sufficient to overawe the mighty throng of people present. How much more guarded and serious should our deportment be, seeing that we are ever watched by Him whose eyes are like a flame of fire! (C. Hewitt.)

God knows all

Mother, asked a child, since nothing is ever lost, where do all thoughts go? To God, answered the mother, gravely, who remembers them for ever. For ever! said the child; he leaned his head, and drawing closer to his mother, murmured, I am frightened! (Gold Dust.)

God with us

Horace Bushnell woke up in the night and said, Oh, God is a wonderful Being! And when his daughter replied, Yes; is He with you? the old man replied, Yes, in a certain sense He is with me; and I have no doubt He is with me in a sense I do not imagine. (Baxendales Anecdotes.)

Omniscience illustrated

A few years ago a gentleman in Ireland had a farm there, about a mile and a half from his house. It was situated on the side of a hill, and from his attic window he could get a view of every portion of the land. He would often go to this window with a powerful telescope, and about five minutes every day he would spend in this way, examining what his work people were doing, and whether the work of the farm was being carried on properly or not. The men happened to know this, and it often quickened them in their various duties to know that the masters eye from the little attic window might possibly at that very moment be resting upon them. Our Masters eye is always resting upon us. He sees and knows all we think or do or say, End yet bow many people act as though God were both blind and deaf. (Preachers Promptuary of Anecdote.)

God is present

The celebrated Linnaeus always testified, in his conversations, writings, and actions, the greatest sense of Gods omniscience; yea, he was so strongly impressed with the idea that he wrote over the door of his library, Innocui vivite, Numen adest–Live innocently, God is present. (K. Arvine.)

God a Person

Do not preach about Providence; preach about God. There is no objection to the word providence when used in connection with God. But when a man says, I am very thankful to Providence, Providence has been very good to me, I always feel disposed to say, You coward! why dont you say God? You know you mean God all the time. (J. C. Miller, D. D.)

The cry of the human heart for a personal God

A leader of thought in Germany, famous as a poet, famous as a man of letters–who had through his long literary career fought against the idea of a personal God–when poor in purse, paralytic in body, and in his last week of life wrotethus to one of his old class-mates, and under its style of banter I detect a pathetic minor of earnest feeling. A religious reaction has set in upon me for some time. God knows whether the morphine or the poultices have anything to do with it. It is so. I believe in a personal God. To tills we come when we are sick to death and broken down. Do not make a crime of it. If the German people accept the personal King of Prussia in their need, why should not I accept a personal God? My friend, here is a great truth. When health is used up, money used up, and sound human senses used up, Christianity begins. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

An all-seeing God

If you believe that God is about your bed, and about your path, and spieth out all your ways, then take care not to do the least thing, nor to speak the least word, nor to indulge the least thought, which you have reason to think would offend Him. Suppose that a messenger of God, an angel, were now standing at your right hand and fixing his eyes upon you, would you not take care to abstain from every word or action that you knew would offend him? Yea, suppose one of your mortal fellow servants, suppose only a holy man stood by you, would you not be extremely anxious how you conducted yourself both in word and action? How much more cautious ought you to be when you know, not a holy man, not an angel of God, but God Himself, the Holy One, is inspecting your heart, your tongue, your hand, every moment, and that He Himself will surely call you to account for all yea think, speak, or act! (J. Wesley.)

God sees all

A man who was in the habit of going into a neighbours corn-field to steal the ears, one day took his son with him, a boy of eight years of age. The father told him to hold the bag while he looked if any one was near to see him. After standing on the fence, and peeping through all the corn rows, he returned and took the bag from the child, and began his guilty work. Father, said the boy, you forgot to look somewhere else. the man dropped the bag in a fright, and said, Which way, child? supposing he had seen some one. You forgot to look up to the sky to see if God was noticing you The father felt this reproof of the child so much, that he left the corn, returned home, and never again ventured to steal, remembering the truth his child had taught him, that the eye of God always beholds us.

God seeing all things

When we perceive that a vast number of objects enter in at our eye by a very small passage, and yet are so little jumbled in that crowd that they open themselves regularly, though there is no great space for that either, and that they give us a distinct apprehension of many objects that lie before us, some even at a vast distance from us, both of their nature, colour, and size, and by a secret geometry, from the angles that they make in our eye, we judge of the distance of all objects, both from us and from one another–if to this we add the vast number of figures that we receive and retain long, and with great order, in our brains, which we easily fetch up either in our thoughts or in our discourses, we shall find it less difficult to apprehend how an Infinite Mind should have the universal view of all things ever present before it. (W. Burnet.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 12. For the word of God is quick, and powerful] Commentators are greatly divided concerning the meaning of the phrase ‘, the word of God; some supposing the whole of Divine revelation to be intended; others, the doctrine of the Gospel faithfully preached; others, the mind of God or the Divine intellect; and others, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is thus denominated in Joh 1:1, c., and Re 19:13 the only places in which he is thus incontestably characterized in the New Testament. The disputed text, 1John 5:7, I leave at present out of the question. In the introduction to this epistle I have produced sufficient evidence to make it very probable that St. Paul was the author of this epistle. In this sentiment the most eminent scholars and critics are now agreed. That Jesus Christ, the eternal, uncreated WORD, is not meant here, is more than probable from this consideration, that St. Paul, in no part of his thirteen acknowledged epistles, ever thus denominates our blessed Lord; nor is he thus denominated by any other of the New Testament writers except St. John. Dr. Owen has endeavoured to prove the contrary, but I believe to no man’s conviction who was able to examine and judge of the subject. He has not been able to find more than two texts which even appeared to look his way. The first is, Lu 1:2: Us, which – were eye witnesses, and ministers , of the word; where it is evident the whole of our Lord’s ministry is intended. The second is, Ac 20:32: I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace; where nothing but the gracious doctrine of salvation by faith, the influence of the Divine Spirit, c., c., can be meant: nor is there any legitimate mode of construction with which I am acquainted, by which the words in either place can be personally applied to our Lord. That the phrase was applied to denominate the second subsistence in the glorious Trinity, by Philo and the rabbinical writers, I have already proved in my notes on John 1., where such observations are alone applicable.

Calmet, who had read all that either the ancients or moderns have said on this subject, and who does not think that Jesus Christ is here intended, speaks thus: “None of the properties mentioned here can be denied to the Son of God, the eternal Word he sees all things, knows all things, penetrates all things, and can do all things. He is the ruler of the heart, and can turn it where he pleases. He enlightens the soul, and calls it gently and efficaciously, when and how he wills. Finally, he punishes in the most exemplary manner the insults offered to his Father and himself by infidels, unbelievers, and the wicked in general. But it does not appear that the Divine Logos is here intended,

1. Because St. Paul does not use that term to express the Son of God.

2. Because the conjunction , for, shows that this verse is an inference drawn from the preceding, where the subject in question is concerning the eternal rest, and the means by which it is to be obtained.

It is therefore more natural to explain the term of the word, order, and will of God, for the Hebrews represent the revelation of God as an active being, living, all-powerful, illumined, executing vengeance, discerning and penetrating all things. Thus Wisd. 16:26: ‘Thy children, O Lord, know that it is not the growing of fruits that nourisheth man, but that it is thy word that preserveth them that put their trust in thee.’ See De 8:3. That is, the sacred Scriptures point out and appoint all the means of life. Again, speaking of the Hebrews who were bitten with the fiery serpents, the same writer says, Wisd. 16:12: ‘For it was neither herb nor mollifying plaster that restored them to health, but thy word, O Lord, which healeth all things’ i.e. which describes and prescribes the means of healing. And it is very likely that the purpose of God, sending the destroying angel to slay the firstborn in Egypt is intended by the same expression, Wisd. 18:15, 16: ‘Thine almighty word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne, as a fierce man of war into a land of destruction, and brought thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword, and, standing up, filled all things with death.’ This however may be applied to the eternal Logos, or uncreated Word.

“And this mode of speech is exactly conformable to that of the Prophet Isaiah, Isa 55:10-11, where to the word of God, spoken by his prophets, the same kind of powers are attributed as those mentioned here by the apostle: For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my WORD BE that GOETH FORTH OUT OF MY MOUTH: it shall not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. The centurion seems to speak a similar language, Lu 7:7: But say in a word, ( , speak to thy word,) and my servant shall be healed.” This is the sum of what this very able commentator says on the subject.

In Dr. Dodd’s collections we find the following: –

“The word of God, which promises to the faithful, an entrance into God’s rest in David’s time, and now to us, is not a thing which died or was forgotten as soon as it was uttered, but it continues one and the same to all generations; it is , quick or living. So Isaiah says: The word of our God shall stand for ever; Isa 40:8. Compare Isa 51:6; Isa 55:11; 1Esdras 4:38; Joh 3:34; 1Pe 1:23. And powerful, , efficacious, active; sufficient, if it be not actually hindered, to produce its effects; effectual, Phm 1:6. See 2Co 10:4; 1Th 2:13. And sharper than any two-edged sword; , more cutting than. The word of God penetrates deeper into a man than any sword; it enters into the soul and spirit, into all our sensations, passions, appetites, nay, to our very thoughts; and sits as judge of the most secret intentions, contrivances, and sentiments of the heart. Phocylides has an expression very similar to our author, where he says, of reason, ‘that it is a weapon which penetrates deeper into a man than a sword.’ See also Isa 40:4; Eph 6:17; Rev 1:16; Rev 2:16.

“Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. – When the soul is thus distinguished from the spirit, by the former is meant that inferior faculty by which we think of and desire what concerns our present being and welfare. By spirit is meant a superior power by which we prefer future things to present, by which we are directed to pursue truth and right above all things, and even to despise what is agreeable to our present state, if it stand in competition with, or is prejudicial to, our future happiness. See 1Th 5:23. Some have thought that by the expression before us is implied that the word of God is able to bring death, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira; for, say they, if the soul and spirit, or the joints and marrow are separated one from another, it is impossible that life can remain. But perhaps the meaning of the latter clause may rather be: ‘It can divide the joints and divide the marrow; i.e. enter irresistibly into the soul, and produce some sentiment which perhaps it would not willingly have received; and sometimes discover and punish secret, as well as open wickedness.’ Mr. Pierce observes that our author has been evidently arguing from a tremendous judgment of God upon the ancient Israelites, the ancestors of those to whom this epistle is directed; and in this verse, to press upon them that care and diligence he had been recommending, he sets before them the efficacy and virtue of the word of God, connecting this verse with the former by a for in the beginning of it; and therefore it is natural to suppose that what he says of the word of God may have a relation to somewhat remarkable in that sore punishment of which he had been speaking, particularly to the destruction of the people by lightning, or fire from heaven. See Le 10:1-5; Nu 11:1-3; Nu 16:35; Ps 78:21. All the expressions in this view will receive an additional force, for nothing is more quick and living, more powerful and irresistible, sharp and piercing, than lightning. If this idea be admitted, the meaning of the last clause in this verse will be, ‘That the word of God is a judge, to censure and punish the evil thoughts and intents of the heart.’ And this brings the matter home to the exhortation with which our author began, Heb 3:12; Heb 3:13; for under whatever disguise they might conceal themselves, yet, from such tremendous judgments as God executed upon their fathers, they might learn to judge as Moses did, Nu 32:23: If ye will not do so, ye have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out.” See Hammond, Whitby, Sykes, and Pierce.

Mr. Wesley’s note on this verse is expressed with his usual precision and accuracy: –

“For the word of God – preached, Heb 4:2, and armed with threatenings, Heb 4:3, is living and powerful – attended with the power of the living God, and conveying either life or death to the hearers; sharper than any two-edged sword – penetrating the heart more than this does the body; piercing quite through, and laying open, the soul and spirit, joints and marrow – the inmost recesses of the mind, which the apostle beautifully and strongly expresses by this heap of figurative words; and is a discerner, not only of the thoughts, but also of the intentions.”

The law, and the word of God in general, is repeatedly compared to a two-edged sword among the Jewish writers, chereb shetey piphiyoth, the sword with the two mouths. By this sword the man himself lives, and by it he destroys his enemies. This is implied in its two edges. See also Schoettgen.

Is a discerner of the thoughts] . Is a critic of the propensities and suggestions of the heart. How many have felt this property of God’s word where it has been faithfully preached! How often has it happened that a man has seen the whole of his own character, and some of the most private transactions of his life, held up as it were to public view by the preacher; and yet the parties absolutely unknown to each other! Some, thus exhibited, have even supposed that their neighbours must have privately informed the preacher of their character and conduct; but it was the word of God, which, by the direction and energy of the Divine Spirit, thus searched them out, was a critical examiner of the propensities and suggestions of their hearts, and had pursued them through all their public haunts and private ways. Every genuine minister of the Gospel has witnessed such effects as these under his ministry in repeated instances.

But while this effect of the word or true doctrine of God is acknowledged, let it not be supposed that it, of itself can produce such effects. The word of God is compared to a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, Jer 23:29; but will a hammer break a stone unless it is applied by the skill and strength of some powerful agent? It is here compared to a two-edged sword; but will a sword cut or pierce to the dividing of joints and marrow, or separation of soul and spirit, unless some hand push and direct it? Surely, no. Nor can even the words and doctrine of God produce any effect but as directed by the experienced teacher, and applied by the Spirit of God. It is an instrument the most apt for the accomplishing of its work; but it will do nothing, can do nothing, but as used by the heavenly workman. To this is the reference in the next verse.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

For the word of God: the efficacy of the word of God is a further enforcement of their studious labour to enter into Gods rest, for that calleth us thereunto; even the law and doctrine of the gospel brought by the incarnate Word from heaven, preached by him to the world, dictated and inspired into the holy penmen both of the Old and New Testament by the Holy Ghost, and written by them at his call and order, 2Pe 1:19-21; representing all those precepts and prohibitions, promises and threatenings, by which God will judge to whom this gospel hath been preached in that man whom he hath appointed: compare Heb 2:1,2, and Heb 4:1,2 of this. And this word was written by David, Psa 95:1-11, even a word of exhortation, promise, and threatening, as opened before, and shows the perfection of this gospel law in its administration by Christ.

Is quick; this word, like the incarnate Word, is , not only a living word, but a quickening word, making dead sinners living Christians; souls dead in sins and trespasses, alive to God. This word, the breath of God, conveyeth spirit and life to them, 2Ti 3:16; 1Pe 1:23; so David experienced it, preserving the life it breathed into him, Psa 119:50; and the members of the church, 1Co 4:15; compare 2Co 3:6,17,18; and as a rule it guideth and directeth them through Christ unto eternal life, Joh 6:68.

And powerful; it is an active word, powerful in its effects, the very ministration of the Spirit, 2Co 3:8, most efficacious and energetical for convincing, converting, comforting; and for condemning, killing: it acts like the power of God; so Rom 1:16,18.

And sharper than any two-edged sword; signifieth a cutting sharpness, as becometh several uses, as searching, letting out corruption, or for killing; all which agree to this Divine word; sharper than any sword with two mouths. The Hebrews style the edge the mouth, that which bites, teareth, or woundeth; as Rev 1:16, and Rev 2:12. The word for spiritual execution upon souls is more sharp, and above every other sword; there is none so piercing for cutting the heart, or killing sin in it. So is it used, Eph 6:17; compare Act 2:37; 7:54. It is Christs weapon of offence and defence for his people, and it cuts without resistance; with it he is defending his truth, and smiting his enemies, Isa 11:4; compare Rev 19:13,15,21.

Piercing even to the dividing asunder; , piercing, or going through what is smitten with it; which way soever it is turned it forceth its way through all opposition, to a dividing into parts, and separating the most nearly united and closely joined things, laying open the very entrails, the most inward in a man; where the metaphors taken from the closest parts of the person are applied to the soul.

Of soul: may denote not so much the natural life and the faculties of that, but that which is styled the rational soul as unregenerate: see 1Co 2:14. Such an animal, carnal soul as is purely human, 1Co 3:3, which wants both a principle, light, and faculty to discern the things of God, as no natural eye can see a spirit, Rom 8:5-8.

And spirit; , the soul of man regenerate and spiritualized, called spirit, 1Th 5:23. The soul enlightened, renewed, and governed by the Holy Ghost; not altered as to its substance, but as to its qualities; whose understanding, will, and affections are spiritualized, manifested in its actions, agreeable to the spiritual will of God, 1Co 2:10,12,14,15. These are both of them under the piercing power of the word, and the Spirit can reach them by it as he pleaseth.

And of the joints and marrow: are not the members, but the nerves, membranes, muscles, whereby the members or limbs are joined one to another, so as not without incision to be discovered; and the marrow within the bones, there must be a breaking or perforating them to reach it. By which metaphors are set out the hardest, compactest, and most intimate parts of a sinner, the most secret hidden ones, which no natural reason can reach; yet the word of God pierceth them, to discover either the evil or good of them, and to inflict wrath, or communicate comfort, according to their conditions.

And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart: the word of God is a most nice, exact, and critical judge, discerning the gravity and rectitude of them; it discovers and distinguisheth them as they are, or not, agreeable to itself, the fundamental truth; and is capable, as a judge, to charge or discharge, as its author will, by it, Rom 2:12,15,16; compare 1Co 14:24,25. It discovers the most inward, close, secret, and constant motions, both speculative and practical, of the soul of man inseparably united to the heart; and one with another, whether they are opinions, conceptions, resolutions, or decrees, so subtile and so secret, as who can know them, but he who made the heart? Gen 6:5; Jer 17:9.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

12. ForSuch diligentstriving (Heb 4:11) isincumbent on us FOR wehave to do with a God whose “word” whereby we shall bejudged, is heart-searching, and whose eyes are all-seeing (Heb4:13). The qualities here attributed to the word of God,and the whole context, show that it is regarded in its JUDICIALpower, whereby it doomed the disobedient Israelites to exclusion fromCanaan, and shall exclude unbelieving so-called Christians from theheavenly rest. The written Word of God is not the prominent thoughthere, though the passage is often quoted as if it were. Still theword of God (the same as that preached, Heb4:2), used here in the broadest sense, but with special referenceto its judicial power, INCLUDESthe Word of God, the sword of the Spirit with double edge, one edgefor convicting and converting some (Heb4:2), and the other for condemning and destroying the unbelieving(Heb 4:14). Re19:15 similarly represents the Word’s judicial power as a sharpsword going out of Christ’s mouth to smite the nations. Thesame word which is saving to the faithful (Heb4:2) is destroying to the disobedient (2Co 2:15;2Co 2:16). The personal Word, towhom some refer the passage, is not here meant: for He is notthe sword, but has the sword. Thus reference to Joshuaappropriately follows in Heb 4:8.

quickGreek,“living”; having living power, as “the rod of themouth and the breath of the lips” of “the living God.”

powerfulGreek,“energetic”; not only living, but energeticallyefficacious.

sharper“morecutting.”

two-edgedsharpened atboth edge and back. Compare “sword of the Spirit . . . word ofGod” (Eph 6:17). Itsdouble power seems to be implied by its being “two-edged.””It judges all that is in the heart, for there it passesthrough, at once punishing [unbelievers] and searching [bothbelievers and unbelievers]” [CHRYSOSTOM].PHILO similarly speaks of”God passing between the parts of Abraham’s sacrifices (Ge15:17, where, however, it is a ‘burning lamp’ that passed betweenthe pieces) with His word, which is the cutter of all things: whichsword, being sharpened to the utmost keenness, never ceases to divideall sensible things, and even things not perceptible to sense orphysically divisible, but perceptible and divisible by the word.”Paul’s early training, both in the Greek schools of Tarsus andthe Hebrew schools at Jerusalem, accounts fully for his acquaintancewith Philo’s modes of thought, which were sure to be current amonglearned Jews everywhere, though Philo himself belonged to Alexandria,not Jerusalem. Addressing Jews, he by the Spirit sanctions what wastrue in their current literature, as he similarly did in addressingGentiles (Ac 17:28).

piercingGreek,“coming through.”

even to the dividing asunderof soul and spiritthat is, reaching through even to theseparation of the animal soul, the lower part of man’sincorporeal nature, the seat of animal desires, which he has incommon with the brutes; compare the same Greek, 1Co2:14, “the natural [animal-souled] man” (Jude19), from the spirit (the higher part of man, receptive of theSpirit of God, and allying him to heavenly beings).

and of the joints andmarrowrather, “(reaching even TO)both the joints (so as to divide them) and marrow.”Christ “knows what is in man” (Joh2:25): so His word reaches as far as to the most intimate andaccurate knowledge of man’s most hidden parts, feelings, andthoughts, dividing, that is, distinguishing what is spiritualfrom what is carnal and animal in him, the spiritfrom the soul: so Pr 20:27.As the knife of the Levitical priest reached to dividing parts,closely united as the joints of the limbs, and penetrated tothe innermost parts, as the marrows (the Greek isplural); so the word of God divides the closely joined partsof man’s immaterial being, soul and spirit, and penetrates to theinnermost parts of the spirit. The clause (reaching even to) “boththe joints and marrow” is subordinate to the clause, “evento the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.” (In the oldestmanuscripts as in English Version, there is no “both,”as there is in the clause “both the joints and . .. which marks the latter to be subordinate). An image (appropriate inaddressing Jews) from the literal dividing of joints, and penetratingto, so as to open out, the marrow, by the priest’s knife,illustrating the previously mentioned spiritual “dividing ofsoul from spirit,” whereby each (soul as well as spirit) is laidbare and “naked” before God; this view accords with Heb4:13. Evidently “the dividing of the soul from the spirit”answers to the “joints” which the sword, when it reachesunto, divides asunder, as the “spirit” answers tothe innermost “marrow.” “Moses forms the soul, Christthe spirit. The soul draws with it the body; the spirit draws with itboth soul and body.” ALFORD’Sinterpretation is clumsy, by which he makes the soul itself,and the spirit itself, to be divided, instead of the soul fromthe spirit: so also he makes not only the joints to be dividedasunder, but the marrow also to be divided (?). The Word’sdividing and far penetrating power has both a punitive and a healingeffect.

discerner of thethoughtsGreek, “capable of judging the purposes.”

intentsrather,”conceptions” [CRELLIUS];”ideas” [ALFORD].AS the Greek for “thoughts” refers to the mindand feelings, so that for “intents,” or rather”mental conceptions,” refers to the intellect.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For the word of God is quick and powerful,…. This is to be understood of Christ, the essential Word of God; for the Word of God was a known name of the Messiah among the Jews; [See comments on Joh 1:1] and therefore the apostle makes use of it when writing to them: and the words are introduced as a reason why care should be taken, that men fall not off from the Gospel, because Christ, the author, sum, and substance of it, is the living God, omnipotent and omniscient; for not a thing, but a person is spoken of, who is a Judge, and a critical discerner of the secrets of men’s hearts: and certain it is, that this Word is spoken of as a person, and is said to be a priest in the following verses; to which may be added, that the several things said of the Word exactly agree with Christ: he is “the Word of God”; as the word is the birth of the mind, he is the only begotten of the Father; he is the Word that spoke for the elect in the council and covenant of grace, and that spoke all things out of nothing in creation; he is the Word that has been promised, and spoken of by the prophets from the beginning of the world; and is the interpreter of his Father’s mind, and our Advocate with the Father: he is

quick, or, as it may be better rendered, “living”; he has life in himself as God, he is the living God; he is the living Redeemer and Mediator, and he lives for ever as man; he is the author and giver of life, natural, spiritual, and eternal: and he is powerful, as he appears to be in the creation and sustaining of all things; in his miracles and ministrations; in the work of man’s redemption; in the preservation of his people, and in his advocacy and intercession:

and sharper than any twoedged sword; or “more cutting than one”, by the words of his mouth, by the power of his Spirit, and the efficacy of his grace; for his mouth itself is as a sharp sword, and out of it comes forth one, Isa 49:2 by which he pierces the hearts of men, cuts them to the quick, and lays them open. Jehovah is called a twoedged sword with the Jews m; and Philo the Jew speaks of the flaming sword of the Logos n.

Piercing even to the dividing asunder soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow; the like property Philo the Jew ascribes to the “Logos”, or Word; he calls him , “a cutter”, and says he cuts and divides all things, even all sensible things, yea, atoms, and things indivisible o; the apostle seems here to have respect to the several names with which the soul of man is called by the Jews,

, “soul, spirit, and breath” p; the latter of these, they say, dwells between the other two. Some by the soul understand the natural and unregenerate part in man, and by the spirit the renewed and regenerate part, which though sometimes are not so easily distinguished by men, yet they are by Christ; others think the soul designs the inferior faculties, the affections; and the spirit the superior ones, the mind and understanding; but the apostle’s meaning seems to be this, that whereas the soul and spirit are invisible, and the joints and marrow are covered and hid; so sharp and quick sighted, and so penetrating is the divine Word, that it reaches the most secret and hidden things of men: and this sense is confirmed by what follows,

and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; Christ knows what is in man; he is the searcher of the hearts, and the trier of the reins of the children of men; and this will be more apparent at the last day, when he will make manifest the counsels of the heart, and will critically inquire, and accurately judge of them.

m Zohar in Cab. Lex. p. 364. n De Cherubim, p. 112. o Onis rerum divin. Haeres, p. 499, 500, 510, 511, 513. p Zohar in Gen. fol. 55. 2. & 113. 1, 2. & is Exod. fol. 58. 3, 4. & in Lev. fol. 29. 2. T. Hieros. Celaim, fol. 31. 3. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 2. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The word of God ( ). That just quoted about the promise of rest and God’s rest, but true of any real word of God.

Living (). Cf. the Living God (3:12). In Philo and the Book of Wisdom the Logos of God is personified, but still more in Joh 1:1-18 where Jesus is pictured as the Logos on a par with God. “Our author is using Philonic language rather than Philonic ideas” (Moffatt). See Joh 6:63: “The words which I have spoken are spirit and are life.”

Active (). Energetic, powerful (John 1:12; Phil 3:21; Col 1:29).

Sharper (). Comparative of , cutting (from , to cut), late adjective, here only in the N.T.

Than (). Often so after a comparative (Luke 16:8; 2Cor 12:13).

Two-edged (). “Two-mouthed” (-, ), double-mouthed like a river (Polybius), branching ways (Sophocles), applied to sword () by Homer and Euripides.

Piercing (). Present middle participle of , old verb to go through, here only in N.T.

Even to the dividing ( ). Old word from (, part), to partition.

Of soul and spirit ( ). As in 1Thess 5:23; 1Cor 15:45, but not an argument for trichotomy. Psychology is constantly changing its terminology.

Of both joints and marrow ( ). From , to join, comes , old word, here only in the N.T. (from , to shut), old word, here only in N.T. This surgeon goes into and through the joints and marrow, not cleaving between them.

Quick to discern (). Verbal adjective in –, from , skilled in judging, as the surgeon has to be and able to decide on the instant what to do. So God’s word like his eye sees the secret lurking doubt and unbelief “of the thoughts and intents of the heart” ( ). The surgeon carries a bright and powerful light for every dark crevice and a sharp knife for the removal of all the pus revealed by the light. It is a powerful picture here drawn.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

The exhortation is enforced by reference to the character of the revelation which sets forth the rest of God. The message of God which promises the rest and urges to seek it, is no dead, formal precept, but is instinct with living energy.

The word of God [ ] . That which God speaks through any medium. The primary reference is to God ‘s declarations concerning his rest. The fathers explained it of the personal Word as in the Fourth Gospel. But in the Epistle there is no approach to any definite use of logov with reference to Christ, not even in the description of his relation to God in ch. 1, where, if anywhere, it might have been expected. In ch. Heb 6:5 and Heb 11:3 we find rJhma. Everywhere in the Epistle Christ appears as the Son, not as the Word. In this passage, the following predicates, ejnerghv, tomwterov, kritikov, would hardly be applied to the Logos, and in ver. 14 he is styled Jesus the Son of God.

Quick and powerful [ ] . Note the emphatic position of zwn living. Living is the word of God, since it is the word of “the living God” (ch. 3 12). Living in its essence. For ejnerghv active, energizing, and kindred words, see on Joh 1:12; Phi 3:21; Col 1:29; Phl 1:6. Manifesting itself actively in the world and in men’s hearts. Comp. 1Pe 1:23.

Sharper than any two – edged sword [ ] . Tomwterov sharper from temnein to cut, N. T. o. o LXX The word of God has an incisive and penetrating quality. It lays bare self – delusions and moral sophisms. For the comparison of the word of God or of men to a sword, see Psa 57:4; Psa 59:7; Psa 64:3; Eph 6:17. Philo calls his Logos oJ tomeuv the cutter, as cutting chaos into distinct things, and so creating a kosmos. JUper than, is literally, above. Pasan any, is every. Dismoton only here and Rev 1:16; Rev 2:12, lit. two – mouthed. In LXX always of a sword. See Jud 3:16; Psa 149:6; Pro 5:4; Sir. 21 3. In Class. of a cave with a twofold mouth (Soph. Philoct. 16); of double – branching roads (Soph. Oed. Col. 900); of rivers with two mouths (Polyb. Pro 34:10, 5). Stoma mouth, of the edge of a sword, Luk 21:24; Heb 11:34. Often in LXX, as Gen 34:26; Joshua Gen 10:28, 33, 35, 37, 39; Jud 1:8. So occasionally in Class., as Homer, Il. xv. 389. Katesqiein or katesqein to devour is used of the sword, Deu 32:42; 2Sa 2:26; Isa 31:8; Jer 2:30, etc. Macaira sword, in Class. a dirk or dagger : rarely, a carving knife; later, a bent sword or sabre as contrasted with a straight, thrusting sword, xifov (not in N. T. but occasionally in LXX). JRomfaia, Luk 2:35 (see note), elsewhere only in Revelation, very often in LXX, is a large broadsword. In LXX of Goliath’s sword, 1Sa 17:51 Piercing [] . Lit. coming through. N. T. o.

Even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow [ ] . Merismov dividing, only here and ch. 2 4, is not to be understood of dividing soul from spirit or joints from marrow. Soul and spirit cannot be said to be separated in any such sense as this, and joints and marrow are not in contact with each other. Merismov is the act of division; not the point or line of division. Joints and marrow are not to be taken in a literal and material sense. 184 In rendering, construe soul, spirit, joints, marrow, as all dependent on dividing. Joints and marrow [, , . . ] are to be taken figuratively as joints and marrow of soul and spirit. This figurative sense is exemplified in classical usage, as Eurip. Hippol. 255, “to form moderate friendships, and not prov arkon muelon yuchv to the deep marrow of the soul.” The conception of depth applied to the soul is on the same figurative line. See Aesch. Agam. 778; Eurip. Bacch. 203. Attempts to explain on any psychological basis are futile. The form of expression is poetical, and signifies that the word penetrates to the inmost recesses of our spiritual being as a sword cuts through the joints and marrow of the body. The separation is not of one part from another, but operates in each department of the spiritual nature. The expression is expanded and defined by the next clause.

A discerner [] . N. T. o. o LXX The word carries on the thought of dividing. From krinein to divide or separate, which runs into the sense of judge, the usual meaning in N. T., judgment involving the sifting out and analysis of evidence. In kritikov the ideas of discrimination and judgment are blended. Vulg. discretor.

Of the thoughts and intents of the heart [ ] . The A. V. is loose and inaccurate. jEnqumhsis rare in N. T. See Mt 9:4; Act 17:29. Comp. ejnqumeisqai, Mt 1:20; Mt 9:4. In every instance, both of the noun and of the verb, the sense is pondering or thinking out. Rend. the reflections. Ennoia only here and 1Pe 4:1. It is the definite conception which follows ejnqumhsiv Rend. conceptions.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “For the word of God is quick,” (zon gar ho logos tou theou) “Because the word of God is living, life-energizing, or life-giving,” referring both to Jesus Christ as a person and the word of truth, accompanied by the Holy Spirit, Joh 1:14; 2Ti 3:16-17.

2) “And powerful,” (kai eneges) “And operative,” works within, within the mind, heart, and emotions of men. It is called the 1) word of cleansing, Joh 15:3; John 2) word of salvation, Act 13:26; Acts 3) word of faith; 4) word of wisdom and knowledge, 1Co 12:8; 1 Corinthians 5) word of reconciliation, 2Co 5:19.

3) “And sharper than any two-edged sword,” (kai tomoteros huper pasan machairan) “And sharper beyond (even than) any (every) tow-edged, (two way cutting) sword,” separating in distinction between right and wrong, good and bad, moral and immoral, ethical and unethical, the way to heaven and the way to hell, Joh 14:6; Joh 10:1; Joh 10:9; Joh 10:25-30.

4) “Piercing even,” (kai diknoumenos) “Even piercing,” penetrating, or passing through, by the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit to prick or convict the soul, Act 2:36-37; Act 9:5.

5) “To the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,” (achri merismou psuches kai pneumatos) “As far as (or to the point of) a division of soul and of spirit; causing conflict, trouble, or conviction, cutting conviction, Act 5:33; Act 7:54; Act 24:25.

6) “And of the joints and marrow,” (harmon te kai muelon) “Both of joints and marrow,” causing soul and body to tremble in fear, Dan 2:2; Dan 4:5; Dan 5:5-6; Act 9:6; Act 16:29.

7) “And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” (kai kritikos enthumeseon kai ennoin kardias) “And (it) is able to judge (evaluate) (the) thoughts and intentions of the heart,” Mat 12:34; Mar 7:21; Rom 6:17; Rom 10:10; Luk 2:19.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

12. For the word of God is quick, or living, etc. What he says here of the efficacy or power of the word, he says it, that they might know, that it could not be despised with impunity, as though he had said, “Whenever the Lord addresses us by his word, he deals seriously with us, in order that he may touch all our inmost thoughts and feelings; and so there is no part of our soul which ought not to be roused.” (71)

But before we proceed further, we must inquire whether the Apostle speaks of the effect of the word generally, or refers only to the faithful.

It indeed appears evident, that the word of God is not equally efficacious in all. For in the elect it exerts its own power, when humbled by a true knowledge of themselves, they flee to the grace of Christ; and this is never the case, except when it penetrates into the innermost heart. For hypocrisy must be sifted, which has marvelous and extremely winding recesses in the hearts of men; and then we must not be slightly pricked or torn, but be thoroughly wounded, that being prostrate under a sense of eternal death, we may be taught to die to ourselves. In short, we shall never be renewed in the whole mind, which Paul requires, (Eph 4:23,) until our old man be slain by the edge of the spiritual sword. Hence Paul says in another place, (Phi 2:17,) that the faithful are offered as a sacrifice to God by the Gospel; for they cannot otherwise be brought to obey God than by having, as it were, their own will slain; nor can they otherwise receive the light of God’s wisdom, than by having the wisdom of the flesh destroyed. Nothing of this kind is found in the reprobate; for they either carelessly disregard God speaking to them, and thus mock him, or clamour against his truth, and obstinately resist it. In short, as the word of God is a hammer, so they have a heart like the anvil, so that its hardness repels its strokes, however powerful they may be. The word of God, then, is far from being so efficacious towards them as to penetrate into them to the dividing of the soul and the spirit. Hence it appears, that this its character is to be confined to the faithful only, as they alone are thus searched to the quick.

The context, however, shows that there is here a general truth, and which extends also to the reprobate themselves; for though they are not softened, but set up a brazen and an iron heart against God’s word, yet they must necessarily be restrained by their own guilt. They indeed laugh, but it is a sardonic laugh; for they inwardly feel that they are, as it were, slain; they make evasions in various ways, so as not to come before God’s tribunal; but though unwilling, they are yet dragged there by this very word which they arrogantly deride; so that they may be fitly compared to furious dogs, which bite and claw the chain by which they are bound, and yet can do nothing, as they still remain fast bound.

And further, though this effect of the word may not appear immediately as it were on the first day, yet it will be found at length by the event, that it has not been preached to any one in vain. General no doubt is what Christ declares, when he says, When the Spirit shall come, he will convince the world, (Joh 16:8.) for the Spirit exercises this office by the preaching, of the Gospel. And lastly, though the word of God does not always exert its power on man, yet it has it in a manner included in itself. And the Apostle speaks here of its character and proper office for this end only, — that we may know that our consciences are summoned as guilty before God’s tribunal as soon as it sounds in our ears, as though he had said, “If any one thinks that the air is beaten by an empty sound when the word of God is preached, he is greatly mistaken; for it is a living thing and full of hidden power, which leaves nothing in man untouched.” The sum of the whole then is this, — that as soon as God opens his sacred mouth, all our faculties ought to be open to receive his word; for he would not have his word scattered in vain, so as to disappear or to fall neglected on the ground, but he would have it effectually to constrain the consciences of men, so as to bring them under his authority; and that he has put power in his word for this purpose, that it may scrutinize all the parts of the soul, search the thoughts, discern the affections, and in a word show itself to be the judge.

But here a new question arises, “Is this word to be understood of the Law or of the Gospel?” Those who think that the Apostle speaks of the Law bring these testimonies of Paul, — that it is the ministration of death, (2Co 3:6,) that it is the letter which killeth, that it worketh nothing but wrath, (Rom 4:15,) and similar passages. But here the Apostle points out also its different effects; for, as we have said, there is a certain vivifying killing of the soul, which is effected by the Gospel. Let us then know that the Apostle speaks generally of the truth of God, when he says, that it is living and efficacious. So Paul testifies, when he declares, that by his preaching there went forth an odor of death unto death to the unbelieving, but of life unto life to believers, (2Co 2:16,) so that God never speaks in vain; he draws some to salvation, others he drives into ruin. This is the power of binding and loosing which the Lord conferred on his Apostles. (Mat 18:18.) And, indeed, he never promises to us salvation in Christ, without denouncing, on the other hand, vengeance on unbelievers; who by rejecting Christ bring death on themselves. (72)

It must be further noticed, that the Apostle speaks of God’s word, which is brought to us by the ministry of men. For delirious and even dangerous are those notions, that though the internal word is efficacious, yet that which proceeds from the mouth of man is lifeless and destitute of all power. I indeed admit that the power does not proceed from the tongue of man, nor exists in mere sound, but that the whole power is to be ascribed altogether to the Holy Spirit; there is, however, nothing in this to hinder the Spirit from putting forth his power in the word preached. For God, as he speaks not by himself, but by men, dwells carefully on this point, so that his truth may not be objected to in contempt, because men are its ministers. So Paul, by saying, that the Gospel is the power of God, (Rom 1:16.) designedly adorned with this distinction his own preaching, though he saw that it was slandered by some and despised by others. And when in another place, (Rom 10:8,) he teaches us that salvation is conferred by the doctrine of faith, he expressly says that it was the doctrine which was preached. We indeed find that God ever commends the truth administered to us by men, in order to induce us to receive it with reverence.

Now, by calling the word quick or living he must be understood as referring to men; which appears still clearer by the second word, powerful, for he shows what sort of life it possesses, when he expressly says that it is efficacious; for the Apostle’s object was to teach us what the word is to us. (73) The sword is a metaphorical word often used in Scripture; but the Apostle not content with a simple comparison, says, that God’s word is sharper than any sword, even than a sword that cuts on both sides, or two­edged; for at that time swords were in common use, which were blunt on one side, and sharp on the other. Piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, or to the dividing of the soul and spirit, etc. The word soul means often the same with spirit; but when they occur together, the first includes all the affections, and the second means what they call the intellectual faculty. So Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, uses the words, when he prays God to keep their spirit, and soul, and body blameless until the coming of Christ, (1Th 5:23,) he meant no other thing, but that they might continue pure and chaste in mind, and will, and outward actions. Also Isaiah means the same when he says,

“

My soul desired thee in the night; I sought thee with my spirit.” (Isa 26:9.)

What he doubtless intends to show is, that he was so intent on seeking God, that he applied his whole mind and his whole heart. I know that some give a different explanation; but all the sound­minded, as I expect, will assent to this view.

Now, to come to the passage before us, it is said that God’s word pierces, or reaches to the dividing of soul and spirit, that is, it examines the whole soul of man; for it searches his thoughts and scrutinizes his will with all its desires. And then he adds the joints and marrow, intimating that there is nothing so hard or strong in man, nothing so hidden, that the powerful word cannot pervade it. (74) Paul declares the same when he says, that prophecy avails to reprove and to judge men, so that the secrets of the heart may come, to light. (1Co 14:24.) And as it is Christ’s office to uncover and bring to light the thoughts from the recesses of the heart, this he does for the most part by the Gospel.

Hence God’s word is a discerner, ( κριτικὸς, one that has power to discern,) for it brings the light of knowledge to the mind of man as it were from a labyrinth, where it was held before entangled. There is indeed no thicker darkness than that of unbelief, and hypocrisy is a horrible blindness; but God’s word scatters this darkness and chases away this hypocrisy. Hence the separating or discerning which the Apostle mentions; for the vices, hid under the false appearance of virtues, begin then to be known, the varnish being wiped away. And if the reprobate remain for a time in their hidden recesses, yet they find at length that God’s word has penetrated there also, so that they cannot escape God’s judgment. Hence their clamour and also their fury, for were they not smitten by the word, they would not thus betray their madness, but they would seek to elude the word, or by evasion to escape from its power, or to pass it by unnoticed; but these things God does not allow them to do. Whenever then they slander God’s word, or become enraged against it, they show that they feel within its power, however unwillingly and reluctantly. (75)

(71) It has been a matter of dispute whether the “word” here is Christ, or the Scripture. The fathers as well as later divines are divided. The former is the opinion of Augustin, Ambrose, and also of Dr. Owen and Doddridge: and the latter is held by Chrysostom, Theophylact, and also by Calvin, Beza, Macknight, Scott, Stuart and Bloomfield. The latter is clearly the most suitable to the words of the passage. The only difficulty is in verse 13; but there a transition is evidently made from the word of God to God himself; and thus both are in remarkable manner connected together. — Ed.

(72) See Appendix P.

(73) See Appendix Q.

(74) The metaphor of a sword is evidently carried on; the word is like the sword which “penetrates so as to separate the soul (the animal life) and the spirit, (the immortal part,) the joints also and the marrows, being even a strict judge of the thoughts and purposes of the heart.” — Ed.

(75) See Appendix R.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Heb. 4:12. Word of God.Either

(1) the personal Word, the ; or

(2) the revealed word, to which the writer has been appealing; or
(3) the spoken word of God, which may come to men through human agents now. Probably the second is the more preferable explanation, because to this writer Scripture is constantly thought of as a direct Divine utterance. It is not simply the written word, but that word as the voice for every age of the living God. Quick.Alive, active. Soul., the animal soul, spirit; , that part of our nature in which the Divine Spirit works. Not a separating of these things from one another, but a dividing so as to lay them both bare to view. The awakening and alarming of the conscience, the felt opening up, the dissection of the ultimate principles of the moral and spiritual life, is the effect of the word here intended (Webster and Wilkinson). For the sword-figure see Isa. 49:2; Eph. 6:17; Rev. 1:16; and Wis. 18:15-16. Joints and marrow.A very strong figure. Dividing the joints or limbs from the body, and piercing through the very bone to the marrow. The divine commination is of the most deadly punitive efficacy.

Heb. 4:13. Naked.Or laid bare; as the throat of a victim is bared for sacrifice; Greek, to take by the neck, as do wrestlers. Perhaps the better meaning is fully exposed to view. No self-deceptions can hide the truth from God. Farrar suggests that the figure may be taken from the anatomic examination of victims by the priests, which was called momoskopia, since it was necessary that every victim should be without blemish. But he prefers the usage of Philo, which decides the meaning to be laid prostrate for examination. R.V. naked and laid open.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Heb. 4:12-13

The Searching Power of the Living Word.This passage asserts the searching, testing power of the Word of God. Observe the connection in which it stands. Beware of falling from the Christian profession. Beware of unbelief and presumption. Your dangers are many and great. The Divine observations and testings are most exact and searching. Thou knowest my downsitting and my uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off. Quick, with either the idea of enduring or of activity. The Word is in actual operation; it is not a thing of mere possibilities. Sharper than two-edged sword; the Bible idea of keennessperfect discrimination. Soul and spirit; material and spiritual life. Joints and marrow, or bone and marrow; metaphor from the bodily frame. Thoughts and intents; mere ideas, and ideas when formed into resolves; metaphor from the intellectual life. Notice the impression of present, perfect, subtle searching which is produced by the terms of the text. No language could have been more effective.

I. What is this Word of God.Divest the mind of the idea that the Scriptures are chiefly or only referred to. That is the common use of the text as quoted in extempore Christian prayers. At one time the term Word was a much more important expression than it is now. To the early Christians, and in early Church philosophy, the term Word, or Logos, had its own special significance. We know how much St. John makes of it in the prologue of his gospel; and he wrote at a time when a half-Jewish and half-pagan philosophy was getting influence in the Church. As it is used in Scripture the term includes:

1. The conditions under which our first parents had their rights to Paradise. The Word of God given to Adam. The mode of communication we cannot now know. Somehow the thought and will of God were intelligently conveyed to their minds.
2. The manifestations of God and His will to men in the patriarchal age. The modes of communication being visions, dreams, angelic appearances, living voicesall being Words of God. Illustrate by the Jewish idea of the Memra, as the Second Person of the Trinity.
3. The special disclosure of the Divine mind concerning a particular people. The modes of communication being by a mediator, Moses, and by a ceremonial worship.
4. The human life on earth of the Son of God, whom we call the Incarnate Word. This is, in the very highest sense, the Word of God.

5. The active energy of the Divine Spirit working in the hearts of men. So far as it is revealing and teaching it becomes the Word of God.
6. The Written Word, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Through printing and education this has come to be the most effective form of the Word. From this sketch of the forms of the Word, it may be shown that it is essentially this: the manifestation of God to men; the communication of the thought and will of God to men; the translation of the mind of God into some form of language that men can understand. It is affirmed of nature, There is no speech nor language, (yet) their line is gone out into all the earth. There are more or less perfect degrees in which words utter thoughts. They serve both to convey and to conceal our meaning. So in Gods Word there are different degrees of clearness. We find it given under a variety of conditions, and in forms appropriate to each condition. The Word in Christ, and taught by His Spirit, represents the highest form of Divine communication.

II. How does the Word of God search and try men?The Word, we have seen, is God bringing Himself into such relations with men as men can realise. The Word is God. It is essential to God that He must be a searching power wherever He comes. This is affirmed in Scripture, and by the experience of believers. All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. What is true of God Himself is true of all modes of His Word.

1. The Written Word. It searches by the force of its commands, examples, counsels, warningswonderfully fitting into all the circumstances of life. Sinning man dreads the Scriptures.
2. The Incarnate Word. Searches by the contact of His purity and perfection. No man can fail to admit the moral perfection of Christ. A man feels it. All the power is exerted which attends on putting the standard, the model, beside the copy. Jesus is the one and only model of a man who reached heaven by His own goodness.
3. The Living Word, or Holy Spirit. This is declared to be the effect of His inworkingHe convinces of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; and this is His constant operation in the Christian soul. This searching quality ought to attach to the preached Word: it does whenever it is really the Word of God.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Heb. 4:12-13. The Divine Thought-reader.All things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Much is now made of the skill in thought-reading which seems to be the special endowment of particular persons. The assertion is made that God is, in an absolute and unqualified sense, the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. If we can explain mans thought-reading power, the explanation will help us to understand the perfect thought-reading power of God.

I. If thought-reading be an unusual gift or endowment, a particular form of human genius, it is a Divine bestowment, or rather trust; and God cannot give what He does not possess: what God possesses constitutes Him what He is. He has this genius of thought-reading in a perfection of which mans limited power can give no adequate idea. Mans power is in body limitations.

II. If thought-reading be dependent on sympathy, it must be a Divine attribute. Familiar to men long before thought-reading was heard of was the power of persons in close sympathyas friends, or husbands and wivesto understand each other without the use of words. Sympathetic friends constantly know what friends are thinking. With God we associate the revelations of a perfect sympathy.

III. If thought-reading be a result of knowledge of mental laws, God has the perfect knowledge. Thinking is entirely in the control of laws. And every mans thoughts are the strict operation of laws, which always work as they do in any one case. God knows what we think, for He knows all the working of the thought-laws.

The Testing-power of the Logos.Show how the discerning of the thoughts and intents of the heart is ascribed to God. That such discerning is characteristic of the Incarnate Word, or Gospel; of the Written Word, or Scriptures; and of the Living Word, or Spirit. It ought to be a marked characteristic of the preached Word, or ministry.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4

Heb. 4:12. The Double-edged Knife.The Jewish priest required a strong and skilful hand to do the ordinary work of his holy calling. It needed both strength and skill to lay the victim on the altar, to guide the sharp two-edged sacrificial knife straight through the carcass, till the very backbone was severed, the whole laid bare, and the very joints and marrow exposed and separated. For this reason (as well as because he was a type of Him who is perfect), because such persons ordinarily are deficient in bodily strength, no deformed person could be high priest, he could not do the work required of him. There is a knife sharper than that two-edged sword, and a hand to guide its blade and apply its edges and point stronger and surer than the Jewish priests. That knife is the word of God: it is a living word; it has a power to lay open hearts far greater than that sacrificial knife had to lay bare the bodies of the sacrifice; its edge is sharper than that of the two-edged sword; and when driven home and directed by the hand of the Almighty Spirit, it pierces even to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, the soul and spirit, and lays bare the thoughts and intents of the heart.W. W. Champneys, M.A.

The Force of Conscience.A man who was remarkable for his ignorance and wickedness was visiting some of his relations on the last day that our mission-tent was used. They tried to persuade him to come to our closing meeting; but finding their entreaties prevailed nothing, one of them asked if he would go, provided some one would give him a sum of money. He answered, Yes, he would do anything for money. Would he go for a shilling? Would he go for a meals victuals? Yes. Then I will give you one. A loaf was then broken in two, and one half of it, with some butter and cheese, was deposited at a cottage near the tent, it being understood that the man was to have it immediately the service was over. This being done, the man came to the tent. My sermon, being founded upon The end of all things is at hand, etc., turned a good deal upon the future judgment, and made way for some remarks from Mr. Pocock, in the course of which he described the Judge descending, the judgment set, and the books opened; and then remarking that every word, and every work, and every secret thing would then be exposed, he exclaimed, Who was it at such a time opened his neighbours potato-pit, and deprived a poor family of their stock of winter provisions? There he is; bring him forwardwhat! is that he? etc. Conscience now smote this man; he had been guilty of this very crime, and, filled with alarm, went home without his victuals. The next morning he went to the woman whose potato-pit he had robbed, and confessed his crime, adding, Mr. Pocock wouldnt ha knawed I, but my hankercher werent tied like anybody elses! What is specially remarkable in this case is, that Mr. Pocock knew nothing of the man, nor had he ever heard of such a circumstance as a potato-pit being opened and robbed in the neighbourhood; but he simply hit upon the observation as involving a general thing, without the slightest idea of any individual case. Surely there was something more than chance in all this. Who can tell but this very occurrence saved this poor fellow from the gallows?Memoirs of the Rev. John Pyer.

Heb. 4:13. Examining the Entrails.The Greek word here is taken from the practices that accompanied the offering of animals in sacrifices. It is said that, in ancient nations, when the animal that was to be sacrificed had been killed, the priest examined microscopically all the entrails and bowels, and watched certain spots or symptoms, from which he argued success or misfortune in the enterprise in which the offerer was embarked; and therefore the apostle says, that all things are as clearly noted by God as the entrails of the victim were laid bare and examined by the priest.Dr. Cumming.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(12) As in Heb. 3:12 the warning against the evil heart of unbelief is solemnly enforced by the mention of the Living God, so here, in pointing to the peril of disobedience, it is to the living power of the word of God that the writer makes appeal. But in what sense? Does he bring before us again the word of Scripture, or the divine Word Himself? Outside the writings of St. John there is no passage in the New Testament in which the word of God is as clearly invested with personal attributes as here. The word is quick (that is, living), powerful (or, activemighty in operation, as most of our versions render the word), able to discern the thoughts of the heart. Philo, whose writings are pervaded by the doctrine of the divine Word (see the Note appended to St. Johns Gospel in Vol. I. of this Commentary, p. 553), in certain passages makes use of expressions so remarkably resembling some that are before us in this verse that we cannot suppose the coincidence accidental. Thus, in an allegorical explanation of Gen. 15:10, he speaks of the sacred and divine Word as cutting through all things, dividing all perceptible objects, and penetrating even to those called indivisible, separating the different parts of the soul. But though these and the many other resemblances that are adduced may prove the writers familiarity with the Alexandrian philosophy, they are wholly insufficient to show an adoption of Philos doctrinal system (if system it could be called) in regard to the divine Word, or to rule the interpretation of the single passage in this Epistle in which an allusion to that system could be traced. Nor is the first-mentioned argument conclusive. There certainly is personification here, and in part the language used would, if it stood alone, even suggest the presence of a divine Person; but it is not easy to believe that in the New Testament the words sharper than a two-edged sword would be directly applied to the Son of God. In this Epistle, moreover (and even in this context, Heb. 4:2), reference is repeatedly made to the word of God in revelation, without a trace of any other meaning. The key to the language of this verse, so far as it is exceptional, is found in that characteristic of the Epistle to which reference has been already madethe habitual thought of Scripture as a direct divine utterance. The transition from such a conception to those of this verse was very easy; and we need not feel surprise if with expressions which are naturally applied to the utterance are joined others which lead the thought to God as Speaker. It is, therefore, the whole word of God that is brought before usmainly the word of threatening and judgment, but also (comp. Heb. 4:2 and the last member of this verse) the word of promise.

Piercing even to the dividing asunder . . .Rather, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow. For the comparison of Gods word to a sword see Isa. 49:2; Eph. 6:17; (Rev. 1:16); comp. also Wis. 18:15-16, Thine Almighty word leapt down from heaven out of Thy royal throne . . . and brought Thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword, and standing up filled all things with death. The keen two-edged sword penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit (not soul from spirit), with unfailing stroke severing bone from bone and piercing the very marrow. The latter words, by a very natural metaphor, are transferred from the material frame to the soul and spirit.

And is a discerner . . .Is quick to discern, able to judge, the thoughts (reflections, conceptions, intents) of the heart. Mans word may be lifeless, without power to discriminate, to adapt itself to a changed state or varying circumstances, to enforce itself: the Spirit of God is never absent from His word.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

12. For The momentous reason for our taking warning, the character of the word by which our unbelief is searched out and we condemned.

Word of God The solemn word, in form of oath, which excludes from rest. Heb 4:3, and Heb 3:11. This divine word is terribly searching of spirit, soul, and body; searching whether that fatal unbelief lurks, the least particle, in any secret corner of our being. The many personal attributes here ascribed to the word has induced many eminent commentators, ancient and modern, to find here the Word of Joh 1:1, and to identify it with the second Person of the Trinity. The view of Delitzsch on this point seems most plausible which is about this. The divine Word is the true expression of the divine nature, both as revealed person and as revealed truth. As the personal Word is the formative energy in the realm of physical things, so he is the actuating energy in the spiritual realm. He is the soul of spiritual truth, which from him derives its penetrative power upon and within the human soul. Hence, this description of the searching power of the word has a blending and identification of the person and the utterance, united in the term Word. And as the Son, by virtue of his being sent forth from the Father, is Apostle, and as the expression of the Father he is the Word, so this passage constitutes the climax of that terribleness of the administration of the apostle which calls for transition to the gracious High Priest, which follows in the next verse. This view is confirmed by a strong similar passage in Philo, of which this is a great improvement, and which we thus translate: “You may contemplate the uncomprehended God, cutting in succession all the natures of bodies and things, which seem to be compacted and unified, with the cleaver of all things, his Word, which, being sharpened to its keenest edge, ( ,) divides unceasingly all sensible things, and afterwards goes through, even to the atoms and the so-called indivisibles.”

Quick That is, living; full of a pervading, searching life.

Powerful Intensely energetic in its search.

Sharper With an omniscient keenness of edge.

Two-edged sword Cutting either way, according as the presence of the element of unbelief may be.

Piercing Rather, with a personification, going through; for both this word and sword are living. It is not a sword, which is an instrument, but which is vital and self-active.

Even Expressive of the surprising extent to which the live word can penetrate.

Dividing asunder The question is raised by commentators, does this mean a separation of soul from spirit, and of joints from marrow; or does it mean that the word so subtly inserts itself into the interstices between, as we may say, the particles of these four entities as to separate particle from particle? The very fact that they are ranged in couplets seems to indicate that a separation between the two units of each couplet is meant. Yet the language of Philo seems to imply an interpenetration of the ultimate elements. And Lunemann and Alford find that meaning in the text. Says Alford: “The word pierces to the dividing, not of the soul from the spirit, but of the soul itself and of the spirit itself; the former being the lower portion of man’s invisible part, which he has in common with the brutes, ‘the irrational of the soul’ of Philo; the latter, the higher portion, receptive of the Spirit of God, ‘the rational of the soul’ of the same; both which are pierced and divided by the sword of the Spirit, the word of God.”

It is, of course, not meant that the word produces a literal separation of the joints and marrow. But these two parts are mentioned as the residences of mental operations; the former of activities and the latter of sensations; and it is between these mentalities that the word inserts its penetrative and divisive energy.

Discerner Rendered by Alford “judger,” as being derived from a word signifying to judge. It continues the personification expressed in quick, or living, and going through; implying a discerning power in the word.

Thoughts Thoughts in action, thinkings, trains of mental operations.

Intents Mental intentions, out of which spring volitions and actions.

Heart Note on Rom 10:10.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.’

For let them be in no doubt, there is no escaping the word of God which searches out the whole inner man. He knows who is in His rest and who is not, who are right with Him and who are not. He knows the truth about our ‘works’. This ‘word of God’ (compare Mar 7:13) is that which the writer has constantly cited previously in order to search them out, but seen as a part of the whole Scriptures. It also includes that word as proclaimed by God’s messengers. It tests out all men to see what they are. It is ‘living’, that is, it is still powerfully effective day by day, and it bestows life on those who respond to it; it is active, that is it does its work of ‘discerning the heart’ vigorously and without stint; and it is sharper than a two-edged sword, that is, devastatingly effective in its cutting work. Nothing can hinder its application. It searches out everything leaving no part unrevealed and untouched. It cuts into the most innermost being. It immediately (‘quick to discern’) knows a man as he really is in the intents of his heart in both his spiritual and physical aspects.

It is only if ‘entering into rest’ is a present experience that this really enters specifically into the narrative as a composite part of it, the thought being that the word of God as quoted searches out belief in contrast with unbelief, partaking in Christ in contrast with falling away, and being in God’s rest, having rested from ‘works’, in contrast with those who labour to establish themselves by works and reveal thereby their continued disobedience which deserves just recompense of reward (Heb 2:2).

‘Even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow.’ We are not intended to analyse this literally. The point is that the whole of man is available to its examination in every detail, with nothing hidden from its view. We may tend to speak of man as ‘body and soul’. That too recognises that there is a complexity to God’s make up. But all this fails to recognise the true complexity of man who is a unity made up many different aspects which are beyond our understanding.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Conclusion to God’s Divine Calling: Warning in Failure to Heed the Gospel Call Heb 4:12-13 serves as a conclusion to the opening exhortation to heed God’s divine calling given in Heb 2:1-4, warning readers not to neglect this heavenly calling. Heb 2:1-4 exhorts us to give heed to the things that we have heard, explaining that we shall not escape if we neglect this call to salvation, just as the children of Israel in the wilderness did not escape divine judgment (Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:11). Thus, Heb 4:12-13 reaches back and grabs Heb 2:1-4 as its antecedent, so to speak. The author explains in Heb 4:12-13 that the Gospel of Jesus Christ speaks to man’s heart, so that God will be able to judge all of mankind based upon their response to the proclamation of the Gospel (Heb 4:12-13).

The Author’s Word Play with The double use of the Greek word in Heb 4:12-13 is considered by some commentators to be a play on words by the author. is placed as the second word in Heb 4:12 and as the last word in Heb 4:13, so that these concluding remarks open and close this passage. In essence, the author tells us that the One who has spoken His Word will require that we answer with a word. [208]

[208] David L. Allen, Hebrews, in The New American Commentary: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture, vol. 35, ed. E. Ray Clendenen (Nashville, Tennessee: B & H Publishing Group, 2010), 287.

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.

Heb 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful” Comments – Webster says the English word “quick” means, “ Alive; living; animate.” The Word of God is living and eternal (1Pe 1:23), and gives life to those who hear it. God’s Word is also powerful ( ) in that it is actively at work on earth and effective in changing hearts and lives and in bringing mankind to repentance and salvation (Jer 23:29).

1Pe 1:23, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

Jer 23:29, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”

Heb 4:12 “and sharper than any twoedged sword” Word Study on “sword” The TDNT translates the Greek word (G3162) used in Heb 4:12 as the sacrificial knife of the Jewish priest or the surgeon’s knife. David Allen says the word is best translated “scalpel” in Heb 4:12.

Comments – The Word of God can serve two purposes. It brings health to our own spirits and it cuts down the enemy; thus, the description of the word as “two-edged.”

Scripture References – Note similar verses:

Isa 49:2, “And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword ; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;”

Eph 6:17, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God :”

Rev 1:16, “And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword : and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”

Rev 19:15, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword , that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”

Heb 4:12 “piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit” Comments – Even though the natural mind (soul) doesn’t see itself as sinful, the Word of God pierces into a wicked heart, showing the man his sinful heart as separate from the rational mind (the soul). This convicts man as a sinner in need of salvation.

Heb 4:12 “and of the joints and marrow” Comments – The marrow refers to “the innermost part” of our makeup, which is analogous to the spirit of man.

Heb 4:12 “and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” Comments – BDAG says the Greek word “discerner” ( ) literally means, “able to judge,” meaning that the Word of God is “able to judge the thoughts and deliberations of the heart.” Note Joh 12:48.

Joh 12:48, “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day .”

We find another example of words judging the heart in 1Co 14:24-25, when prophecies judge men’s hearts, this time using the Greek verb .

1Co 14:24-25, “But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all : And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.”

Heb 4:12 Comments – Within the immediate context of Heb 4:12, the Word of God that is mentioned in Psa 95:7-8 warns God’s children not to harden their hearts in disobedience to His Word. Thus, the Word of God is defined as an instrument that penetrates man’s heart and knows its true motive in this passage. Regarding the issue of a deceptive heart and hidden motives, western civilization is built upon Judeo-Christian values of honesty and integrity. Such people grow up in a culture based upon integrity, honest and transparency of heart. However, Paul was not addressing a Jewish people who lived in such a culture. Rather, he was speaking to Christians who were in the midst of a corrupt culture of cleverness and deceit, where very little of what people say is the truth.

The author uses the example of the children of Israel in the wilderness as an example of a people who were not sincere in serving the Lord under Moses. They may have demonstrated outward signs of service, but they found a number of occasions to rebel against Moses and God’s Word.

Comments – The Word of God goes beyond a man’s outward actions and into a man’s inner soul. Thus, man can be judged by the Word of God (Joh 12:48) and he can be judged according to his works (Rev 20:13), without these verses being in conflict.

Joh 12:48, “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day .”

Rev 20:13, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works .”

Comments The need to distinguish between the recreated heart of the born-again believer and his unrenewed mind will help these Hebrews understand why they were not walking in the fullness of their Christian life. The author is about to explain to them how the atonement of Jesus Christ paid for all of their sins and brought them into a right standing with God so that they now have free access to the throne of grace, no longer based upon their good works under the Mosaic Law, but based upon His mercy (Heb 4:16); for the blood of their Redeemer has been sprinkled once for all upon the mercy seat.

There are people today who believer that mankind is a two-fold creature and not a three-fold creature. We are made in God’s image as a triune man: spirit, soul, and body. Those who believe the spirit and soul of man refer to the same inner make-up of man find themselves struggling with walking in the liberties of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Such a mindset causes Christians to focus upon being led by their minds and academic educations rather than tuning themselves into their distinct spirit-man and learning to be led by their spirit. Such a distinction becomes difficult for those who believe that the spirit and soul are the same. This person has difficulty distinguishing between the voice of his spirit, his inner man, and between his soulish, mental reasonings. Yet, this distinction is critical in order for the author of Hebrews to tell these Hebrew converts “to enter boldly into the inner sanctuary through the blood of Jesus” (Heb 10:19) and to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Heb 10:22). Such boldness and confidence cannot be realized in the life of a believer without an understanding of the atonement of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 7-9) in our spirit man apart from our soulish reasons that focus upon guilt because of failures in the Christian life.

Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Heb 4:13 “but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him” Comments – In Heb 4:12, God’s Holy Scriptures lays our hearts open.

Heb 4:13 “with whom we have to do” – Comments – Wuest translates this phrase as, “with whom is our reckoning.” [209] The NIV reads, “to whom we must give an account.” Literally, “to (with) whom for us (is) a reckoning (an account).” The Greek word refers to “an account” in Heb 4:13 and Heb 13:17, while in the rest of the epistle of Hebrews it is translated in the KJV as “a word” (9 times), “say” (1 time), “doctrine” (1 time) (Heb 2:2; Heb 4:2; Heb 4:12; Heb 5:11; Heb 5:13; Heb 6:1; Heb 7:28; Heb 12:19; Heb 13:7; Heb 13:22). Luke uses in a similar way in Luk 16:2.

[209] Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies From the Greek New Testament for the English Reader, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, c1973, 1977), 90.

The pronoun “we” refers specifically to believers. Christians will give an account of their lives unto the Lord whom they have served.

Scripture References – Note similar verses on the topic of man’s impending judgment:

Mat 12:36-37, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

Mat 25:19, “After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them .”

2Co 5:10-11, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.”

Also:

Job 26:6, “Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.” (Job speaking)

Psa 90:8, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Heb 4:12-13. For the word of God is quick, &c. “The word of God, which promised to the faithful an entrance into God’s rest in David’s time, and now to us, is not a thing which died, or was forgotten, as soon as it was uttered; but it continues one and the same to all generations. It is , quick, or living: so Isaiah says, The word of our God shall stand for ever: Isa 40:8 compare Isa 51:6; Isa 55:11; 1Es 4:38. Joh 3:34. 1Pe 1:23 and powerful, efficacious, active; sufficient through the power of the Holy Ghost, if it be not actually hindered, to produce its effects;effectual: Phm 1:6. See 2Co 10:4. 1Th 2:13.and sharper than any two-edged sword, , more cutting than: The word of God applied by his Spirit, penetrates deeper into a man than any sword; it enters into the very soul and spirit, into all our sensations, passions, appetites; nay, to our very thoughts; and fits as judge of the most secret intentions, contrivances, and sentiments of the heart: See Eph 6:17. Rev 1:16; Rev 2:16.piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit:”When the soul is thus distinguished from the spirit, by the former is meant that inferior faculty, by which we think of and desire what concerns the present being and welfare. By spirit is meant a superior power, by which we prefer futurethings to present; by which we are directed to pursue truth and right above all things, and even to despise what is agreeable to our present state, if it stands in competition with, or is prejudicial to future happiness. See 1Th 5:23. Some have thought, that by the expression before us, is implied, that the word of God is able to bring death, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira: for, say they, if the soul and spirit, or the joints and marrow, are separated one from another, it is impossible that life can remain. Mr. Peirce observes, that the apostle has been evidently arguing from a tremendous judgment of God upon the ancient Israelites, the ancestors of those to whom his epistle is directed; and in this verse, to press upon them that care and diligence which he had been recommending, he sets before them the efficacy and virtue of the word of God, connecting this verse with the former, by a for in the beginning of it: and therefore it is natural to suppose, that what he says of the word of God, may have a relation to somewhat remarkable in that sore punishment of which he had been speaking; particularly to thedestruction of the people by lightning, or fire from heaven. See Lev 10:1-5. Num 11:1-3; Num 16:35. Psa 78:21. All the expressions, in this view, will receive an additional force; for nothing is more quick and living, more powerful, sharp, and piercing, than lightning. If this idea be admitted, the meaning of the last clause in this verse will be, “That the word of God is a judge, to censure and punish the evil thoughts and intents of the heart:” And this brings the matter home to the exhortation with which the apostle began, ch. Heb 3:12-13. For, under whatever disguise they might conceal themselves, yet, from such tremendous judgments as God executed upon their fathers, they might learn to judge as Moses did, Num 32:23. If ye will not do so, ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Heb 4:12-13 . Warning demonstration of the necessity for compliance with the exhortation uttered Heb 4:11 . [67]

] the word of God . By these words we have not, with many Fathers, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Thomas Aquinas, Lyra, Cajetan, Clarius, Justinian, Cornelius a Lapide, Jac. Cappellus, Gomar, Owen, Heinsius, Alting, Clericus, Cramer, Ewald, al. , the hypostatic word of God, or Christ, as the second person of the Godhead. For although this mode of designating Christ in the case of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, according to Heb 1:1-3 , and on account of the points of contact he displays with Philo, can present nothing strange in itself, yet the expression was too unusual for it to be employed and understood without further indication, in this special sense, where the connection did not even lead up to it. Moreover, the predicates , . . ., and (instead of ), seem better suited to an impersonal than a personal subject. The majority understand of the word of God , as proclaimed and as preserved in Scripture. They refer it then either to the gospel (Cameron, Grotius, Wittich, Akersloot, Ebrard, al .), or to the threatenings of God (Schlichting, Michaelis, Abresch, Bhme, Heinrichs, al .), or, finally, to the threatenings and promises of God taken together (Beza, Schulz, Bisping, al .). is to be understood quite generally: “that which God speaks,” as, indeed, the whole proposition, Heb 4:12-13 , contains a general sentence. But that “that which God speaks” was then, in its application to the case here specially coming under notice, the call to receptivity of heart repeatedly made by God through the psalmist, and the exclusion from His threatened in the event of obstinate disobedience and unbelief, was for the reader self-evident from the connection.

The word of God is characterized in progressive enhancement. It is called , living , on account of its inner vital power (not on account of its everlasting, intransitory continuance, Schlichting, Abresch; nor as “cibus ac nutrimentum, quod hominum animis vitam conservat,” Carpzov; nor, in opposition to the rigid lifeless law, Ebrard); , effective , on account of its asserting itself, manifesting itself vigorously in the outer world. The latter is the consequence of the former, and both in this connection refer to the power of punishing its contemners, which is inherent in the word of God.

The penetrating sharpness of this power of punishment is described in ascending gradation in the sequel.

] and more trenchant than every ( any ) two-edged sword . after a comparative (Luk 16:8 ; Jdg 11:25 , LXX. Cod. Vaticanus), like , Heb 1:4 . , a sword with twofold mouth, i.e. with an edge on both sides ( ). The same expression in the LXX. Jdg 3:16 ; Pro 5:4 . Comp. , Rev 1:16 ; Rev 2:12 ; LXX. Psa 149:6 ; Sir 21:3 . Similarly, Eurip. Helen . 989: ; Orest . 1309: , .

The proof for the statement: , is contained in the words: , ] and piercing to the separating of soul and spirit, joints as well as marrow . denotes the action of separating, and the separating subject is the word of God. Wrongly does Schlichting (comp. also Bhme) take it locally, or as reflexive: to the secret spot where soul and spirit separate . Such construction is to be rejected, as otherwise the clause following would have also to be explained in like manner: where joints and marrow separate. Joints and marrow, however, not being, in the human organization, things coming into direct contact, the thought would be inappropriate, whether we understand in the literal or non-literal sense. Schlichting, to be sure, will make no longer dependent upon , but take it as co-ordinate with (“ ut gladius iste penetrare dicatur ad loca in homine abditissima, etiam illuc, ubi anima cum spiritu connectitur et ab eo dividitur, itemque ubi sunt membrorum compages et medullae”). But for this distinction the repetition of before would have been necessary. An entire failure, finally, is also the method proposed by Hofmann ( Schriftbew . I. 2 Aufl. p. 297, and likewise still in his Comm . p. 192), in order to preserve the local acceptation, in making dependent on : “to the point at which it dissects and dissolves both joints and marrow of the inner life, the secret ligaments of its connection and the innermost marrow of its existence.” For then the readers would be required to understand an arrangement of the words which has not, as Hofmann thinks, perhaps “its parallel” in Heb 6:1-2 , but which is, on the contrary, altogether impossible, on account of the addition of already to , and therefore nowhere finds its analogon in the N. T., not to say in the Epistle to the Hebrews. All four words: , , , and , depend upon , and not a dividing of the soul from the spirit, of joinings or joints from, the marrow , is intended, nor yet a dividing of the soul and spirit from joints and marrow (Bhme), but a dividing of the soul, the spirit, etc., each in itself is meant. The two last substantives, however, are not co-ordinate to the two first (Calvin, Beza, Cameron, Storr, Delitzsch, al .), but subordinate . For and , which are distinguished from each other as characterizing respectively the lower sensuous life and the higher life of the spirit, here set forth without any more special limitation the inner side of human life generally, in opposition to the or body, which latter alone an earthly sword is able to pierce, and is not to be understood of the joints and marrow of the body , [68] but of the ligaments and marrow of the and , is thus a figurative expression to denote the innermost, most hidden depth of the rational life of man. In such transferred signification is used also with the classics. Comp. Themist. Orat . 32, p. 357: ( ) ; Eurip. Hippol . 255 f.: . , however, a fastening together, uniting, joint , could likewise he employed metaphorically, inasmuch as it receives its signification as joint of the human body only from the addition of or from the connection, but elsewhere occurs in the most varied combinations and relations. Comp. e.g. , Dionys. Hal. Heb 5:7 ; , Sir 27:2 , al .

It is, moreover, worthy of notice that Philo also ascribes to his divine Logos a like cutting and severing power. He calls the same , which God has whetted to the most piercing sharpness, which on that account not only separates all sensuous things and penetrates to the atoms, but even divides the supra-sensuous, separating the soul into the rational and irrational, the reason into the true and false, the perception into the clear and the obscure. Comp. especially, Quis rerum divinarum haeres . p. 499 (with Mangey, I. p. 491): [Gen 15:10 ] , , , , , , , .

Ibid . p. 500 (I. p. 492): , , etc.

Comp. also de Cherubim , p. 112 f. (with Mangey, I. p. 144), where Philo finds in the , Gen 3:24 , a symbol of the Logos, and then observes with regard to Abraham: , , , ( i.e. of the divine Logos) , [Gen 22:6 ] , .

] and qualified to take cognizance of, or to judge (wrongly Heinrichs, Kuinoel, al.: to condemn ), the dispositions and thoughts of the heart .

] Mat 9:4 ; Mat 12:25 ; Act 17:29 .

] 1Pe 4:1 .

[67] Ebrard’s commentary here too abounds in quixotic caprice, such as disowns all linguistic basis. According to Ebrard, the preceding warning of ver. 11 is yet further enforced, ver. 12, by the reminder that in our case (!) that excuse (!) is removed, which, according to ver. 2 (!), still existed in the case of the contemporaries of Moses. For us nothing is wanting (!) on the part of the word of God; for (!) the word of God is living, powerful, penetrating into the soul; if we (!) should fall victims to unbelief, the guilt would rest upon ourselves alone (!). According to Ebrard, the genitive forms an opposition to the first person plural (!), and ver. 12 a supplementary material opposition to ver. 2 (!). That “this profound and delicate connection has hitherto been overlooked by all expositors” is natural enough. Even after Ebrard has discovered it, it will still remain unnoticed.

[68] So Delitzsch still explains, who represents the author as giving expression to the grossly sensuous conception, regardless whether such conception is in harmony with the author’s refined mode of thought, that the word of God points out “to man the antitheistic forces of his bodily nature, which has become wholly, and to all the joints and marrow (cerebral marrow, spinal marrow, etc.), a seat of sin and death!” The expression is supposed to adapt itself, without itself becoming figurative, to the figure of the . It is presupposed that the word of God has already accomplished its work of dissection (!) to the skeleton, with its bones and sinews (!), or at least presupposed that all, so far as this, is manifestly to be performed with ease. A stop, however, is not made here, but it further separates the joints of the bones, with the sinews or tendons serving to their movement, and cuts through the bones themselves, so that the marrow they contain is laid bare. Thus, then, the word renders the whole man transparent to God and to himself, and unveils in sharpest and most rigid analysis his most psychico-spiritual and innermost physical (!) condition; whereby it is then seen that, in so far as the man has not yet given scope to the work of grace, and in so far as the latter has not yet been able to accomplish itself, the marrow of the body is as corrupt as the spirit, which is as it were the marrow of the soul, and the joints of the body as corrupt as the soul, which is as it were the joint of the spirit (!).

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2284
THE WORD OF GOD QUICK AND POWERFUL

Heb 4:12. The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 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 state of a Christians mind should be alike distant from slavish fear and from presumptuous confidence. He is authorized to entertain a confidence, because he has Omnipotence for his support, and the veracity of God pledged to supply him with all that is needful for his spiritual welfare. But he has need of fear also; because he is in the midst of temptations, and has a deceitful heart, ever ready to beguile him. In the view of his privileges, he may rejoice: but in the view of his dangers, he should tremble. In a word, he should, as David expresses it, rejoice with trembling. This frame of mind is supposed by many to be unsuited to that full liberty into which we are brought under the Christian dispensation. But St. Paul continually inculcates the necessity of it in order to a safe and upright walk: Be not high-minded, but fear: Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. But in no place of Scripture is this mixture of diffidence and affiance more strongly insisted on than in this and the preceding chapters. We are taught the indispensable necessity of holding fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of hope, firm unto the end [Note: Heb 3:6.]; and yet we are again and again warned by the example of the Israelites, who were excluded from the promised land, lest we also should fall after the same example of unbelief [Note: ver. 1, 11.]. It is in this view that the declarations in our text are introduced. There is an abruptness in them which renders the meaning of the Apostle somewhat difficult at first: but when the connecting link is supplied, the sense of the passage is clear, and very important. It speaks to this effect: The Israelites thought they had sufficient grounds for their unbelief; yet it ruined them. You also may be deceived by an evil heart of unbelief: but, however you may vindicate yourselves, that word, which you now disobey, will judge you in the last day; and will both expose your self-delusion, and justify God in passing against you a sentence of exclusion from the promised land.

The scope of the passage being thus explained, we propose to consider,

I.

The description here given of the word of God

Many able commentators have given it as their opinion, that, by the word of God, we are to understand the Lord Jesus Christ, who is frequently called by that name in the Holy Scriptures. But St. Paul never speaks of Christ by that name: nor is there any mention of Christ in the context. On the contrary, the word of revelation is mentioned, as that which the Israelites would not believe [Note: ver. 2.]; as that also which excluded them from the promised rest [Note: Heb 3:7-11.]; and as that which speaks to us precisely as it did to them [Note: ver. 79.]. And the different things spoken of it in the text are far more suited to the written word, than to the Lord Jesus Christ. To that, therefore, we limit the description before us. Its properties are set forth,

1.

In figurative terms

[It is quick, that is, a living word. Our blessed Lord represents it in the same view: The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life [Note: Joh 6:63.]. And it is the very same term which Stephen also makes use of, when he calls the Scriptures the lively oracles [Note: Act 7:38.]. The word is not a mere dead letter, that will soon vanish away: it lives in the mind of God: it lives in the decrees of heaven: it liveth and will live for ever: nor will millions of ages cause it to be forgotten, or in the least enervate its force. All besides this shall wax old, and decay: but this shall endure, without the alteration of one jot or tittle of it, to all generations [Note: 1Pe 1:23-25.].

It is also powerful. ear the appeal which God himself makes to us respecting it: Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord: and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces [Note: Jer 23:29.]? Yes: there is nothing that can resist its force.

But in the text it is compared with a two-edged sword, which, how sharp soever it may be, cannot penetrate like that. Frequently is it characterized by this image, especially as proceeding from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ [Note: Isa 49:2. Rev 1:16.]. Yet does that image give but a very faint idea of its power: for a sword, though it may inflict a mortal wound, would be utterly incapable of dividing, with accuracy, the almost imperceptible organs of the human frame: but the word can pierce to the dividing asunder the joints and marrow, yea, and the animal soul also from the rational spirit. By this is meant, that there is nothing so hidden, which it cannot detect; nothing so blended, which it cannot discriminate.

This the Apostle proceeds to set forth,]

2.

In plain language

[The word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Of the unregenerate man it is said, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually [Note: Gen 6:5.]. The regenerate are renewed in the spirit of their minds. But still they are not so renewed, but that some imperfection cleaves to all which they do: there is something in every thought and every purpose of the human heart, something which still shews that man is a fallen creature, and which cannot stand the strict scrutiny of Gods all-seeing eye. If he lay judgment for a line, and righteousness for a plummet, there is not any thing in which there will not be found some obliquity. Such a perfect standard is the word of God: it will discern between the good and evil that is in the most holy thought of the most perfect of men. In the hand of the Spirit, whose sword it is [Note: Eph 6:17.], its power is infinite, even though it be wielded by the feeblest arm. In the hand of the prophets, it hewed the hypocritial Jews in pieces [Note: Hos 6:5.]. In the hand of the Apostles, it pierced thousands to the heart at once [Note: Act 2:37.]. In the hand of ordinary ministers, it has still the same power, and can so detect all the secret thoughts of mens hearts, as to evince that, it is indeed the very word of God himself [Note: 1Co 14:24-25.], and through him is still, as much as ever, mighty to the casting down of the most haughty imaginations, and to the bringing of every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ [Note: 2Co 10:4-5.].]

But that which gives to this description its force, is,

II.

The end for which it is adduced

The Apostle means to say, that, however secret the workings of unbelief may be, they will all be detected and condemned by the word in the last day. Now,
Unbelief is a most subtle sin
[It has ten thousand pleas and pretexts by which it clokes its malignity, and justifies to the mind and conscience its operations. See it in the Jews, whom it deceived to their ruin. There was always some great trial, some apparently insuperable difficulty in their way. They supposed that God would make all their way easy, and that they should have nothing to try their faith and patience. Hence they construed every difficulty as a violation of Gods promises, and a prelude to his final dereliction of them. Hence also they made their appeals upon this subject with as much confidence, as if their conclusions were undeniable: and the chastisements which they received for their impiety only increased their complaints, as though, in addition to the disappointments of their legitimate expectations, they were treated with undeserved cruelty. Thus it is with us: we hide from ourselves, or rather we justify to ourselves, the workings of unbelief. Its operations all seem to us to be founded in truth and equity. If we look at Gods threatenings, it cannot be that they should ever be executed, because such a procedure would be inconsistent with the Divine perfections, and an act of injustice towards man. If the promises of God be the object to which our attention is turned, they are too great, and too good to be performed; or at least, that they are not intended for such sinners as we. Besides, they are so far out of our sight, as to have, in our conceptions, little or no reality, in comparison of the objects of time and sense. Other sins we excuse as acts of frailty: but this we justify, as an act of wisdom.]

But, how subtle soever our unbelief may be, the word of God will discover and condemn it
[The word of God is so comprehensive, that there is not in the whole creation a thought or purpose that does not come within its range [Note: Psa 119:96.]: and it is so minute, that there is not the slightest imagination of a thought, of which it does not take cognizance. It is spiritual, even as the Author of it himself is spiritual; and, when it is brought home with power to the soul, it convinces a man of sins of which he had before not the least conception [Note: Rom 7:9; Rom 7:14.]. As by a chemical process the constituent parts of material bodies may be discovered, so by the application of the word to our souls in the last day will every thought be decompounded, as it were, and its every particle of good or evil be disclosed [Note: Joh 12:48.]. The fire that will try us will search the inmost recesses of the soul, and determine, with infallible precision, the quality of the most latent imagination there [Note: 1Co 3:13.]. Of this we have an earnest in the events which happened to the Jews in consequence of their unbelief. Thus God addresses them by the Prophet Zechariah: our fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? But my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us [Note: Zec 1:5-6.]. And the very same confession will, assuredly, be made in the last day by the most confident unbeliever in the universe: His sin shall surely find him out [Note: Num 32:23.]; and it shall then be seen, whose word shall stand, Gods or his [Note: Jer 44:28.]. The counsels of every heart shall then be made manifest [Note: 1Co 4:5.]; and God be justified before the whole universe in the sentence that he shall pass [Note: Psa 51:4. with Rom 3:4.].]

From hence we may see
1.

How attentive we should be to the word of God

[Would we but inspect it with humility and care, it would be as a glass to reflect our own image, in a way that nothing else can do [Note: Jam 1:23-24.]. And, is it not madness to neglect the opportunity it affords us of learning our true character, and of ascertaining, before hand, the sentence of our Judge? To what purpose is it to deceive our own souls? Will that word be altered? Will any other standard be brought forward whereby to estimate our state? Or shall we be able either to dispute its testimony, or avert its sentence? Dear brethren, remember the description given of it in our text: think how unavailing all your pleas and excuses will be, when its voice shall be raised against you: and now, ere it be too late, take it as a light to search all the secret corners of your hearts [Note: Joh 3:19-21. Pro 20:27.], and to guide your feet into the way of peace.]

2.

How fearful we should be of unbelief

[As there is no grace which so honours God, as faith, so there is no sin which so dishonours him, as unbelief. Other sins, though they oppose his authority, do not deny his right to command: but unbelief questions the very existence of his truth. Hence does St. John so frequently speak of it, as making God a liar [Note: 1Jn 2:22; 1Jn 5:10.]. Ah! little do the sceptic and the unbeliever think what guilt they contract: and little do they imagine what chains they are forging for their own souls! How, I would ask, will any man get his sins forgiven? it can only be by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and by a living faith too: for it is not a dead faith that will suffice; but such a faith as unites the soul to Christ, and derives out of his fulness all that grace, and mercy, and peace which we stand in need of. Most awful is that declaration of God, that all the fearful and unbelieving shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death [Note: Rev 21:8.]. Whether we believe this or not, it will prove true in the end: and the sentence, once denounced against Israel with an oath, shall again be repeated against all that abide in unbelief; I swear in my wrath, that they shall not enter into my rest.]

3.

How earnestly we should pray to God for the gift of his Spirit

[It is by the Spirit of God alone that we can either be convinced of unbelief [Note: Joh 16:8-9.], or be enabled to exercise a living faith [Note: Eph 2:8. Php 1:29.]. O! beg of God to give you his Spirit. Seek it in earnest; and you shall not ask in vain [Note: Luk 11:13.]. It is the Spirits office to take of the things that are Christs, and to shew them unto you [Note: Joh 16:14.]. It is his office to make the word effectual to your souls: for it is then only effectual, when it comes in demonstration of the Spirit and of power [Note: 1Co 2:4.]. Read not then, nor hear, the word in dependence on your own strength; but cry mightily to God to bring it home to your hearts with power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance [Note: 1Th 1:5.]. Then shall you experience its life-giving efficacy, and find it the power of God to the salvation of your souls [Note: Rom 1:16.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(12) For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 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. (13) Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

The Word of God is here evidently intended to mean, the un – created Word, of which John speaks in his Gospel, Joh 1:1 . And let the Reader pause, and observe, what is here said of Christ’s glory on this ground. His eyes, like a flame of fire, penetrates through all coverings. He is the Almighty Zephnath-paaneah, the great Revealer of secrets. What a folly to think that anything can escape his observation? What an unanswerable proof of his Godhead?

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

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.

Ver. 12. Quick and powerful ] Gr. Lively and energetical; sc. in hearts that can treinble at God’s judgments, as David did, Psa 119:120 . As for hypocrites, the word will ransack them, and give them a very glimpse of the judgment to come, as it did Felix, Herod, &c. God smiteth the earth with this rod of his mouth,Isa 11:4Isa 11:4 , he dashes them in the teeth, and maketh them spit blood, as it were; hewing them by his prophets, and slaying them by the words of his mouth, Hos 6:5 ; Rev 11:5 .

Soul and spirit ] See Trapp on “ 1Th 5:23 “ It affecteth not only the lower parts of the soul, which are less pure, but the purest also, and most supreme; even the spirit of the mind, the bosom as well as the bottom of the soul.

And of the joints and marrow ] The minima and intima, the least things and the most secret.

And is a discerner ] Gr. A curious critic judging exactly, and telling tales of the hearers, disclosing the words that they speak in their very bedchambers, as2Ki 6:122Ki 6:12 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

12, 13 .] Apart from the difficulties of some terms used, we may give the connexion thus: Such an endeavour is well worth all our for we have One to do with, who can discern and will punish every even the most secret disobedience. For the word of God (in what sense? 1. The , Personal Word, has been understood by many, e. g. the Fathers in general (see the copious reff. in Bleek’s note here), c., Thl. (as commonly supposed, but see below, and judge), Thdrt. (by no means certain), Thom. Aquin., Lyra, Cajetan, Corn. a-Lap. (“Longe aptius et melius alii intelligunt Dei Filium”), Jac. Cappellus, Owen, Le Clerc, al. To this the first obvious objection is, that this mode of expression is confined to St. John among the N. T. writers. This, however, though clearly not to be met by alleging such passages as Luk 1:2 and Act 20:32 , is not decisive. For our Epistle, though perhaps anterior to all the writings of St. John, is yet so intimately allied to the Alexandrine terminology, that it would be no matter of surprise to find its Writer using a term so nearly ripe for his purpose as we find in Philo (see below). The real objections to the Personal being simply and directly here meant, lie in the Epistle, and indeed in the passage itself. In the Epistle : for we have no where in it this term used with any definiteness of our Lord, nor indeed any approach to it; not even where we might have expected it most, in the description of His relation to the Father, ch. 1 init. Every where He is the SON of God, not His Word. And in ch. Heb 6:5 ; Heb 11:3 , that expression is changed for , when, especially in the latter place, had the idea of the personal been familiar to the Writer, he would almost certainly have said , not . And in the passage itself : for such adjectives as and , and even , as matter of emphatic predication, would hardly be used of the Personal : and, which to my mind is stronger evidence still, had these words applied to our Lord, we should not have had him introduced immediately after, Heb 4:14 , as . But, 2. some of the ancient, and the great mass of modern Commentators, have understood by the term, the revealed word of God , in the law and in the gospel: or in the gospel alone, as contrasted with the former dispensation. And so even some of those who elsewhere in their writings have understood it of Christ: e. g. Origen (on Mat 19:12 , tom. xv. 4, vol. iii. p. 656, . . . ., : on Rom 12:7 , lib. ix. 3, vol. iv. p. 650: “Verbum Dei omnia, etiam qu in occulto sunt, perscrutatur: maxime cum vivens sit, et efficax &c. etenim cum moralis in ecclesia sermo tractatur, tunc uniuscujusque intra semetipsam conscientia stimulatur” &c.), Euseb., Aug [28] Civ. Dei xx. 21. 2 (vol. vii.) al. But neither does this interpretation seem to meet the requirements of the passage. The qualities here predicated of the do not appear to fit the mere written word: nor does the introduction of the written word suit the context. I should be rather disposed with Bleek to understand, 3. the spoken word of God , the utterance of His power, by which, as in ch. Heb 11:3 , He made the worlds, by which His Son, as in ch. Heb 1:3 , upholds all things. This spoken word it was, which they of old were to hear and not harden their hearts: , . . .: this spoken word, which interdicted them from entering into His rest . It seems then much more agreeable to the context, to understand this utterance of God, so nearly connected with God Himself, the breath of his mouth : and I would not at the same time shrink from the idea, that the Alexandrine form of expression respecting the , that semi-personification of it without absolutely giving it hypostatical existence, was before the mind of the Writer. Indeed, I do not see how it is possible to escape this inference, in the presence of such passages as this of Philo, Quis Rer. Div. Hr. 26, vol. i. p. 491, , , , , , . . .: and again, ib. 27, p. 492, , . See, on the whole, Delitzsch’s note.

[28] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo , 395 430

The idea of Ebrard, that this word, meaning the gospel, is introduced to give weight to “Let us do our part, for the gospel of God is not wanting in power on its part,” is too absurd to need refutation or even mention, were it not for his name) is living (not, in contrast with the dead works of the law (Ebr.), of which there is no question here; nor, as Carpzov, nourishing , and able to preserve life: nor enduring , as Abresch and Schlichting: but as E. V., quick , i. e. having living power, in the same sense in which God himself is so often called “the living God,” e. g. ch. Heb 10:31 . So in reff.: so Soph. d. Tyr. 482, speaking of the prophecies, , where the Schol. has, . Thl., who besides finds in a proof of the hypostatic Personality, says well: , , , , , , . . The emphatic position of , the omission of , the frequent repetition of , all tend to increase the rhythm and rhetorical force of the sentence. Some have thought that the Writer was citing from some other source: but for this there does not appear any reason) and active (= , which is the commoner form (see Bleek), found in Xen., Demosth., and often in Polybius, in which latter however the mss. often give us . In one place, xi. 23. 2, this latter seems undoubted, . It is a word of the or Macedonian dialect. This activity is the very first quality and attribute of life : so that the predicates form a climax: not only living, but energizing: not only energizing, but . . .: and not only that, but . . .: nor that only, but reaching even to the spirit , . ), and sharper ( , an adj. formed from , is found in Plato, Tim. 61 E: Plut. Sympos. vi. 8; viii. 9: its comparative in ref., and Lucian, Toxar. ii. al.: the superlative, in the well-known exordium of Ajax’s dying speech, Soph. Aj. 815) than (Bleek has shewn that the construction , for . or , is not Hebraistic; for in Heb. there is no comparative; we have it in ref. Judges, : and the similar construction with in ch. Heb 1:4 , where see remarks) every two-edged sword (lit. two- mouthed : meaning, sharpened on both sides, both edge and back. The expression (reff.) is found in classic poetry, e. g. , Eurip. Hel. 992: , id. Orest. 1296, and other instances in Bleek. The more usual word is , Il. . 256: Soph. Aj. 286: Electr. 485. We have , Antig. 1309. As regards the comparison itself, of the word of God or of men to a sword, it is common in Scripture: see Psa 57:4 ; Psa 59:7 ; Psa 64:3 ; Wis 18:15-16 ; Rev 1:16 ; and above all, Eph 6:17 . It has been questioned, whether the office here ascribed to the word of God is punitive , or merely searching : whether it regards the foes, or the servants of God. There seems no reason why we should separate the two. The same WORD, to which evidently by the succeeding clause is attributed the searching power, is powerful also to punish. The belongs to the surgeon, and to the judge: has its probing as well as its smiting office. And so Chrys.: . Bleek points out the close relation of this similitude to a series of passages in Philo, especially in the treatise Quis Rerum Divinarum Hres. There, in speaking of Abraham’s sacrifice, and explaining , which act he refers to God, he says: , , , , , 26, vol. i. p. 491. And further on, he divides these made by the into triads, and says, , , , , , . From these and similar passages (cf. esp. Quod Deterior Potiori Insid. 29, p. 212: De Cherubim, 9, p. 144 ff.), we may reasonably infer, that the writings of Philo were not unknown to the Writer of this Epistle. The same conclusion has been also drawn by Grotius and Bleek. See Prolegg. i. 155), and reaching through (so , sch. Sept. c. Theb. 515: , Tim. Locr. p. 101 A: , Plut. Deu 20 ) even to dividing of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow (there has been considerable diversity in the taking of these genitives. I have regarded them as follows: and , not coupled by , but only by , denote two separate departments of man’s being, each subordinate to the process indicated by . The pierces to the dividing, not of the from the , but of the itself and of the itself: the former being the lower portion of man’s invisible part, which he has in common with the brutes, the of Philo; the latter the higher portion, receptive of the Spirit of God, the of the same; both which are pierced and divided by the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Then, passing on to . , I do not regard these terms as co-ordinate with the former . , but as subordinate to them, and as used in a spiritual sense, not a corporeal (as many Commentators and recently Delitzsch): implying that both the and the of the and of the are pierced and divided by the . This I conceive is necessitated both by the , expressed in this second clause, and by the sense, which otherwise would degenerate into an anti-climax, if . were to be understood of the body. (The metaphorical sense of is amply justified by such expressions as ( ) , Themist. Orat. 32, p. 357: , Eur. Hippol. 255 ff. And is not an anatomical, but a common term, which might be applied to any kind of compages, as , Dion. Hal. Heb 4:7 ; , ref. Sir. &c.) This, which is in the main the sense given by Grot., Kuin., Bl., De W., Lnem. (nearly also of Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, i. p. 258 f., who somewhat harshly makes the genitives . dependent on . ), being laid down, I proceed to examine the divergences from it. 1. That which regards the as being a division of the soul from the spirit, the joints from the marrow (on this latter see below). This is given as early as by Chrys. as an alternative: , . And c., understanding of the Holy Spirit: , , . : and so, but giving the alternative, Thl. And so Erasm.-paraph. (“adeo ut dissecet animam a spiritu”), J. Cappellus, Wolf, Bengel, al. The objections to this are both psychological and contextual. It has been rightly urged (see especially Ebrard’s note here) that the soul and spirit cannot be said to be separated in any such sense as this: and on the other hand, the and could not be thus said to be separated, having never been in contact with one another. 2. Many Commentators, who hold the division of soul from spirit, are not prepared to apply the same interpretation to the . . ; although, reading the former , it becomes philologically necessary that the two clauses should be strictly parallel. Not reading the former , it becomes possible to make . dependent, not on but on , which has been done by Cyril of Alexandria, de Fest. Pasch. Hom. xxii. vol. x. p. 275 b, , and De Adorat. xvi. vol. i. p. 561, . , and Schlichting (see below), C. F. Schmid, Paulus, al. But certainly, had this been meant, the would have been repeated before . Otherwise it would be exceedingly harsh. 3. Many understand to mean, not the act of division, but the place where the division occurs . So Bhme, “Ita ut per intervalla, si qu sint, anim animique, et compagum medullarumque penetret, seque insinuet:” Schlichting, “Ad loca usque abditissima ubi anima cum spiritu connectitur, itemque ubi sunt membrorum compages et medull.” And so, more recently, Ebrard. The objection to this is, partly the omission of what would in that case be the requisite article before , and partly as before, that thus . . . . must be constructed with : see above. 4. One meaning is given by c. (after Cyril: , . ), and Thl. (but not approved by the latter, as Bl. who has been misled by the Latin: for he says , , and then proceeds as c., except that he puts for ). But clearly this cannot be the meaning, with after a caution), and a judger (or, discerner: not as Kuinoel, condemner . The word is good Greek, as a simple predicate: so Plato, Pol. 260 C, : with a gen., it seems to be of later usage: Palm and Rost quote from Basil the Great: but the government of a gen. by verbals in – is regular: we have , . , Xen. Mem. iii. 1. 6: , Plato, Euthyph. p. 3 C: see Khner, 530 h h; it is the genitivus materi) of ( the ) thoughts ( is the commoner word: but Thucyd. (i. 123), Eurip. (Frag. 20), Isus, and Aristotle (Bl.) use – in much the same sense; – being properly the action of the thought itself, – the thing conceived or thought of. But these two become frequently confused in later Greek) and ideas (this seems the nearest term to . Plato gives rather a mysterious definition of it . But the usage, where the word wavers, as here, between the process in the mind itself and that which is the result of the process, points very much to our ‘ idea .’ Thus , Demosth. p. 157 18: , Polyb. x. 27. 8. In ib. i. 4. 9, we have distinguished from : , . Certainly the “ intentiones ” of the vulg. (“ intents ,” E. V.), though apparently answering to the Platonic definition, does not give it here (though this seems the sense in 1Pe 4:1 ), nor does “ consilia ” of Erasmus: “ conceptus ” of Crell. is better. Bengel says, “ , intentio , involvit affectum; , cogitatio , qu dicit simplicius, prius et interius quiddam.” But though strictly speaking this might be the meaning of ( ), it does not carry so much in ordinary usage) of the heart (the inner and thinking and feeling part of man in Scripture psychology; die innere Mitte des menschlichen Wesenbestandes, in welcher das dreifache Leben des Menschen zusammenluft , Delitzsch, biblische Psychologie, 12 init., which see; and Beck, Umriss der biblischen Seelenlehre, p. 63 ff.):

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

quick = living. Greek. zao. Compare App-170.

powerful. Greek. energes. See 1Co 16:9, and compare App-172.

sharper. Greek. tomoteros. Only here.

than = above. Greek. huper. App-104.

twoedged. Greek. distomos. Only here and Rev 1:16; Rev 2:12.

sword. Greek. machaira. Same word Eph 6:17, but not Luk 2:35. Rev 1:16; &c.

piercing. Greek. diikneomai. Only here.

dividing asunder. Greek. merismos. See Heb 2:4.

soul. App-110and App-170:3.

spirit. App-101.

joints. Greek. harmos. Only here.

marrow. Greek. muelos. Only here.

discerner. Greek. kritikos. Only here.

thoughts. Greek. enthumesis. See Act 17:29.

intents. Greek. ennoia. Only here and 1Pe 4:1. The written Word is a sword (compare Eph 6:17), and the living Word has a sword (Rev 1:16; Rev 19:15). Once, and once only, has God used the word kritikos; thus confining it to His own Word as a “critic”. That Word is to be man’s Judge (Joh 12:48. Compare App-122and App-177). Yet man claims the word “critic” and dares to sit in judgment on that very Word which is to judge him, in what he terms “higher criticism”, which is only human reasoning based on the deceit of his own heart (Jer 23:26). “In the last day” man will be criticized (judged) by the same Word on which he now sits in judgment. “Dividing asunder of soul and spirit” means not only differentiating between that which is begotten of the flesh and that which is begotten of the Spirit (Joh 3:6) in the individual; but also between the natural (Greek. psuchikos) man and the spiritual (Greek. pneumatikos) man. See 1Co 2:13-15.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

12, 13.] Apart from the difficulties of some terms used, we may give the connexion thus: Such an endeavour is well worth all our -for we have One to do with, who can discern and will punish every even the most secret disobedience. For the word of God (in what sense? 1. The , Personal Word, has been understood by many, e. g. the Fathers in general (see the copious reff. in Bleeks note here), c., Thl. (as commonly supposed, but see below, and judge), Thdrt. (by no means certain), Thom. Aquin., Lyra, Cajetan, Corn. a-Lap. (Longe aptius et melius alii intelligunt Dei Filium), Jac. Cappellus, Owen, Le Clerc, al. To this the first obvious objection is, that this mode of expression is confined to St. John among the N. T. writers. This, however, though clearly not to be met by alleging such passages as Luk 1:2 and Act 20:32, is not decisive. For our Epistle, though perhaps anterior to all the writings of St. John, is yet so intimately allied to the Alexandrine terminology, that it would be no matter of surprise to find its Writer using a term so nearly ripe for his purpose as we find in Philo (see below). The real objections to the Personal being simply and directly here meant, lie in the Epistle, and indeed in the passage itself. In the Epistle: for we have no where in it this term used with any definiteness of our Lord, nor indeed any approach to it; not even where we might have expected it most, in the description of His relation to the Father, ch. 1 init. Every where He is the SON of God, not His Word. And in ch. Heb 6:5; Heb 11:3, that expression is changed for , when, especially in the latter place, had the idea of the personal been familiar to the Writer, he would almost certainly have said , not . And in the passage itself: for such adjectives as and , and even , as matter of emphatic predication, would hardly be used of the Personal : and, which to my mind is stronger evidence still, had these words applied to our Lord, we should not have had him introduced immediately after, Heb 4:14, as . But, 2. some of the ancient, and the great mass of modern Commentators, have understood by the term, the revealed word of God, in the law and in the gospel: or in the gospel alone, as contrasted with the former dispensation. And so even some of those who elsewhere in their writings have understood it of Christ: e. g. Origen (on Mat 19:12, tom. xv. 4, vol. iii. p. 656, . …, : on Rom 12:7, lib. ix. 3, vol. iv. p. 650: Verbum Dei omnia, etiam qu in occulto sunt, perscrutatur: maxime cum vivens sit, et efficax &c. etenim cum moralis in ecclesia sermo tractatur, tunc uniuscujusque intra semetipsam conscientia stimulatur &c.), Euseb., Aug[28] Civ. Dei xx. 21. 2 (vol. vii.) al. But neither does this interpretation seem to meet the requirements of the passage. The qualities here predicated of the do not appear to fit the mere written word: nor does the introduction of the written word suit the context. I should be rather disposed with Bleek to understand, 3. the spoken word of God, the utterance of His power, by which, as in ch. Heb 11:3, He made the worlds,-by which His Son, as in ch. Heb 1:3, upholds all things. This spoken word it was, which they of old were to hear and not harden their hearts: , …: this spoken word, which interdicted them from entering into His rest- . It seems then much more agreeable to the context, to understand this utterance of God, so nearly connected with God Himself, the breath of his mouth: and I would not at the same time shrink from the idea, that the Alexandrine form of expression respecting the , that semi-personification of it without absolutely giving it hypostatical existence, was before the mind of the Writer. Indeed, I do not see how it is possible to escape this inference, in the presence of such passages as this of Philo, Quis Rer. Div. Hr. 26, vol. i. p. 491, , , , , , …: and again, ib. 27, p. 492, , . See, on the whole, Delitzschs note.

[28] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo, 395-430

The idea of Ebrard, that this word, meaning the gospel, is introduced to give weight to -Let us do our part, for the gospel of God is not wanting in power on its part, is too absurd to need refutation or even mention, were it not for his name) is living (not, in contrast with the dead works of the law (Ebr.), of which there is no question here; nor, as Carpzov, nourishing, and able to preserve life: nor enduring, as Abresch and Schlichting: but as E. V., quick, i. e. having living power, in the same sense in which God himself is so often called the living God, e. g. ch. Heb 10:31. So in reff.: so Soph. d. Tyr. 482, speaking of the prophecies, , where the Schol. has, . Thl., who besides finds in a proof of the hypostatic Personality, says well: , , , , , , . . The emphatic position of , the omission of , the frequent repetition of , all tend to increase the rhythm and rhetorical force of the sentence. Some have thought that the Writer was citing from some other source: but for this there does not appear any reason) and active (= , which is the commoner form (see Bleek), found in Xen., Demosth., and often in Polybius, in which latter however the mss. often give us . In one place, xi. 23. 2, this latter seems undoubted,- . It is a word of the or Macedonian dialect. This activity is the very first quality and attribute of life: so that the predicates form a climax: not only living, but energizing: not only energizing, but …: and not only that, but …: nor that only, but reaching even to the spirit, . ), and sharper (, an adj. formed from , is found in Plato, Tim. 61 E: Plut. Sympos. vi. 8; viii. 9: its comparative in ref., and Lucian, Toxar. ii. al.: the superlative, in the well-known exordium of Ajaxs dying speech, Soph. Aj. 815) than (Bleek has shewn that the construction , for . or , is not Hebraistic; for in Heb. there is no comparative; we have it in ref. Judges, : and the similar construction with in ch. Heb 1:4, where see remarks) every two-edged sword (lit. two-mouthed: meaning, sharpened on both sides, both edge and back. The expression (reff.) is found in classic poetry, e. g. , Eurip. Hel. 992: , id. Orest. 1296, and other instances in Bleek. The more usual word is , Il. . 256: Soph. Aj. 286: Electr. 485. We have , Antig. 1309. As regards the comparison itself, of the word of God or of men to a sword, it is common in Scripture: see Psa 57:4; Psa 59:7; Psa 64:3; Wis 18:15-16; Rev 1:16; and above all, Eph 6:17. It has been questioned, whether the office here ascribed to the word of God is punitive, or merely searching: whether it regards the foes, or the servants of God. There seems no reason why we should separate the two. The same WORD, to which evidently by the succeeding clause is attributed the searching power, is powerful also to punish. The belongs to the surgeon, and to the judge: has its probing as well as its smiting office. And so Chrys.: . Bleek points out the close relation of this similitude to a series of passages in Philo, especially in the treatise Quis Rerum Divinarum Hres. There, in speaking of Abrahams sacrifice, and explaining , which act he refers to God, he says: , , , , , 26, vol. i. p. 491. And further on, he divides these made by the into triads, and says, , , , , , . From these and similar passages (cf. esp. Quod Deterior Potiori Insid. 29, p. 212: De Cherubim, 9, p. 144 ff.), we may reasonably infer, that the writings of Philo were not unknown to the Writer of this Epistle. The same conclusion has been also drawn by Grotius and Bleek. See Prolegg. i. 155), and reaching through (so , sch. Sept. c. Theb. 515: , Tim. Locr. p. 101 A: , Plut. Dem. 20) even to dividing of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow (there has been considerable diversity in the taking of these genitives. I have regarded them as follows: and , not coupled by , but only by , denote two separate departments of mans being, each subordinate to the process indicated by . The pierces to the dividing, not of the from the , but of the itself and of the itself: the former being the lower portion of mans invisible part, which he has in common with the brutes, the of Philo; the latter the higher portion, receptive of the Spirit of God, the of the same; both which are pierced and divided by the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Then, passing on to . , I do not regard these terms as co-ordinate with the former . , but as subordinate to them, and as used in a spiritual sense, not a corporeal (as many Commentators and recently Delitzsch): implying that both the and the of the and of the are pierced and divided by the . This I conceive is necessitated both by the , expressed in this second clause, and by the sense, which otherwise would degenerate into an anti-climax, if . were to be understood of the body. (The metaphorical sense of is amply justified by such expressions as () , Themist. Orat. 32, p. 357: , Eur. Hippol. 255 ff. And is not an anatomical, but a common term, which might be applied to any kind of compages, as , Dion. Hal. Heb 4:7; , ref. Sir. &c.) This, which is in the main the sense given by Grot., Kuin., Bl., De W., Lnem. (nearly also of Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, i. p. 258 f., who somewhat harshly makes the genitives . dependent on . ), being laid down, I proceed to examine the divergences from it. 1. That which regards the as being a division of the soul from the spirit, the joints from the marrow (on this latter see below). This is given as early as by Chrys. as an alternative: , . And c., understanding of the Holy Spirit: , , . : and so, but giving the alternative, Thl. And so Erasm.-paraph. (adeo ut dissecet animam a spiritu), J. Cappellus, Wolf, Bengel, al. The objections to this are both psychological and contextual. It has been rightly urged (see especially Ebrards note here) that the soul and spirit cannot be said to be separated in any such sense as this: and on the other hand, the and could not be thus said to be separated, having never been in contact with one another. 2. Many Commentators, who hold the division of soul from spirit, are not prepared to apply the same interpretation to the . . ; although, reading the former , it becomes philologically necessary that the two clauses should be strictly parallel. Not reading the former , it becomes possible to make . dependent, not on but on , which has been done by Cyril of Alexandria, de Fest. Pasch. Hom. xxii. vol. x. p. 275 b, , and De Adorat. xvi. vol. i. p. 561, . , and Schlichting (see below), C. F. Schmid, Paulus, al. But certainly, had this been meant, the would have been repeated before . Otherwise it would be exceedingly harsh. 3. Many understand to mean, not the act of division, but the place where the division occurs. So Bhme, Ita ut per intervalla, si qu sint, anim animique, et compagum medullarumque penetret, seque insinuet: Schlichting, Ad loca usque abditissima ubi anima cum spiritu connectitur, itemque ubi sunt membrorum compages et medull. And so, more recently, Ebrard. The objection to this is, partly the omission of what would in that case be the requisite article before , and partly as before, that thus . . . . must be constructed with : see above. 4. One meaning is given by c. (after Cyril: , . ), and Thl. (but not approved by the latter, as Bl. who has been misled by the Latin: for he says , , and then proceeds as c., except that he puts for ). But clearly this cannot be the meaning, with after a caution), and a judger (or, discerner: not as Kuinoel, condemner. The word is good Greek, as a simple predicate: so Plato, Pol. 260 C, : with a gen., it seems to be of later usage: Palm and Rost quote from Basil the Great: but the government of a gen. by verbals in – is regular: we have , . , Xen. Mem. iii. 1. 6: , Plato, Euthyph. p. 3 C: see Khner, 530 h h; it is the genitivus materi) of (the) thoughts ( is the commoner word: but Thucyd. (i. 123), Eurip. (Frag. 20), Isus, and Aristotle (Bl.) use – in much the same sense; – being properly the action of the thought itself, – the thing conceived or thought of. But these two become frequently confused in later Greek) and ideas (this seems the nearest term to . Plato gives rather a mysterious definition of it- . But the usage, where the word wavers, as here, between the process in the mind itself and that which is the result of the process, points very much to our idea. Thus , Demosth. p. 157 18: , Polyb. x. 27. 8. In ib. i. 4. 9, we have distinguished from : , . Certainly the intentiones of the vulg. (intents, E. V.), though apparently answering to the Platonic definition, does not give it here (though this seems the sense in 1Pe 4:1), nor does consilia of Erasmus: conceptus of Crell. is better. Bengel says, , intentio, involvit affectum; , cogitatio, qu dicit simplicius, prius et interius quiddam. But though strictly speaking this might be the meaning of ( ), it does not carry so much in ordinary usage) of the heart (the inner and thinking and feeling part of man in Scripture psychology; die innere Mitte des menschlichen Wesenbestandes, in welcher das dreifache Leben des Menschen zusammenluft, Delitzsch, biblische Psychologie, 12 init., which see; and Beck, Umriss der biblischen Seelenlehre, p. 63 ff.):

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Heb 4:12. , for quick, lively) The efficacy of the word of GOD and the omniscience of GOD Himself is described as saving to those in the case of whom the word of GOD is mixed with faith on their part [Heb 4:2], but as terrible to those who are obstinate: comp. 2Co 2:15.- ) the word of God that is preached, Heb 4:2, and which is the Gospel-word, ib., and is joined with threatening, Heb 4:3. For Christ, the hypostatic Word, is not said to be a sword, hut to have a sword (comp. Jos 5:13, to which passage this passage, relating to Joshua, Heb 4:8, seems also to refer); nor is He called , judicial, but , the Judge. The appellation of Sword, given to God, Deu 33:29, is suitable to the song, not to the ordinary style of epistolary writing.-) more cutting, sharper.- , piercing even to the dividing) Its parallel presently, , judicial, judging, discerning.- , of soul and spirit) Hence it is evident that soul and spirit are not synonymous, but the spirit is in the soul. Man, contemplated according to his nature, consists of soul and body, Mat 10:28 : but when he has in him the working of GODS word, he consists of spirit, soul, and body. The inmost parts, and the recesses in the spirit, soul, and body of man, are called by Synecdoche[27] , joints and marrow (marrows). Moses forms the soul, Christ the spirit, 2Co 3:6. The soul attracts (draws with it) the body, the spirit both, 1Th 5:23. The spirit is divided from the soul by the efficacy of the word of GOD, when the former is claimed for GOD; the latter is left to itself, in so far as it either does not attain to, or does not follow the spirit. And as the joints are not only divided from the marrow, but the joints and marrow respectively are divided into their own parts: nor are the intentions only distinguished from the thoughts, but the intentions themselves, as well as the thoughts themselves, are discerned [decided upon]: so, not only is the soul divided from the spirit, but as it were a part of the spirit is divided from part of the spirit, a part of the soul from part of the soul: Luk 2:35. Flesh and spirit are also separated: 1Pe 4:6, note.- , of the intentions and thoughts) He comes from the greater parts as soul and spirit, and from the less as joints and marrow, to the faculties of the mind. , intention, involves feeling; there follows by gradation , thought, which expresses something simpler, previously existing and internal. Both nourish and foster either good or evil. , from , from , .

[27] A part for the whole. Append.-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

These next verses contain as new enforcement of the precedent exhortation, taken from the consideration of the means of the event threatened in case of unbelief. Two things are apt to arise in the minds of men for their relief against the fear of such comminations as are proposed unto them:

1. That their failing in point of duty may not be discerned or taken notice of. For they will resolve against such transgressions as are open, gross, and visible to all; as for what is partial and secret, in a defect of exactness and accuracy, that may be overlooked or not be obeyed.

2. That threatenings are proposed in terrorem only, to terrify and awe men, but with a mind or will of putting them into execution. Both those vain pretences and deceiving reliefs our apostle in these verses obviates the way of, or deprives men of them where they have been admitted. For he lets them know that they are to be tried by that, or have to do with Him, who both actually discovers all the secret frames of our hearts, and will deal with all men accordingly. Moreover, herein he informs them how and in what manner it is necessary for them to attend unto his exhortation in the performance of their duty; namely, not in or by a mere outward observance of what is required of them with respect unto profession only, but with a holy jealousy and watchfulness over their hearts, and all the intimate recesses of their souls, the most secret actings of their spirits and thoughts of their minds; seeing all these things are open unto cognizance, and subject unto trial.

Heb 4:12-13. , , , , , , .

, vivus enim. Syr. , vivus es; it supplies , est, as all other translations, though there be an emphasis ofttimes in sundry in the omission of the verb substantive. Ours, quick, improperly; for that word doth more ordinarily signify speedy, than living: and I doubt not many are deceived in this place through the ambiguity of that word.

, sermo, verbum; so is that word promiscuously rendered by translators, though the first using of sermo in Joh 1:1 causedsome stir amongst them who had been long used to verbum. But these words are promiscuously used, both by the ancients and learned men of latter days Ours, The word. Syr., the same word that it useth Joh 1:1, where the person of the Son of God is spoken of.

, et efficax; so all the Latin translators; efficacious, effectual in operation, powerful: but that denotes the habit, this word intends the act, effectually operative. Syr. et omnino, or ad omnia efficax, altogether efficacious; for denotes a very intimate, active, powerful operation or efficacy. Rhem. forcible.

. Vulg. Lat., Ari. Mon., penetrabilior. Scarce properly, for participles in bilis, are mostly passive; and in our language, penetrable is the description of a thing that may be pierced, or is easy so to be. Hence the Rhem. render it more piercing, properly. Beza, penetrantior, as Erasmus. Valla, and from him Erasmus, say they would render it incidentior, were that a proper Latin word. Ours, sharper; not so properly, more cutting, or more piercing. Syr., , et longe penetrantior; and much more cutting, sharp, or piercing. It adds cal and tab, to express the form of the comparative degree used in the original.

, super omnem gladium ancipitem, above any two-edged sword. being added to the preceding comparative , eminently exalts one of the comparates above the other. Syr. , before a sword with two mouths. Both the Hebrews and the Greeks call the edge of the sword its mouth, , the mouth of the sword, it being that wherewith it devours. Beza, quovis gladio ancipiti. Eras., utrinque incidente. Arab., and in cutting sharper than a sword of two edges. Ethiopic, than a razor. Ours, than any two-edged sword.

, et pertingens, et pertinget. Syr., , et ingreditur, and entereth, reacheth unto, cometh into, pierceth into. , usque ad divisionem animae et spiritus. Beza, animee simul ac spiritus, both of soul and spirit; expressing the particle , which yet in some copies is wanting.

, compagumque et medullarum, of the joints and marrow. The Syriac adds , and of the bones. Ethiopic, et discernit aniroam ab anima, et quod noctescit a nocte; discerneth one soul from another, and that which is dark from night, that is, the most secret things.

, et discretor. Vulg. Lat., et judicat, et dijudicat; judgeth,… discerneth. Judex, criticus, and is a discerner; that is, one that discerneth by making a right judgment of things.

, cogitationum. Ethiopic, cogitationum desiderabilium, desirable thoughts; not without reason, as we shall see.

. Vulg. Lat., Ari., Eras., intentionum cordis, of the intentions of the heart. Beza, conceptuum, conceptions. Ours, intents, a word of a deeper sense. There may be conceptus where there is not intentio or propositum. Syr., the will of the heart. See Eph 2:3.

, et non est creatura, and there is not a creature. Beza, et nulls est res crests, and there is no created thing; more proper in Latin, but a creature is common with us.

. Beza, non manifests. Ours, that is not manifest. Vulg. Lat., invisibilis. And the Rhem., invisible, not properly: not manifestly apparent. Syr., that is hid.

. Beza, imo omnia nuda, yea, all things axe naked. Ours, but all things are naked.

. Vulg. Lat., aperta, open. Beza, intime patentia, inwardly open. Erasm., resupinata, laid on their backs, open. Syr., , and manifest, or revealed. . Beza, quo cure nobis est negotium; which ours render, with whom we have to do. Vulg. Lat., ad quem nobis sermo. Rhem., to whom our speech is. Syr., to whom they give account. And the Arabic to the same purpose, before whom our trial or excuse must be. What help we may have in the understanding of the words from these various translations of them, we shall see in our consideration of the particulars of the text. The difficulty of the place hath caused me to inquire the more diligently into the sense of translators upon the words themselves. [8]

[8] Exposition. Three questions are raised by the use of the term in this passage: l. Does it refer to the personal or written Word? That the former is the correct exegesis is the opinion of Clericus, Seb. Schmid, Spener, Heinsius, Cramer, Alting, Olshausen, and Tholuek; while the latter view is held by Bengel, MKnight, MLean, Bloomfield, Stuart, Scholefield, Turner, and Ebrard. 2. Do both the 12th and 13th verses apply to the written word? Most of those who hold by the latter of the two views just mentioned, with some exceptions, such as Ebrard, conceive that there is a transition in the 13th verse to God himself, the pronoun referring to the same person to whom our account is to be rendered. 3. Opposed to the view that the personal Word is meant, three opinions are held:

(1.) Some writers conceiving the word to mean Old Testament threatenings, such as Stuart;

(2.) Others, such as Ebrard, New Testament revelation; while

(3.) Conybeare and Howson understand by it the revelation of Gods judgment to the conscience. ED.

Heb 4:12-13. For the word of God is living and powerful [or effectual,] and sharper [more cutting, or cutting more] than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner [a discerning judge] of the thoughts and intents [conceptions] of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not [apparently] manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, [or to whom we must give an account.]

The whole exposition of these words depends on the subject spoken of, Heb 4:12; that, therefore, we must diligently inquire into. This being rightly stated, the things spoken must be duly accommodated unto it; and in these two things doth the due exposition of these words consist. Now this subject is , the word of God. It is known that this name sometimes in the Scripture denotes the essential Word of God, sometimes the word spoken by him: or, is either , that is, the eternal Son of God; or , his enunciative word, the word of his will, his declared, written word. And the confounding of these is that which so entangleth the Quakers amongst us; or rather, is that whereby they endeavor to entangle others, and seduce unlearned and unstable souls But all sorts of expositors are divided in judgment about which of these it is that is here intended. Amongst the ancients, Ambrose, with many others, contends that it is the essential and eternal Word of God which is spoken of. Chrysostom seems rather to incline to the written word. The expositors of the Roman church are here also divided. Lyra, Cajetan, Carthusianus, a Lapide, Ribera, with sundry others, pleaded for the essential Word. Gatenus, Adamus, Hessetius, Estius, for the word written. So do the Rhemists in their annotations, and particularly for the word of threatening. Amongst the Protestants, few judge the essential Word, or Son of God, Jesus Christ, to be intended. Jacobus Cappellus and Gomarus I have only met withal that are positively of that mind. Among the rest, some take it for the word of God preached in general, as Calvin; some for the threatenings of God, with the Rhemists; and some peculiarly for the gospel. Crellius waives all these, and contends that it is the decree of God which is designed; which when he comes to the explanation of, he makes it the same with his threatenings. I shall inquire with what diligence I can into the true and direct meaning of the Holy Ghost herein.

First, I grant that the name here used, , the word of God, is ascribed sometimes to the essential Word of God, and sometimes to the enunciative word, or the Scripture, as inspired and written. That the Son of God is so called we shall show afterwards; and that the declaration of the will of God by the penmen of the Scripture is so termed, is obvious and acknowledged by all but only our Quakers. But testimonies are full, many, and pregnant to this purpose: Luk 5:1, The multitude pressed on him to hear , the word of God; where the word of God is directly distinguished from him that spake it, which was Jesus Christ. Luk 8:11, The seed is , the word of God; that is, the word preached by Jesus Christ, the good sower of that seed, as the whole chapter declares. Luk 11:28, Blessed are those that hear , , the word of God, and keep it; that is, preserve it in their hearts, and obey it being heard. Mar 7:13, Making void , the word of God by your traditions. The word of God, that is, in his institutions and commands, is directly opposed to the traditions and commands of men, and so is of the same general nature. Act 4:31, They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and spake out , the word of God, the word which they preached, declaring Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. When Philip had preached the gospel at Samaria and many believed, it is said, Act 8:14, that the apostles heard that Samaria had received , the word of God, or believed the doctrine of the gospel preached unto them. Act 12:24, , But the word of God grew and multiplied; that is, upon the death of Herod it was more and more preached and received. 1Co 14:36, Did the word of God go out from you, or came it to you alone? In like manner is it used in many other places. I have instanced in these to obviate the vain clamors of those men who will not allow the Scripture, or gospel as preached, to be called the word of God. So absolutely, the word, and the word of the gospel, the word preached, the word of Christ, are common notations of this declared word of God.

Secondly, It is granted that the attributes and effects that are there ascribed unto the word of God may, in several senses, be applied to the one and the other of the things mentioned. That they are properly ascribed unto the eternal Son of God shall be afterwards declared. That in some sense also they may be applied unto the written word, other places of the Scripture, where things of the same nature are ascribed unto it, do manifest. Isa 49:2; Psa 45:5; Psa 105:19; Psa 107:20; Psa 147:15; Psa 147:18; Isa 40:8; Isa 45:11, are cited by Grotius to this purpose, whereof yet more do clearly confirm the assertion. For though the word of God be mentioned in them, yet in some of the places the essential Word of God, in most of them his providential word, the word of his power, is unquestionably intended. But see Hos 6:5; 1Co 14:24-25.

Thirdly, It must be acknowledged, that if the things here mentioned be ascribed unto the written word, yet they do not primarily and absolutely belong unto it upon its own account, but by virtue of its relation unto Jesus Christ, whose word it is, and by reason of the power and efficacy that is by him communicated unto it. And on the other hand, if it be the Son, or the eternal Word of God, that is here intended, it will be granted that the things here ascribed unto him are such as for the most part he effects by his word in and upon the hearts and consciences of men. Hence the difference that is between the various interpretations mentioned in the issue concurs in the same things, though the subject primarily spoken of be variously apprehended. Now that this is the word of Gods will, his enunciative word, his word written, spoken, preached, is by very many contended and pleaded on the ensuing reasons:

1. From the subject; Because the Son of God, or Christ, is nowhere in the Scripture called , the Word, or Word of God, but only in the writings of John the apostle, as in his Gospel and the Revelation. By Paul he is everywhere, and in an especial manner in this epistle, called the Son, the Son of God, Jesus Christ; and nowhere is he termed by him the Word, or the Word of God.This argument is made use of by all that are of this mind; but that it is not available to evince the conclusion intended shall immediately be made manifest.

2. From its attributes. They say, The things here spoken of, and attributed unto the word of God, as that it is powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, are not personal properties, or such things as may properly be ascribed unto a person, as the eternal Word of God is, but rather belong unto things, or a thing, such as is the word preached.Now this must be particularly examined in our exposition of the words; wherein it will be made to appear, that the things here ascribed unto the word of God, taken together in their order and series, with respect unto the end designed, are such as cannot firstly and properly belong to any thing but a person, or an intelligent subsistence, though not merely as a person, but as a person acting for a certain end and purpose, such as the Son of God is; and this will also be evinced in our exposition of the words.

3. From the context. It is objected by Estius,

That the mentioning or bringing in of Christ, the Son of God, in this place is abrupt, and such as hath no occasion given unto it; for the apostle in the precedent verses is professedly treating about the gospel, and the danger they were in that should neglect it, or fall away from the profession of it. Hence it naturally follows, that he should confirm his exhortation by acquainting them with the power and efficacy of that word which they did despise.

But neither is there any force in this consideration: for,

(1.) We shall see that there is a very just occasion to introduce here the mention of the Lord Christ, and that the series of the apostles discourse and arguing did require it.

(2.) It is the way and manner of the apostle, in this epistle, to issue his arguings and exhortations in considerations of the person of Christ, and the respect of what he had insisted on thereunto. This we have already manifested in several instances.

(3.) Thus, in particular, when he had treated of the word of the law and of the gospel, he closeth his discourse by minding them of the punishment that should and would befall them by whom they were neglected. Now punishing is the act of a person, and not of the word, Heb 2:1-3. And there is the same reason for the introduction of the person of Christ in this place.

(4.) Estius himself doth, and all must confess, that it is either God or Christ that is intended, Heb 2:13, with whom we have to do, and before whose eyes all things are opened and naked. And if the order of the discourse admit of the introduction of the person of Christ in Heb 2:13, no reason can be assigned why it may not do so in Heb 2:12. Yea, it will be found very difficult, if possible, to preserve any tolerable connection of speech, and so to separate those verses that what is spoken of in the one should not be the subject of the other also.

4. Cameron argues, from the connection of the words, to prove the preaching of the word, and not the person of Christ, to be intended. For saith he,

The conjunction, , noteth the reason of the thing spoken of before; but that which precedes is a dehortation from the contempt of the gospel. And the reason hereof the apostle gives in these verses, in that those, who forsake the gospel which they have once embraced are wont to be vexed in their consciences, as those who have denied the known truth. And although they seem to be quiet for a season, yet it is stupidness, and not peace, that they are possessed with. Now this judgment is often ascribed unto the word of God.

Ans. These things are somewhat obscurely proposed. The meaning seems to be, that the apostle threatens the Hebrews with the judging and disquieting power of the word when it is by any rejected. But this is inconsistent with the true design of the words, which we before laid down. Having exhorted them to perseverance, and to take heed that they neglected not the promise of entering into the rest of God through unbelief, he presseth them further to care, diligence, sincerity, and constancy, in the performance of the duty that he had exhorted them unto. And this he doth from the consideration of the person of Christ, the author of the gospel; as his manner is in all his arguings, to bring all to that point and center. And as to his present purpose, suitably unto his exhortation and the duty which he enjoined them, he insists upon his ability to discern and discover all the secret frames and actings of their spirits, with all the ways and means whereby a declension in them might be begun or carried on.

I do judge, therefore, that it is the eternal Word of God, or the person of Christ, which is the subject here spoken of, and that upon the ensuing reasons:

First, and , the Word, and the Word of God, is the proper name of Christ in respect of his divine nature, as the eternal Son of God. So is he called expressly, Joh 1:1-2; Rev 19:13, , , His name is called (or, this is his name,) the Word of God. This, therefore, being the name of Christ, where all things that are spoken of it do agree unto him, and there be no cogent reasons in the context to the contrary, be is presumed to be spoken of, nor will any rule of interpretation give countenance to the embracing of another sense.

It is, as we heard before, excepted against this first reason, that Christ is called , the Word, only in the writings of John the evangelist, and nowhere else in the New Testament, particularly not by our apostle in any of his epistles.

Ans. 1. This observation can scarcely be made good; I am sure not convincingly. Luke the evangelist tells us that some were , Luk 1:2, from the beginning eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word: that is, of the person of Christ; for these words are expounded, 1Jn 1:1, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life. They were , eye-witnesses of the Word. How they could be said to be eye-witnesses of the word preached is not evident. Jerome renders the words,

Sicut tradiderunt nobis, qui ab initio viderunt Sermonem et ministraverunt el, Praefat. in Evangel;

As they delivered unto us, who from the beginning themselves saw the Word, and ministered unto him.

And must respect a person to whom those so called do minister, and not ,the word that is administered. In the same sense the word is used again most probably, Act 20:32 :

, , , ,

I commend you, brethren, to God, and to the Word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and give you an inheritance. To be able to build us up, and give us an inheritance, is the property of a person; nor can they be ascribed to the word preached, without forced prosopopoeia, and such as is unusual in Scripture. Therefore this is the Son of God. God he is called the Word of his grace, either because he was given unto us of his mere grace, as he is elsewhere called the Son of his love; or may be genitivus effecti, the Word that is the author and cause of grace; as God himself is called the God of peace and love, 2Co 13:11. To him therefore, are believers committed and commended by the apostle, as a recommendation is made of one man unto another in or by an epistle. See its sense in Act 14:23; 1Ti 1:18; 1Pe 4:19. Now, the word of the gospel is said to be committed or commended unto us, 2Ti 2:2; so as we cannot, unless it be exceeding abusively, [9] be said to be committed and commended thereunto. And if any will not admit the person of Christ to be here intended by the Word of Gods grace, I would supply an ellipsis, and read the text, I commend you to God, and the Word of his grace, even to him that is able; which I acknowledge the manner of the expression by the article will bear.

[9] That is, in a sense remote from the proper use of the word. Ed.

2. But whatever may be spoken concerning this phraseology in other places and in other epistles of this apostle, there is peculiar reason for the use of it here. I have observed often before, that in writing this epistle to the Hebrews, our apostle accommodates himself to the apprehensions and expressions that were then in use among the Hebrews, so far as they were agreeable unto the truth, rectifying them when under mistakes, and arguing with them from their own concessions and persuasions. Now at this time there was nothing more common or usual, among the Hebrews, than to denote the second subsistence in the Deity by the name of The Word of God. They were now divided into two great parts; first, the inhabitants of Canaan, with the regions adjoining, and many old remnants in the east, who used the Syro-chaldean language, being but one dialect of the Hebrew; and, secondly, the dispersions under the Greek empire, who are commonly called Hellenists, who used the Greek tongue. And both these sorts at that time did usually, in their several languages, describe the second person in the Trinity by the name of The Word of God. For the former sort, or those who used the Syro-chaldean dialect, we have an eminent proof of it in the translation of the Scripture which, at least some part of it, was made about this time amongst them, commonly called the Chaldee Paraphrase; in the whole whereof the second person is mentioned under the name of , Memra da-Iova, or the Word of God. Hereunto are all personal properties and all divine works assigned in that translation; which is an illustrious testimony to the faith of the old church concerning the distinct subsistence of a plurality of persons in the divine nature. And for the Hellenists, who wrote and expressed themselves in the Greek tongue, they used the name of , the Word of God, to the same purpose; as I have elsewhere manifested out of the writings of Philo, who lived about this time, between the death of our Savior and the destruction of Jerusalem. And this one consideration is to me absolutely satisfactory as to the intention of the apostle in the using of this expression, especially seeing that all the things mentioned may far more properly and regularly be ascribed unto the person of the Son than unto the word as written or preached. And whosoever will take the pains to consider what occurs in the Targums concerning their , the Word of God, and compare it with what the apostle here speaks, and the manner of its introduction, will, if I greatly mistake not, be of the same mind with myself. But I shall add yet some further considerations.

3. The introduction of , or the Word, here, is with respect unto a commination or an admonition; for the design of it is to beget a reverence or fear in the minds of men about their deportment in the profession of the gospel, because of the consequents of disobedience in punishment and revenge, Now the Lord Christ is particularly termed the Word of God with respect unto the judgments that he exerciseth with regard unto his church and his gospel, Rev 19:13. That administration, therefore, being here respected, gives occasion unto a peculiar ascription of that name unto him, the Word of God, who will destroy all the opposers and forsakers of the gospel.

4. It cannot be denied, nor is it by any, but that it is the person of the Son, or of the Father, that is intended, Heb 4:13. Indeed it is directly of the Son, as we shall manifest from the close of the words; but all confess God to be intended. Nor can these expressions, of all things manifest in his sight, and Being opened and naked unto his eyes, be applied unto any other, or intend any other but God; and that it is the Son who is especially intended the close of the verse doth evince, . He speaks of him with whom we have to do. Some take here for , concerning whom; , nostra oratio est, our discourse is: which must needs denote the Son, concerning whom in this whole epistle he treats with the Hebrews. Ours, with whom we have to do; that is, in this matter, who hath a concernment in us and our steadfastness or declension in profession. And this also properly and immediately designs the person of the Son. The precise sense of the words is, cui a nobis reddenda ratio est, to whom we must give an account, both here and hereafter.

So Chrysostom and the Syriac translation expressly. Principally this respects the last days account, called our , or ratiocinium: Heb 13:17, They watch for your souls, , as those that must give an account. Luk 16:2, , Give an account of thy stewardship. Rom 14:12, Every one of us , shall give an account of himself unto God. 1Pe 4:5, , Who shall give an account unto him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead. And this account is certainly to be given up immediately to Jesus Christ, Act 17:31, Rom 14:9-10. Nor is it any way obstructive to the embracing of this sense, that should be taken so diversely in the beginning of the 12th (Heb 4:12) and end of the 13th verse (Heb 4:13), during the continuation of the same discourse. For such an antanaclasis is not only very frequent but very elegant: , . See Mat 8:22, 2Co 5:21, Joh 1:11. It is therefore the person of Christ which is undeniably intended in the 13th verse (Heb 4:13), even he to whom we must give an account of our profession, of our faith and obedience. And the relative, , in the first clause of that verse, in his sight, can refer to nothing properly but or Word of God, Heb 4:12. And its dependence is dear thereon: Is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight.. So a reason is assigned in the beginning of the 13th verse (Heb 4:13) of what was affirmed in the dose of the 12th (Heb 4:12): he is a discerner of the thoughts of the heart, because all things are manifest unto him.

5. The attributes here ascribed to the word, Heb 4:12, do all of them properly belong unto the person of Christ, and cannot firstly and directly be ascribed to the gospel. This shall be manifested in the ensuing explication of the words:

(1.) It is said to be , virus, vivens, living; which, as was observed, we have translated ambiguously, quick. is applied to God himself, as expressing a property of his nature, Mat 16:16, 1Ti 4:10, Heb 3:12. And it is also peculiarly ascribed unto Christ the mediator, Rev 1:18. And he is , the living one. And two things are intended in it:

[1.] That he who is so hath life in himself

[2.] That he is the Lord of life unto others. Both which are emphatically spoken of the Son.

[1.] He hath life in himself, Joh 5:26; and,

[2.] He is the Prince of life, Act 3:15, or the author of it.

He hath the disposal of the life of all, whereunto all our concernments temporal and eternal do belong. See Joh 1:4. And it is evident how suitable unto the purpose of the apostle the mention hereof at this time is. He minds the Hebrews that he with whom they have to do in this matter is the living one. As in like manner he had before exhorted them to take heed of departing from the living God, and afterwards warns them how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, Heb 10:31; so here, to dissuade them from the one and to awe them with the other, he minds them that the Word of God, with whom in an especial manner they have to do, is living. What is contained in this consideration hath been declared on Joh 3:13. Slow this cannot properly be ascribed unto the word of the gospel. It is, indeed, the instrumental means of quickening the souls of men with spiritual life, or it is the instrument that the Lord Christ maketh use of to that purpose; but in itself it is not absolutely living, it hath not life in itself, nor in its power. But Christ hath so; for in him is life, and the life is the light of men, Joh 1:4. And this one property of him with whom we have to do contains the two great motives unto obedience; namely, that on the one side he is able to support us in it, and reward us eternally for it; on the other, that he is able to avenge all disobedience. The one will not be unrewarded, nor the other unrevenged; for he is the living one with whom in these things we have to do.

(2.) It is , powerful. Power for operation is an act of life; and such as is the life of any thing, such is its power for operation. These things, life, power, and operation, answer one another. And this power signifies actual power, power acted or exerted, actuated power, or power effectual in actual operation. Having therefore first assigned life to the Word of God, that is the principle of all power, life in himself, as being the living one, our apostle adds that he exerts that power of life in actual operation, when, where, and how he pleaseth. He is . , I confess, is a common word, signifying the efficacy of any thing in operation according to its principle of power; but it is that also whereby our apostle most frequently expresseth the almighty, effectual, operating power of God in and about spiritual things, 1Co 12:6; 1Co 12:11, Gal 2:8; Gal 3:5, Eph 1:11, Php 2:13, 1Th 2:13, Eph 1:19, Col 2:12, and elsewhere. And this was necessary to be added to the property of life, to manifest that the Lord Christ, the Word of God, would effectually put forth his power in dealing with professors according to their deportment; which afterwards is expressed in sundry instances. And herein the apostle lets both the Hebrews and us know that the power that is in Christ lies not idle, is not useless, but is continually exercising itself towards us as the matter doth require. There is also, I acknowledge, an energy, an operative power in the word of God as written or preached; but it is not in it primarily, by virtue of a life or principle of power in itself, but only as a consequent of its being his word who is the living one, or as it is indeed the word of the living God.

The original of the power of Christ in life, and the efficacy of it in operation, being laid down, he further declares it,

(1.) By its properties;

(2.) By its effects.

(1.) The property of the Word, with respect unto the exercise of his power, is, that it is . From , to cut or divide, is , scindens, incidens, cleaving, cutting, or that which is vi incisofia praeditus, endued with a cutting power; , in the comparative degree. Valla says he would render it incidentior, were that word used. So in Phocylides,

.

Telum ferro penetrantius; acutior, penetrantior (see the different translations of the word before); sharper, more piercing. . The preposition added to the comparative degree increaseth the signification; for it might have been said, , or : but the construction used expresseth the greatest distance between the comparates, than any two-edged sword. , that is, ., gladius biceps, anceps, utrinque incidens; double-edged or mouthed, cutting every way. , the mouth of the sword, is a Hebraism, with such an elegance in the allusion as most languages have admitted it. The metaphor is doubtless taken from wild beasts, whom mankind first feared, that devour with their mouths; which when the sword began to be used for destruction, gave them occasion to call its edge by the name of its mouth: , double-mouthed, cutting each way, that leaves nothing unpierced whereunto it is applied. Christ in the exercise of his power is said to be more piercing than any two-edged sword; for so doth God oftentimes set forth himself and his power, with an allusion to things sensible, thereby to convey a notion and apprehension of them to our understandings. So he is said to be a consuming fire, and that he will be as a lion; things of great terror to men. This of a sword is often mentioned with respect unto the Lord Christ, Isa 49:2; Rev 1:16, Out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. And it is principally assigned unto him with respect unto the exercise of his power in and by his word, which is called the sword of the Spirit, Eph 6:17; the sword that is on his thought Psa 45:3, which he hath in readiness when he goeth forth to subdue the souls of men to himself; as it is also the rod of his power, Psa 110:2.

But it is Christ himself who makes the word powerful and sharp: the principal efficiency is in himself, acting in and with it. That then which is here intended, is the spiritual, almighty, penetrating efficacy of the Lord Christ, in his dealing with the souls and consciences of men by his word and Spirit. And whereas there is a twofold use of a sword; the one natural, to cut or pierce through all opposition, all armor of defense; the other moral, to execute judgments and punishments, whence the sword is taken for the right and authority of punishing, and ofttimes for punishment itself, Rom 13:4; here is an allusion unto it in both senses. The Lord Christ, by his word and Spirit, pierceth into the souls of men (as we shall see in the next clause), and that notwithstanding all the defense of pride, security, obstinacy, and unbelief, which they wrap up themselves in, according to the natural use of the sword. Again, he by them executes judgments on wicked men, hypocrites, false professors, and apostates. He smites the earth with the rod of his mouth, and slays the wicked with the breath of his lips, Isa 11:4. He cuts off the life of their carnal hopes, false peace, worldly security, whatever they live upon, by the two-edged sword that proceeds out of his mouth. And the minding of the Hebrews hereof was exceedingly suited to his present purpose, as hath been declared. And in the pursuit of this double allusion are the ensuing expressions accommodated to the matter intended.

(2.) This power of the Word is described by its effects: , . The act itself intended is in the first word, . The object of that act is doubly expressed,

[1.] By soul and spirit;

[2.] Joints and marrow; and

[3.] There is the extent of this act with reference unto that object, expressing the effect itself, , to the dividing of them.

, perceniens, penetrans; piercing, say we, in answer to the sharpness before expressed. The word in other authors is variously rendered by pervado, permeo, pervenio, attingo, to pass through, to reach unto, to attain an end; from , to come. It is here, in the pursuit of the former allusion, used elegantly to express the power of Christ, as a sword piercing into the soul. And the meaning of the following expressions is, that it doth so into the innermost recesses, and as it were the secret chambers of the mind and heart. And this word is nowhere else used in the Scripture.

The object of this piercing is the soul and spirit. Some think that by , the natural and unregenerate part of the soul is intended; and by , that which is in it renewed and regenerate. And there is some ground for that explication of this distinction; for hence is a man wholly unregenerate called , 1Co 2:14; say we, the natural man. And though , absolutely used, doth denote either the being of the rational soul, or life, which is an effect thereof; yet as it is opposed to the spirit, or distinguished from it, it may denote the unregenerate part, as , the flesh, doth, though absolutely it signifies one part of the material substance of the body. From hence is an unregenerate person denominated . So the spiritual part is frequently called , the spirit, as Joh 3:6; and are generate person , the spiritual man, 1Co 2:15. According to this interpretation, the sense of the words is, that the Word of God, the Lord Christ, by his word and Spirit pierceth into the state of the soul, to discover who or what is regenerate amongst us or in us, and who or what is not so. The principles of these things are variously involved in the souls of men, so that they are not ofttimes discernible unto them in whom they are, as to whether of them is predominant. But the Lord Christ makes , a division with a distribution, referring all things in the soul to their proper source and original. Others judge, that whereas our apostle makes a distinction between soul and spirit, as he doth in other places, he intends by , the soul, the affections, the appetites, and desires; and by , the spirit, the mind or understanding, the , the conducting part of the soul. And it is most probable that he here intends the same: for setting out the penetrating power of the Word of God with reference unto the souls of men, he distributes the soul into as it were its principal constituent parts, or faculties of it; that is, the mind, that leads, conducts, and guides it; and the passions, that steer and balance it, wherein all the most secret recesses and springs of all its actings do lie. And this sense is confirmed from the following words, wherein the same thing is asserted under a different notion, namely, of the joints and marrow. That which in the soul answers the joints and marrow in the body, by way of allusion, is that which is intended. Joints and marrow in themselves are things sensual and fleshly, that have no concern in this matter; but in the body they are doubly considerable,

[1.] Upon the account of their use; and so they are the ligaments of the whole, the principal and only means of communication to the members from the head, and among themselves. So this use of them is translated to spiritual things, Eph 4:16. And by a luxation or discontinuation of them the whole body will be dissolved.

[2.] On the account of their hiddenness and secrecy. They are undiscernible unto the eye of man, and it must be a sharp instrument or sword that pierceth unto them so as to divide them one from the other, whereby natural life will be destroyed. As these things are in the body for use and hiddenness, with respect unto their being pierced with a sword, so would the apostle have us to understand what he speaks of in reference unto the soul, the most useful and secret parts whereof are pierced and divided by the power of Christ; whence, if it be in a way of punishment, spiritual death doth ensue. And this is yet further confirmed in the last description which the apostle gives us of the Word of God from his actings and effects, he is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; which yet he more clearly explains in the next verse, as we shall see in the opening of it. That, then, which in all these expressions is intended, is the absolute power and ability of the Son of God to judge of the rectitude and crookedness of the ways and walkings of the sons of men under their profession, from the inward frames of their minds and hearts unto all their outward duties and performances, either in perseverance or backsliding.

The last expression, , is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, is plainly declarative of what is elsewhere ascribed unto him, namely, that he is , he that knoweth and searcheth the hearts of men. This is a peculiar property of God, and is often affirmed so to be, Jer 17:10; 1Sa 16:7; Psa 7:9; and this in an especial manner is ascribed to the Lord Christ, Joh 2:24-25; Joh 21:17; Rev 2:23. This is eminently expressed in that confession of Peter, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee;

By virtue of thine omniscience, whereby thou knowest all things, thou knowest my heart, and the love which I have therein unto thee., judex, discretor; one that, upon accurate inspection and consideration, judgeth and giveth sentence concerning persons and things. It differs from , a judge, as adding the act of judging unto the right and power of judgment. And this word alone, as it is here used, is sufficient to evince that the person of Christ is here principally intended, seeing it cannot be accommodated to the word as written or preached, in any tolerable manner.

. By the heart, as I have showed before, the whole soul and all the faculties of it, as constituting one rational principle of moral actions, is intended, and so includes the soul and spirit before mentioned. Here two things are ascribed unto it:

[1.] , thoughts, cogitations, whatever is inwardly conceived, , in the mind; with a peculiar respect unto the irascible appetite called , Gen 6:5, the figment of the cogitations of the heart, the thoughts which are suggested by the inclinations of the affections, with their commotions and stirrings in the heart or mind.

[2.] , designs or purposes, inwardly framed , in the understanding. Sometimes this word signifies the moral principles of the mind, by which it is guided in its actings. Hence are the , or common principles that men are directed by in what they do. And here it denotes the principles that men are guided by in their actings, according to which they frame their actual purposes and intentions. Upon the whole matter, the design of the apostle in these words is to declare the intimate and absolute acquaintance that the Word of God hath with the inmost frames, purposes, desires, resolutions, and actings of the minds of professors; and the sure, unerring judgment which he makes of them thereby.

Heb 4:13. The 13th verse contains a confirmation of what is asserted in that foregoing. There the apostle declared how the Word of God pierceth into the hearts, minds, and souls of men, to discern and judge them. That they to whom he wrote might not doubt hereof, he confirms it by showing the ground of his assertion, which is the natural omniscience of the Word of God: It cannot be otherwise than as I have declared, seeing he of whom we speak, with whom we have to do, to whom we must give an account, this Word of God, seeth and knoweth all things, nor can any thing possibly be hid from him.This is the natural coherence of the words, and upon a supposition of a different subject to be spoken of in this from the foregoing verse, no man can frame a tolerable transition in this contexture of words from the one unto the other. I shall therefore proceed in the explication of them, as words of the same design, and used to the same purpose.

. The manner of the expression is by a double negation: the one expressed, , there is not; the other included in the privative in . And these expressions do emphatically assert the contrary to what is denied: There is not a creature that is not manifest; that is, every creature is eminently, illustriously manifest.

, there is not a creature, anything created: that is, every creature whatever, whether they be persons or things, angels, men, devils, professors, persecutors, all men of all sorts; and all things concerning them, their inward frames of mind and heart, their affections and temptations, their state and condition, their secret actings, their thoughts and inclinations. This confirms and carries on the foregoing attributions to the Word of God. is to appear, to shine forth; and is opposed to , illustrious, perspicuous, eminently manifest; so it is hid, obscure, not openly or evidently appearing. It is more than , which is merely one out of sight, Luk 24:31. This negation includes a plain, clear, illustrious appearance, nothing shrouding, hiding, terposing itself to obscure it.

, before him, in conspectu ejus, in his sight. Every creature is continually under his view. must refer to , the Word of God, in the beginning of Heb 4:12; and cannot respect , in the end of this verse. For the interposition of the adversative particle , but, and the introduction of the relative again, do necessarily refer this to , and proves the same person to be all along intended.

. The unusual application of the word , in this place hath made work more than enough for critica. But the design of the apostle is open and plain, however the use of the word be rare, with some especial allusion. All agree that is as much as , absolutely open or manifest. Only Oecumenius hath a peculiar conceit about it. It is, saith he, , , bowing down, and declining or turning aside the neck, as not being able to behold the glory of Jesus, our Judge and God. But he gives us another signification of the word himself. , the neck, is a word commonly used in Scripture, and in all authors. Thence , in the sense here used, to be manifest, must receive its signification from some posture of the neck; and as joined here with Turves, naked, it may have respect unto a double allusion. First, unto wrestlers and contenders in games. First they were made naked, or stripped of their clothes; whence, as it is known, comes and , vigorously to exercise, and a place of such exercise. Then, in their contending, when one was thrown on his back, when he was resupinatus, he was , laid open, with his throat and neck upwards. Hence the word comes signify things that are open, naked, evident, manifest. The face and neck of a naked person being turned upwards, it is manifest who he is. This is to have os resupinatum; and, as he speaks, aulam resupinat amici [Juv., Sat. 3. 112], of him who sees what is in the bottom. There is yet another allusion that may be intended, and this is token from beasts that are slain, and, being stripped of their skins, are hanged by the neck, that all may see and discern them. This is also mentioned by OEcumenius. And Varinus gives us a further sense, and says that is as much as , to divide into parts; or , to cut, cleave, or divide through the back- bone, that all may be discovered. And from these two significations I suppose the design of the apostle in this allusion may most probably be collected. It is evident that he hath great regard unto, and doth much instruct the Hebrews by and from the customs in use amongst themselves. Unto one of them doth he here seem to have respect, namely, the beasts that were sacrificed. The first thing that was done with the body of it, after it was slain, was its being flayed. This work was done by the priests. Hereby the carcass of the beast was made , naked, laid open to the view of all. Then were all its entrails opened, from the neck down to the belly; after which the body was cut into its pieces through the chine- bone: whereby in both the senses mentioned, both of opening and division, it became , opened and divided, so that every part of it was exposed to view. Hence the apostle, having compared the Word of God before in his operations to a two-edged sword, that pierceth to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, as did the sharp knife or instrument of the sacrificer; here affirms that all things whatever, and so consequently the hearts and ways of professors, were evident, open, and naked before him, as the body of the sacrificed beast was to the priests when flayed, opened, and cut to pieces. This is the most probable account of these expressions in particular, whose general design is plain and evident. And this appears yet further from the next words.

, to the eyes of him. He followeth on his former allusion; and having ascribed the evidence of all things unto the omniscience of the Word, by the similitude before opened, in answer thereunto he mentions his eyes wherewith he beholds the things so naked and open before him. Both expressions are metaphorical, containing a declaration of the omniscience of Christ, whom he further describes in the last words, by our respect unto him in all these things.

. How variously these words are rendered, and thereby what various senses are put upon them, hath been declared. But both the proper signification of them and the design of the place direct us to one certain sense, namely, to whom we must give an account. is an account; there is no other word used in the New Testament to express it. is properly unto whom, and not of whom, or concerning whom; that is, it expresseth the object of the action here mentioned, and not the subject of the proposition. And the whole is rightly rendered, to whom we must give an account; or, before whom our account is to be made. And this answers the design of the apostle in the place. For evidencing unto them the efficacy and omniscience of the Word of God, trying all things, and discerning all things, he minds them of their near concernment in these matters, in that he and they must all give up their final accounts unto and before him who is so intimately acquainted with what they are, and with whatsoever they shall do in this world.

There are many things remaining to be observed from these words, which are both of great importance in themselves, and do also serve to the further explanation of the mind of the Holy Ghost in these words, as to what of our instruction is particularly intended in them. And from the properties that are assigned to the Word of God, Heb 4:12, we may observe, that,

Obs. 1. It is the way of the Spirit of God, to excite us unto especial duties by proposing unto us and minding us of such properties of God as the consideration whereof may in an especial manner incline us unto them.

Here the Hebrews are minded that the Word of God is living, to give unto their hearts that awe and reverence of him which might deter them from backsliding or falling away from him. Our whole duty in general respects the nature of God. It is our giving glory to him because he is God, and as he is God, glorifying him as God, Exo 20:2; Isa 42:8; Deu 28:58; Rom 1:21. It is our giving him the honor which is due to his being. That is the formal reason of all divine worship and obedience. And as this duty in general brancheth itself into many particular duties in the kinds of them, all which in various instances are continually to be attended unto; so God hath not only revealed his being unto us in general, but he hath done it by many distinct properties, all of them suited to promote in our minds our whole duty towards God, and this or that duty in particular. And he often distinctly presseth upon us the consideration of those properties, for to stir us up unto those distinct duties which they direct unto. God in his nature exists in one simple essence or being; nor are there any things really different or distinct therein. His nature is all his properties, and every one of his properties is his whole nature; but in the revelation of himself unto us he proposeth his nature under the notion of these distinct properties, that we may the better know the nature of the duty which we owe unto him: Hos 3:5, Fear the LORD and his goodness. So in places innumerable doth he mind us of his power and greatness; that upon our thoughts and apprehensions of them we might be stirred up to fear him, to trust in trim, to get our hearts filled with a due awe and reverence of him, with many other duties of the like nature with them, or evidently proceeding from them: to trust, Isa 26:4; fear, Jer 10:6-7. His goodness, grace, bounty, patience, are all of them distinctly proposed unto us; and they all lead us unto especial duties, as the apostle speaks, Rom 2:4, The goodness of God leadeth to repentance. From these, or the efficacy of the consideration of them upon our souls, ought to proceed our love, our gratitude, our delight in God, our praise and thankfulness; and by them ought they to be influenced. So his holiness ingenerates terror in the wicked, Isa 33:14; and holy reverence in others, Heb 12:28-29. The like may be spoken of the rest of the properties of God, with respect unto the remainder of our duties. In like manner, and to the same purpose, did God of old reveal himself by his name. He still ascribed such a name to himself as might be prevalent on the minds of men unto their present duties. So when he called Abraham to walk before him, in the midst of many difficulties, temptations, hardships, and dangers, he revealed himself unto him by the name of God Almighty, thereby to encourage him to sincerity and perseverance, Gen 17:1. Hence, in his greatest distress he peculiarly acted his faith on the power of God, Heb 11:19. And when he called his posterity to comply in their faith and obedience with his faithfulness in the accomplishment of his promises, he revealed himself unto them by his name Jehovah; which was suited to their especial encouragement and direction, Exo 6:3. To the same end are the properties of the Word of God here distinctly proposed unto us. We are called to the faith and profession of the gospel. Herein we meet with many difficulties without, and are ofttimes ready to faint in ourselves, or otherwise to fail and miscarry. In this matter we have to do with the Lord Christ; to him we must one day give an account. Wherefore, to stir us up to carefulness, diligence, and spiritual watchfulness, that we give not place to any decays or declensions in our profession, we are especially minded that he is the living one, and one that continually exerciseth acts of life toward us. And in all duties of obedience, it will be our wisdom always to mind that respect which the properties of God or of Christ have unto them. Again, the Word of God is so living as that also it is powerful, or actually always exercising itself in power, actually efficacious toward the ends mentioned, . So that,

Obs. 2. The life and power of Christ are continually exercised about the concernments of the souls of professors; are always actually efficacious in them and upon them.

And this power he putteth forth by his word and Spirit; for we declared, in the opening of the words, that the effects here ascribed unto the essential Word are such as he produceth by the word preached, which is accompanied with and made effectual by the dispensation of the Spirit, Isa 59:21. And the power here intended is wholly clothed with the word; thereby it is conveyed to the souls of men; therein is the hiding of his power, Hab 3:4. Though it seems weak, and is despised, yet it is accompanied with the hidden power of Christ, which will not fail of its end, 1Co 1:18. And the word preached is not otherwise to be considered, but as that which is the conveyance of divine power to the souls of men. And every impression that it makes on the heart is an effect of the power of Christ. And this will teach us how to value it and esteem it, seeing it is the only way and means whereby the Lord Christ exerciseth his mediatory power towards us on the behalf of God; and effectual it will be unto the ends whereunto he designs it. For he is in it sharper than any two-edged sword. So that,

Obs. 3. The power of Christ in his word is irresistible, as to whatever effects he doth design it, Isa 55:10-11.

The power of Christ in his word is by many exceedingly despised and slighted. Few there are who seem to have any real effects of it produced in them or upon them. Hence it is looked on in the world as a thing of no great efficacy; and those who preach it in sincerity are ready to cry out, Who hath believed our report? But all this ariseth from a mistake, as though it had but one end designed unto it. Had the Lord Christ no other end to accomplish by his word but merely that which is the principal, the conversion of the souls of his elect, it might be conceived to fail towards the far greater number of them to whom it is preached. But it is with him in his word as it was in his own person. He was set for the fall as well as the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that should be spoken against, Luk 2:34. As he was to be unto some for a sanctuary, so for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, among whom many were to stumble at him, and fall, and be broken, Isa 8:14-15. And these things are all of them effectually accomplished towards them to whom he is preached. They are all of them either raised by him unto God out of their state of sin and misery, and do take sanctuary in him from sin and the law; or they stumble at him, through their unbelief, and perish eternally. None can ever have Christ proposed unto them upon indifferent terms, so as to be left in the condition wherein they were before. They must all be saved by his grace, or perish under his wrath. And so is it also with him in his word. The end, whatever it be that he assigns unto it with respect unto any, shall undoubtedly be accomplished. Now these ends are various, 2Co 2:14-15. Sometimes he intends by it only the hardening and further blinding of wicked sinners, that they may be the more prepared for deserved destruction: Isa 6:9-11,

Go, tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate.

The principal accomplishment hereof was in the personal ministry of Christ himself towards the people of the Jews, Mat 13:14; Mar 4:12; Luk 8:10; Joh 12:50. But the same is the condition of things in the preaching of the word to this day. Christ designs in it to harden and blind wicked sinners unto their destruction. And herein it misseth not of its effect. They are so until they are utterly destroyed. Towards some he designs it only for their conviction; and this it shall through his power unconquerably effect. There is not one whom he aimeth to convince but he shall be convinced, whatever he intends by those convictions. His arrows are sharp in the heart of his enemies, whereby the people fall under him, Psa 45:5. Let men be never so much his enemies, yet if he intends their conviction, he will so sharpen his word upon their hearts as that they shall let go their professed enmity and fall down in the acknowledgment of his power. None whom he will have convinced by his word shall be able to withstand it. Now, as the first sort of men may reject and despise the word as to any convictions from it which it is not designed to give them, but can never avoid its efficacy to harden them in their sins; so this second sort may resist and reject the word as to any real saving work of conversion, which is not in it or by it assigned unto them, but they cannot withstand its convictions, which are its proper work towards them. With respect unto others, it is designed for their conversion; and the power of Christ doth in this design so accompany it as that it shall infallibly accomplish that work. These dead creatures shall hear the voice of the Son of God in it and live. It is, then, certainly of high concernment unto all men unto whom Christ comes in his word, to consider diligently what is or is like to be the issue and consequence of it with respect unto themselves. Things are not issued according to outward appearance. If there were no hidden or secret events of the dispensation of the power of Christ in the word, all thoughts of any great matter in it might easily be cast off; for we see that the most live quietly under a neglect of it, without any visible effect upon their hearts or lives. And how then is it sharper than any two-edged sword? Things are indeed quite otherwise; the word hath its work on all; and those who are neither convinced nor converted by it, are hardened, which is in many evident to a spiritual eye. And surely we may do well to consider how it fareth with our own souls in this state of things. It is to no purpose to think to hide things secretly in our own thoughts, and to please ourselves in our own darkness; the power of Christ in the word will reach and search out all; for it pierceth to the dividing asunder of the. soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. So that,

Obs. 4. Though men may close and hide things from themselves and others, yet they cannot exclude the power of Christ in his word from piercing into them.

Men are apt strangely to hide, darken, and confound things between their soul and their spirit, that is, their affections and their minds. Herein consists no small part of the deceitfulness of sin, that it confounds and hides things in the soul, that it is not able to make a right judgment of itself. So men labor to deceive themselves, Isa 28:15. Hence, when a man can countenance himself from any thing in his affections, his soul, against the reflections that are made upon him from the convictions of his mind or spirit, or when he can rest in the light of his understanding, notwithstanding the perverseness and frowardness of his affections, he is very apt to be secure in an ill condition. The first deceiveth the more ignorant, the latter the more knowing professors. The true state of their souls is by this means hid from themselves. But the power of Christ in his word will pierce into these things, and separate between them. He doth so as to his

1. Discerning, his

2. Discovering or convincing, and his

3. Judging power.

1. Let things be never so close and hid, he discerneth all clearly and distinctly; they are not hid from him, Psa 139:4; Jer 23:24. Joh 2:23-25. And where he designs,

2. The conviction of men, he makes his word powerful to discover unto them all the secret follies of their minds and affections, the hidden recesses that sin hath in them, their close reserves, and spreads them before their eyes, to their own amazement, Psa 50:21. So our apostle tells us, that by prophesying, or expounding the word of Christ, the secrets of mens hearts are discovered; that is, to themselves, they find the word dividing asunder between their souls and spirits; whereon they fall down and give glory to God, 1Co 14:24-25. And hereby also,

3. He exerciseth his judging power in men. Let men arm themselves never so strongly and closely with love of sin and pleasure, carnal security, pride, and hatred of the ways of God, until their brows become as brass, and their neck as a sinew of iron, or let their sins be covered with the fair pretense of a profession, Christ by his word will pierce through all into their very hearts; and having discovered, divided, and scattered all their vain imaginations, he will judge them, and determine of their state and condition, Psa 45:5; Psa 110:6. Hereby doth he break all their strength and peace, and the communication of supplies in sin and security that have been between the mind and the affections, and destroys all their hopes.

Men are apt to please themselves in their spiritual condition, though built on very sandy foundations. And although all other considerations fail them, yet they will maintain a life of hopes, though ungrounded and unwarrantable, Isa 57:10. This is the condition of most false professors; but when the word of Christ by his power enters into their souls and consciences, it utterly casts down all their confidences, and destroys their hopes and expectations. Nothing now remains but that such a person betake himself wholly to the life which he can make in sin, with its lusts and pleasures; or else come over sincerely to him in whom is life, and who giveth life unto all that come unto him. So he slays the wicked with the breath of his lips, Isa 11:4. And this is the progress that the Lord Christ makes with the souls of men:

1. He discerneth himself their state and condition, what is good or evil in them.

2. He discovereth this unto themselves, or convinceth them of their sins and dangers; which surpriseth them with fears, and sometimes with amazements.

3. He judgeth them by his word, and condemns them by it in their own consciences. This makes them give over their old security and confidences, and betake themselves unto new hopes that yet things may be better with them.

4. He destroys these hopes also, and shows them how vain they are. And hereon they either betake themselves wholly to their sins, so to free themselves from their convictions and fears, or sincerely give up themselves unto him for relief. To this purpose, again, it is added, that this Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; that is, one that so discerns them as to put a difference between them, and to pass judgment upon them.

Obs. 5. The Lord Christ discerneth all inward and spiritual things. in order to his future judgment of those things, and the persons in whom they are on their own account.

Our discerning, our judging, are things distinct and separate. Discerning every thing weakly, imperfectly, and by parts or pieces, we cannot judge speedily, if we intend at all to judge wisely. For we must judge after the sight of our eyes, and reprove after the hearing of our ears; that is, according as we can take in by weak means an understanding of what we are to make a judgment upon. With the Word or Son of God it is not so; for he at once discerning all things perfectly and absolutely, in all their causes, circumstances, tendencies, and ends, in the same instant he approveth or condemneth them. The end of his knowledge of them is comprised in his knowledge itself, license to know, in the Scripture, when ascribed to God, doth sometimes signify to approve, accept, and justify; sometimes to refuse, reject, and condemn. Wherefore Christs judging of the thoughts and intents of mens hearts is inseparable from his discerning of them, and the end why he fixeth his eye upon them. For this cause is he said to be of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD, so as not to judge after the sight of his eyes, nor approve after the hearing of his ears; that is, according to the outward appearance and representation of things, or the profession that men make, which is seen and heard: but he judgeth with righteousness, and reproveth with equity, according to the true nature of things, which lieth hidden from the eyes of men, Isa 11:3-4. He knows to judge, and he judgeth in and by his knowledge; and the most secret things are the especial objects of his knowledge and judgment. Let not men please themselves in their secret reserves. There is not a thought in their hearts, though but transient, never arising to the consistency of a purpose, not a pleasing or seeming desirable imagination in their minds, but it lies continually under the eye of Christ, and at the same instant that very judgment is by him passed on them which shall be given out concerning them at the last day. O that we could always consider with what awe and reverence, with what care and diligence, we ought continually to walk before this holy, all-seeing One! In the description that is given of him when he came to deal with his churches, to judge them with righteousness, and reprove them with equity, not according to the sight of his eyes or the hearing of his ears, that is, the outward profession that they made, it is said that his eyes were as a flame of fire, Rev 1:14; answerable unto that of Job to God, Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth? Job 10:4. He doth not look on things through such weak and failing mediums as poor frail creatures do, but sees all things clearly and perfectly according as they are in themselves, by the light of his own eyes, which are as a flame of fire. And when he comes actually to deal with his churches, he prefaceth it with this, I known thy works, which leads the way; and his judgment on them upon the account of those works immediately followeth after, Rev 2:3. And it may be observed, that the judgment that he made concerning them was not only wholly independent of their outward profession, and ofttimes quite contrary unto it, but also that he judged otherwise of them, yea, contrary to that which in the secret of their hearts they judged of themselves. See Heb 3:17. So when Judas was in the height of his profession, he judged him a devil, Joh 6:70-71; and when Peter was in the worst of his defection he judged him a saint, as having prayed for him that his faith might not fail So doth he know that he may judge, and so doth he judge together with his knowledge; and this easily and perfectly, for all things are naked and opened before him; so that,

Obs. 6. It is no trouble or labor to the Word of God to discern all creatures, and all that is of them and in them, seeing there is nothing but is evidently apparent, open, and naked, under his all- seeing eye.

It would be necessary here to open the nature of the knowledge or omniscience of God, but that I have done it at large in another treatise, whereunto I refer the reader. [10] Now, after the consideration of all the particulars, we may subjoin an observation that naturally ariseth from the multiplying of the instances here given by the apostle, and it is that,

[10] See vol. 10. p. 23, of the authors works. Ed.

Obs. 7. It is a great and difficult matter really and practically to convince professors of the practical judging omnisciency of Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

On the account hereof, added to the great importance of the thing itself unto our faith and obedience, doth the apostle here so multiply his expressions and instances of it. It is not for nothing that what might have been expressed in one single plain assertion is here set out in so many, and with such variety of allusions, suited to convey a practical sense of it unto our minds and consciences. All professors are ready enough to close with Peter in the first part of his confession, Lord, thou knowest all things; but when they come to the other, Thou knowest that I love thee, that is, to make a practical consideration of it with respect unto their own hearts and ways, as designing in all things to approve themselves unto him as those who are continually under his eye and judgment, this they fail in and are hardly brought unto. If their minds were fully possessed with the persuasion hereof, were they continually under the power thereof, it would certainly influence them unto that care, diligence, and watchfulness, which are evidently wanting in many, in the most of them. But love of present things, the deceitfulness of sin, the power of temptations, cares, and businesses of life, vain and uncertain hopes, do effectually divert their minds from a due consideration of it. And we find by experience how difficult it is to leave a lasting impression of it on the souls of men. Yet would nothing be of more use unto them in the whole course of their walking before God. And this will further appear, if, after the precedent exposition of the several particular parts of these verses, and brief observations from them, we duly consider the general design of the apostle in the words, and what we are instructed in thereby.

In the foregoing verses, having greatly cautioned the Hebrews against backsliding and declension in their profession, acquainting them with the nature and danger of unbelief and the deceitfulness of sin whereby that cursed effect is produced, the apostle in these verses gives an account of the reason of his earnestness with them in this matter. For although they might pretend that in their profession they gave him no cause to suspect their stability, or to be jealous of them, yet he lets them know that this is not absolutely satisfactory, seeing that not only others may be deceived in the profession of men, and give them a name to live who are really dead, but they also may please themselves in an apprehension of their own stability, when they are under manifold decays and declensions. The principles and causes of this evil are so close, subtile, and deceitful, that none is able to discern them but the all-seeing eye of Jesus Christ. On the account whereof he minds them fully and largely of his power and omniscience, whereunto they ought to have a continual regard, in their faith, obedience, and profession. Hence we are instructed,

First, That the beginnings or entrances into declensions in profession, or backslidings from Christ and the ways of the gospel, are secret, deep, and hardly discoverable, being open and naked only to the all-discerning eye of Christ.

Secondly, That the consideration of the omniscience of Christ, his all- searching and all-seeing eye, is an effectual means to preserve the souls of professors from destructive entrances into backslidings from the gospel.

Thirdly, The same consideration, duly improved, is a great relief and encouragement unto those who are sincere and upright in their obedience. For the apostle intends not merely to terrify those who are under the guilt of the evil cautioned against, but to encourage the meanest and weakest sincere believer, who desireth to commend his conscience to the Lord Jesus in his walking before him. And these things being comprehensive of the design of the apostle in these weighty words of truth and wisdom, and being greatly our unto concernment duly to consider, must be distinctly handled and spoken unto.

Obs. 8. For the first of the propositions laid down, it is the design of the apostle to teach it in all those cautions which he gives to these professing Hebrews against this evil, and concerning the subtilties and surprisals wherewith it is attended. See Heb 3:12-15. Everywhere he requires more than ordinary watchfulness and diligence in this matter; and plainly intimates unto are the temptations that professors are to be exercised withal, unless they are exceeding heedful, there will be no preventing of a surprisal or seduction into some degrees at least of declension and backsliding from the gospel. There will be some loss or decay, in faith, or love, or works, one way or other.

The Asian churches are a sad exemplification of this truth. In a short time the most of them were greatly fallen off from their first gospel engagements; yea, so far as that some of them are threatened with excision and casting off from Christ. And yet no one of those churches seems to have had the least sense of their own decays; and those in especial who had made the greatest progress in falling away were yet justified by others with whom they conversed, having amongst them a name to live, and applauded themselves in their condition, as that which was good and in nothing blamable. In this state the Lord Christ comes to make a judgment concerning them, as all things lay open and naked under his eye. In the description that is given of him upon his entrance into this work, it is said, as was observed before, that his eyes were as a flame of fire,

Rev 1:14, seeing all things, discerning all things, piercing at one view from the beginning unto the end of all. And he declares that he will so deal with them that all the churches shall know that he searcheth the reins and hearts of men, Rev 2:23. And what work doth he make amongst these secure churches! One is charged with loss of love and faith; another of works; a third with lukewarmness and carnal pride; a fourth with spiritual death as to the generality of them, and most of them with various decays and miscarriages, and those such as themselves took no notice of. But his eye, which stays not upon the outside of things, be they never so gay or glorious, but pierceth to the secret embryos and first conceptions of sin and declensions, found them out, and passed judgment on them in righteousness and equity.

1. Now, one great reason hereof is taken from the subtilty of the principal causes of backsliding, and of the means or false reasonings whereby it is brought about. That which is wrought subtilely and deceitfully is wrought closely, and is therefore secret and hidden. And the first impressions that these subtile and deceitful causes make upon the minds of professors, the first entanglements which these deceitful reasonings cast upon their affections, if they are not merely transient, but abide upon their souls, there these causes of declensions, they are everywhere expressed in the Scripture, and everywhere expressly declared to be subtile and deceitful;

(1.) Indwelling sin is fixed on as the next cause of declensions and backslidings. This the apostle in this epistle chargeth (under the names of a root of bitterness, of the sin that doth so easily beset us, an evil heart of unbelief, and the like) with the guilt of this evil. And he himself declares this principle to be deceitful, subtile; that is, close, secret, hidden in its operation and tendency, Heb 3:13. To this purpose is seducing, enticing, and craft assigned unto it in the Scripture. And it hath among others innumerable this advantage also, that being within us, dwelling in us, having possessed itself of the principles of our natures, it can insinuate all its corrupt and perverse reasonings, under the specious pretense of natural self-love, which is allowable. This our apostle was aware of, and therefore tells us that when he was called to preach the gospel he conferred not with flesh and blood, Gal 1:16. By flesh and blood no more is intended but human nature as weak and frail. But in and by them the deceitfulness of sin is so ready to impose upon us its own corrupt reasonings, that the apostle thought not meet to entertain a parley with the very principles of his own nature, about self-preservation.

But this deceitfulness of sin I have handled at large in another treatise. Here only I observe, that the effects of this deceitful principle are, at least in their beginnings and first entrances, very close and secret, open only to the eye of Christ.

(2.) Satan also hath a principal hand in effecting or bringing about the declension of men from and in their profession. It is his main work, business, and employment in the world. This is the end of all his temptations and serpentine insinuations into the minds of professors. Whatever be the particular instance wherein he dealeth with them, his general design is to draw them off from their first faith, their first love, their first works, and to loosen their hearts from Christ and the gospel. And I suppose it is not questioned but that he carrieth on his work subtilely, secretly, craftily. He is not called the old serpent for nothing. It is a composition of craft and malice that hath laid him under that denomination. His methods, his depths, his deceits, are we cautioned against. Hereabout treats our apostle with the Corinthians, 2Co 11:3, I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. It is true Eve was so beguiled, but who should now beguile the Corinthians? Even the same old deceiver, as he informs them, verse 14, For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light; namely, in his fair and plausible pretences for the accomplishment of his wicked and abominable ends. He works in this matter by deceit, beguiling the souls of men, and therefore doth his work secretly, closely; for in vain is the net spread before the eyes of any fowl. But his work also lies under the eye of Christ.

(3.) The world also hath its share in this design. The cares of it, and the deceitfulness of riches, further this pernicious work of the minds and ways of professors, Mat 13:22. By them is the seed of the gospel choked, when they pretend only to grow up with it, and that there is a fair consistency between them and profession.

Now, though backsliding from Christ and the gospel be thus distinctly assigned to these causes, and severally to one in one place, to another in another, and that as they are especially or eminently predominant in the singular instances mentioned, and so the effect is denominated from them, this is from indwelling sin, this from Satan, and that from the world; yet indeed there is no apostasy or declension in the minds of any which is not influenced by them all, and they are mutually assistant to each other in their work. Now, where there is a contribution of subtilty and craft from several principles all deeply depraved with that vicious habit, the work itself must needs be close and hidden, which craft and deceit do principally aim at; as that poison must needs be pernicious which is compounded of many poisonous ingredients, all inciting the venom of one another. But the Lord Christ looks through all this hidden and deceitful work, which no eye of man can pierce into.

Again, The conjunct reasonings of these deceitful principles whereby they prevail with professors to backsliding, are plausible, and thereby the malignity of them and their secret influencing of their minds hardly discernible. Many of them may be referred unto these heads, wherein they do consist:

(1.) Extenuations of duties and sins.

(2.) Aggravations of difficulties and troubles.

(3.) Suggestions of false rules of profession. Profession is our avowed observation of all evangelical duties, on the account of the authority of Christ commanding them; and abstinence from conformity to the world in all evil, on the same forbidding it. The forementioned principles labor by all ways to extenuate these duties, as to their necessity and importance. Granted it shall be that they are duties, it may be, but not of that consideration but that they may be omitted or neglected. Consider the severals, in that which is comprehensive of them all:

[1.] This is constancy in profession in a time of danger and persecution. The hearts of men are often seduced with vain thoughts of holding their faith and love to Christ, which they hope will save them eternally, whilst they omit that profession of them which would endanger them temporally. A duty that also shall be allowed to be; but not of that necessity or importance, to save our present concerns, especially whilst the substance of faith and love to Christ is in our hearts entirely preserved. This ruined many of the rich and great among the Jews: Joh 12:42, Among the chief rulers many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. They went a great way in believing. And, considering their places and conditions, who would have required more of them? Would you have men, merely on the account of outward profession, hazard the loss of their places, interests, reputation, and all that is dear unto them? I know now well what men think in this case; the censure of the Holy Ghost in this matter concerning them is, They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God, verse 43, than which nothing almost can be spoken with more severity. And these Hebrews were influenced into declensions from the same fallacy of sin. They were fallen into days wherein profession was perilous; and therefore, although they would not renounce the faith whereby they hoped to be roved, yet they would let go their profession, for which they feared they should be troubled. So our apostle intimates, Heb 10:25. In this and the like instances do the subtile reasonings of sin and Satan secretly corrupt the minds of men, until they are insensibly, and sometimes irrecoverably engaged in a course of withdrawing from Christ and the gospel. The same may be observed as to other duties, and especially as to degrees of constancy and fervency in the performance of them. From these the minds of men are often driven and diverted by the crafty reasonings of sin, whereby they are entered into apostasy. Some of the churches in the Revelation are charged not absolutely with the loss of their love, but of their first love; that is, the especial degrees of it in fervency and fruitfulness which they had attained.

[2.] Again, by these reasonings the deceitful principles mentioned do endeavor an extenuation of the guilt of such evils as lie in a tendency to alienate the heart from Christ and the gospel. An instance hereof we have in the Galatians. The observation of Judaical ceremonies was by false teachers pressed upon them. They did not once attempt to draw them from Christ and the gospel, nor would they have endured the proposal of any such thing. Only they desired that, together with the profession of the gospel and the grace of Christ, they would also take upon them the observation of the Mosaical rites and institutions. Hereunto they propose unto them a double motive:

1st. That they should hereby have union with the professing Jews, and so all differences be removed.

2dly. That they should escape persecution, which was then upon the matter alone stirred up by the envious Jews, Gal 6:12.

If both these ends may be obtained, and yet faith in Christ and the gospel be retained, what inconvenience or harm would it be if they should engage into these observances? Accordingly many did so, and took upon them the yoke of Judaical rites. And what was the end of this matter! Our apostle lets them know that what they thought not of was befallen them, and yet was the genuine effect of what they did. They had forsaken Christ, fallen from grace, and, beginning in the Spirit, were ending in the flesh; for, under the specious pretences before mentioned, they had done that which was inconsistent with the faith of the gospel Yea, but they thought not in the least of any declension from Christ.The matter is not what they thought, but what they did. This they did, and this was the effect of it. The corrupt reasonings of their minds, deceived by the pleas and pretences mentioned, had prevailed with them to look on these things as, if not their duties, yet of no ill consequence or importance. So were they deluded by extenuations of the evil proposed unto them, until they justly fell under the censure before mentioned. And the principal mischief in this matter is, that when men are beguiled by false reasonings into unwarrantable practices, their corruptions are variously excited to adhere to and defend what they have been overtaken withal; which confirms them in their apostasies.

[3.] Aggravations of difficulties in the way of profession are made use of to introduce a declension from it. For when thoughts and apprehensions of them are admitted, they insensibly weaken and dishearten men, and render them languid and cold in their duties; which tends unto backsliding. The effect of such discouragements our apostle expresseth, Heb 12:12-13 : Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. Having laid down the afflictions and persecutions which they were to meet withal, and also declared the end and use of them in the grace and wisdom of God, he shows how ready men are to despond and grow heartless under them; which deprives them of all life and spirit in their profession; which he warns them to avoid, lest all end in apostasy. For if men begin once to think hard and strange of the trials that may befall them on the account of their religion, and cannot find that in it which will outweigh their sufferings, they will not long retain it. Nor is it advisable for any man to entertain a profession that will not keep and maintain him in a dear year, but leave him to sink under those troubles which may befall him on the account thereof; as every thing whose real good doth not outbalance the evil that for it, and upon its single account, we must undergo, is certainly ineligible. Herein, then, lies no small part of the deceitful actings of the subtile principles mentioned. They are ready to fill the mind with dismal apprehensions of the difficulties, dangers, troubles, reproaches, and persecutions that men may undergo on the account of profession. And unless they can make the Lord Christ absolutely to be their end, portion, and measure of all, so as to reckon on all other things not according to their own nature, but according to the respect which they have unto him, and their interest in him, it is impossible but these things will secretly influence them into declensions from their profession. In the meantime aggravating thoughts of trouble please mens minds; it seems reasonable unto them, yea their duty, to be terrifying themselves with the apprehensions of the evils that may befall them. And when they come indeed, if liberty, if goods, if life itself, be required in the confirmation of our testimony to the gospel, there needs no more to seduce us into a relinquishment of its profession, but only prevailing with us to value these things out of their place and more than they deserve, whereby the evils in the loss of them will be thought intolerable. And it is marvellous to think how the minds of men are insensibly and variously affected with these considerations, to the weakening, if not the ruin, of that zeal for God, that delight in his ways, that rejoicing in tribulation, which are required to the maintaining of a just and due profession. And against the effect of such impressions we are frequently warned in the Scripture. [4.] Again; these corrupt and fallacious reasonings do cover and conceal the entrances of apostasy, by proposing false rules of walking before God in profession, wherein men are apt to satisfy and deceive themselves. So in particular they make great use of the examples of other men, of other professors; which on very many accounts is apt to deceive them, and draw them into a snare. But this head of the deceit of sin I have spoken to at large in another discourse. [11]

[11] Treatise on Indwelling Sin, volume 6 of the authors works. Ed.

2. The beginnings of declensions from Christ and the gospel are deep and hidden, because ofttimes they are carried on by very secret and imperceptible degrees. Some men are plunged into apostasy by some notorious crimes and wickednesses, or by the power of some great temptations. In these it is easy to discover the beginning of their fall; as it was with Judas when the devil entered into him, and prevailed with him for money to betray his Master. And many such there are in the world, who for money, or the things that end in money, part with their professed interest in Christ and the gospel. And if they get more than Judas did, it is because they meet with better chapmen in the world than were the priests and Pharisees. The fall of such men from their profession is like the dying of a man by a fever. The first incursion of the disease, with its whole progress, is manifest. It is with others in their spiritual sickness and decays as with those who are in a hectical distemper; which at first is hardly known, and in its progress hardly cured. Small negligences and omissions are admitted, and the soul is habituated unto them, and so a progress is made to greater evils; of which also, as I remember, I have treated elsewhere.

3. Revolters and backsliders do their utmost endeavor to hide the beginnings of their falls from themselves and others. This makes the discovery and opening of them to be difficult. By the false and corrupt reasonings before mentioned they labor to blind their own eyes, and to hide their own evils from themselves: for in this case men are not deceived, unless they contribute to their own beguiling. Their own hearts seduce them before they feed on ashes. And herewith they willingly attend unto the delusions of Satan and the world; which they do in not watching against them as they ought. So are they deceived themselves. And when they have made such a progress in their declensions as that they begin themselves, it may be, to be sensible of it, then do they endeavor by all means to hide them from others; by which means, at length, they hide them from themselves, and rest satisfied in what they have pleaded and pretended, as if it were really so. They will use pleas, excuses, and pretences, until they believe them. Was it not so with the church of Sardis? Even when she was almost dead, yet she had outwardly so demeaned herself as to have a name to live; that is, a great reputation to be in a good thriving state and condition. And Laodicea, in the height of her apostasy, yet persuaded herself that she was rich, and increased, and wanted nothing; and knew not, as is expressly testified, that she was poor, and fallen under the power of manifold decays.

From these and the like causes it is that the beginnings of mens backslidings from the gospel are so secret and hidden, as that they are open only to the all-seeing eye of Jesus Christ; which our apostle here minds these Hebrews of, to beget in them a watchful jealousy over themselves.

And this effect it should have upon all. This the nature of the thing itself, and frequent Scripture admonitions, do direct us unto, namely, that we should continually be watchful over our own hearts, lest any beginnings of backslidings or declensions from the gospel should have taken place or prevailed in us. Cautions to this purpose the Scripture abounds withal: Let him that standeth, that is, in the profession of the gospel, take heed lest he fall; or, beware that he decay not in his faith, and love, and zeal, and so fall into sin and apostasy. And again, Take heed that we lose not those things which we have wrought, 2Jn 1:8. That profession which is not working is ever false, and to be despised. Faith worketh by love.

Hath it been so with us, that profession hath been effectual in working? Let us look to it carefully, lest we discontinue that course, or by apostasy forfeit all the benefit and advantage of it. And our apostle in this epistle in an especial manner abounds with admonitions to the same purpose: because the Hebrews, on many accounts, were much exposed to the danger of this sin. And it is the duty of the dispensers of the gospel to apply themselves particularly to the state, condition, and temptations of them with whom in an especial manner they have to do. And let not any man think that the earnest pressing of this duty of constant watchfulness against the first entrances of spiritual declensions is not of so much use and necessity as is pretended. We see what the neglect of it hath produced. Many who once made a zealous profession of the truth, having strong convictions upon their souls, and were thereby in a way of receiving more grace and mercy from the Lord, have, through a neglect of this duty, fallen from the ways of God, and perished eternally, 2Pe 2:20-22. And many more have exceedingly dishonored God, and provoked his indignation against the whole generation of professors in the world; which hath caused him to fill all his dispensations with tokens of his displeasure. This hath laid all the virgins, even wise and foolish, asleep, whilst the Bridegroom standeth at the door There is, then, no greater evidence of an unsound heart than to be careless about the beginnings of spiritual decays in any kind. When men once lay up all their spiritual interest in retaining some kind of persuasion that in the end they may come to heaven, and, so they may by any means retain that persuasion, are regardless of exact watchfulness and walking, they are even in a perishing condition. There needs no greater evidence that self is their, utmost end, that they have neither care to please God, nor love to Christ, nor delight in the gospel, but, with Balaam, desire only to die the death of the righteous. Yet thus is it with them who neglect the first entrances of any cold, careless frame or temper of heart in gospel duties. They little consider either the power or deceitfulness of sin who are negligent in this matter, and how backsliding will get and firm its ground in the soul after a while, which might with ease have been at first prevented. Let us, therefore, because of the importance of this duty, consider some directions for the preventing of this evil, and some instructions how to discover it in the ways and means of its prevalency:

Take heed of weariness in and of those ways of God wherein you have been engaged according to his mind. A spontaneous lassitude in the body is esteemed an ill prognostic; some great distemper usually ensues upon it. So is weariness of any of Gods ways; its hidden cause and consequent, that will in time appear, is some great spiritual distemper. And this our apostle intimates to be the beginning of most mens apostasy, Heb 10:36-39. Men, through want of patience to continue in well-doing, grow weary, and ofttimes draw back unto perdition. And there are three things that men are apt to grow weary of in the ways of God, and thereby to enter into spiritual decays:

1. Of duties. Many duties are burdensome to flesh and blood; that is, nature as weak and frail. All of them are opposite to flesh and blood; that is, nature as corrupt and sinful. In the one sense, nature is ready to faint under them; in the other, to raise up an opposition against them, and that by a secret aversation in the will, with innumerable corrupt reasonings, excuses, and pretences in the mind. If they prevail to an effectual weariness, that is, such as shall introduce a relinquishment of them, in part or in whole, as to the matter of them or the manner of their performance, those in whom they do so will have cause to say,

We were almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly, Pro 5:14.

Hence is the caution of our apostle, 2Th 3:13, Brethren, be not weary in well-doing; and Gal 6:9. A patient continuance in an even, constant course of well-doing, in a due observance of all gospel duties, will be burdensome and grievous unto you; but faint not, if you intend to come to the blessed cud of your course in fence with God.Now, weariness in duty discovers itself by impairing it in the intenseness of our spirits, or constancy of its performance. Where there is a decay in either of these, weariness is at the root; and after weariness ensues contempt, Mal 1:13. And whatever interpretation men may put upon this frame, God calls it a being weary of himself, Isa 43:22; which is the next step to forsaking of him. Wherever, therefore, this begins to discover itself in the soul, nothing can relieve it but a vigorous shaking off all appearances of it, by a warm, constant application of the mind unto those duties whose neglect it would introduce.

2. Of waiting to receive any particular good or special mercy from God in his ways. God is a good and gracious master. He entertains none into his service but he gives them in hand that which is an abundant recompense for the duties he will require of them. In keeping of his commands there is great reward, Psa 19:11. Every part of his work carries its own wages along with it. Those who serve him never want enough to make them rejoice when they fall into manifold temptations, and to glory in tribulations; which are the worst things that do or can befall them on his account. But, moreover, besides the pledges that he gives them in hand, they have also many great and precious promises, whereby they are justly raised up to the expectation of other and greater things than at present they do enjoy. Whatever mercy or grace by any or all the promises of God they have been made partakers of, there is still more in them all, nay, in every one of them, than they can here come to the actual enjoyment of. Yet are all these things theirs, and they have a right unto them. This makes waiting on God so excellent a grace, so necessary a duty. Now, sometimes this hath respect unto some mercy that g man may in an especial manner stand in need of. Here he would have his faith expedited, his expectation satisfied, and his waiting have an end put unto it. If he fail herein, it maketh his heart sick. But here lieth the great trial of faith. He that believeth, that is, truly and sincerely, he will not make haste; that is, he will abide in this duty, and not limit the Holy One as to times and seasons. If those who are called hereunto wax weary of it, they are in the high road to apostasy. Consolation, light, and joy, do not come in through the administration of the ordinances answerable to the measures they have themselves given, unto or taken of things; strength against a temptation or corruption is not yet received upon prayer or supplication; they are weary of waiting, and so give over. This will end in absolute apostasy if not timely prevented. See the cautions of our apostle in this matter, Heb 6:11-12; Heb 10:35-36.

3. Weariness of troubles and persecutions is of the same tendency. It opens a door to apostasy. They are for the most part the portion of believers in this world. Nor have they cause to complain of their lot. They are told of it beforehand. Had they been allured on unto faith and profession with hopes and expectations of peace and prosperity in this world, and were they afterwards surprised with the cross, they might have some reason to complain. But the matter is quite otherwise. Our Savior hath told us plainly, that if we will not take up the cross we must let him alone. If,saith he, you will follow me, you must take up the cross; yea, fathers, mothers, houses, lands, and possessions, if called for (and probably they will be called for), must all go, or be foregone, for my sake and the gospels. If you like not these terms, you may let them and me alone.So our apostle assures us, that

they who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, 2Ti 3:12.

There is a kind of profession that may escape well enough in the world, such as men shall have no disadvantage by in this life, nor advantage in that which is to come. But that profession which causeth men to live godly in Christ Jesus, will for the most pare be attended with persecution. And this are we all forewarned of. But so foolish are we generally, as that when these things befall us, we are apt to be surprised, as if some strange thing, something foreign to our condition, had seized on us; as the apostle Peter intimates, 1Pe 4:12. And if men by their natural courage, their spirit to sustain infirmities, can hold out the first brunt of them, yet when they begin to return and to be prolonged, to follow one upon another, and no way of deliverance or of ending them be in view, they are apt to be weary, and cast about, like men in a storm, how they may give over their intended voyage and retreat into some harbour, where they may be in peace and safety. Omission of provoking duties or compliance with pleasing ways, in such a condition, begins to be considered as a means of relief And this with many is an entrance into apostasy, Mat 13:21. And this is confirmed, as by testimonies of the Scripture, so by instances and examples in all ages of the church. This, therefore, our apostle in an especial manner treats with these Hebrews about, plainly declaring that if they grew weary of their troubles, they would quickly fail in their profession, Heb 6:11-12; and he multiplies both reasons and examples to encourage them unto the contrary, Hebrews 10-12. For when men begin to wax weary of troubles and persecutions, and to make their own carnal reasonings, affections, and desires, to be the measure of their suffering, or what it is meet for them to undergo upon the account of the gospel, they will quickly decline from it. Now, because this is the common way and means whereby men are brought to decays in their profession, and insensibly unto apostasy, it may not be amiss to subjoin some few considerations which may help to relieve our spirits under their troubles, and to preserve them from fainting or being weary; as,

1. What is it that these troubles do or can deprive us of, whatever their continuance be? Is it of heaven, of everlasting rest, of peace with God, of communion with Christ, of the love and honor of saints and angels? These things are secured utterly out of their reach, and they cannot for one. moment interrupt our interest in them. This is Pauls consideration, Rom 8:38-39. And had we a due valuation of these things, what may outwardly befall us in this world on their account would seem very light unto us, and easy to be borne, 2Co 4:15-18.

2. What is it that they fall upon and can reach unto? It may be they may deprive us of our riches, our liberty, our outward ease and accommodations, our reputation in the world. But what perishing trifles are these, compared to the eternal concerns of our immortal souls! It may be they may reach this flesh, these carcasses that are every day crumbling into dust. But shall we faint or wax weary on their account. Suppose we should, to spare them, turn aside to some crooked paths, wherein we suppose we may find security, God can send diseases after us that shall irrecoverably bring on us all those evils which by our sins we have sought to avoid. He can give a commission to a disease to make the softest bed a severe prison, and fill our loins and bones with such pains as men cannot inflict on us and keep us alive under them. And for death itself, the height, complement, and end of temporary trouble, how many ways hath he to cast us into the jaws of it, and that in a more terrible manner than we need fear from the children of men! and shall we, to preserve a perishing life, which, it may be, within a few days a fever or a feather may deprive us of, startle at the troubles which, on the account of Christ and the gospel, we may undergo, and thereby forfeit all the consolations of God, which are able to sweeten every condition unto us? This consideration is proposed unto us by Jesus Christ himself, Mat 10:28.

3. Whereunto, in the wisdom and grace of God, do these things tend, if managed aright in us and by us? There is nothing that the Scripture doth more abound in, than in giving us assurance that all the evils which we do or may undergo upon the account of Christ and his gospel, shall work effectually towards our unspeakable spiritual advantage. See Rom 5:1-5.

4. For whom or whose sake do we or are we to undergo the troubles mentioned? A man of honesty and good nature will endure much for a parent, a child, a friend; yea, the apostle tells us, that for a good man some would even dare to die, Romans 5. But who is it whom we are to suffer for? Is it not He who is infinitely more than all these in himself and to us? Consider his own excellency, consider his love to us, consider the effects of the one and the fruits of the other, whereof we are and hope to be made partakers, and it will be granted that he is worthy of our all, and ten thousand times more if it were in our power. Besides, he calls us not to any thing but what he went before us in; and he went before us in many things wherein he calls not us to follow him, for he underwent them that we might escape them. He died that we might live; and was made a curse that the blessing might come upon us. Let us not then be so foolish, so unthankful, so brutish, as to think any trouble too great or too long to be undergone for him. This our apostle at large expresseth, Php 3:7-10.

5. What is the end of these trials and troubles which we are so ready to faint and despond under? Eternal rest and glory do attend them. See 2Th 1:7; 2Co 4:17; Rev 7:13-14.

These and the like considerations, being pleaded in the mind and soul, may be a means to preserve them from fainting under troubles that do or may befall men on the account of the profession of the gospel, which are apt to dispose them unto backslidings.

There are sundry means that may be improved to prevent the entrances of the decays insisted on; amongst all which none is so proper as that here mentioned by our apostle, and which is comprised in our next proposition. For,

Obs. 9. A due and holy consideration at all times of the all-seeing eye of Jesus Christ is a great preservation against backslidings or declensions in profession.

This is the end for which the mention of it is here introduced by the apostle. It was not in his way, nor was any part of his design, to treat absolutely about the omniscience of Christ; nothing could be more foreign to his present discourse. But he speaks of it on purpose, as an effectual means to awe and preserve their souls from the evil that he dehorted them from and warned them of And the consideration of it is so on many accounts; for,

1. If we retain this in remembrance, that all the most secret beginnings of spiritual declensions in us are continually under his eye, it will influence us unto watchful care and diligence. Some, with Sardis, are ready to please themselves whilst they keep up such a profession as others with whom they walk do approve of, or cannot blame. Others, with Laodicea, think all is well whilst they approve themselves, and have no troublesome accusations rising up against their peace in their own consciences, when, it may be, their consciences themselves are debauched, bribed, or secure. For lesser things, which neither others observe to their disreputation, nor themselves are affected with to their disquiet, many men regard them not. And hereby are they insensibly betrayed into apostasy, whilst one neglect follows another, and one evil is added to another, until a breach be made upon them great like the sea, that cannot be healed. Herein, then, lies a great preservative against this ruining danger. Let the soul consider constantly that the eye of Christ, with whom principally, and upon the matter solely in these things, he hath to do, and to whom an account of all must be one day given, is upon him; and it cannot but keep him jealous over himself, lest there should any defiling root of bitterness spring up in him. To him ought we in all things to approve ourselves; and this we cannot do without a continual jealousy and constant watchfulness over our hearts, that nothing be found there that may displease him: and whatever is there, it is all naked and open unto him. And,

2. The Lord Christ doth not behold or look on the evils that are or may be in the hearts of professors as one unconcerned in them, by a mere intuition of them; but as one that is deeply concerned in them, and as it were troubled at them: for by these things is his good Spirit grieved and vexed, and great reproach is cast upon his name. When the miscarriages of professors break out so far as that the world takes notice of them, it rejoiceth in them, and triumpheth over that truth and those ways which by them are professed. And when other believers or professors observe them, they are grieved and deeply afflicted in their minds. And who knows not that even the consideration of these things is of great use to prevail with sincere professors unto watchfulness over their ways and walkings; namely, lest the name of God should be evil spoken of by reason of them, or the spirits of the servants of Christ be grieved by them. How often doth David declare that he would take heed to his ways, because of his enemies or observers, those that watched for his halting, and would improve their observation of it to the dishonor of his profession! And, on the other side, he prays that none which feared God might be ashamed on his account, or troubled at his failings. And therefore did he labor in all things to preserve his integrity, and keep himself from sin. Nor have they any respect unto the glory of God who have not the same sense and affections in such cases. Now, if these things are, or ought to be, of such weight with us, as to what comes under the cognizance of men, that is open and naked unto men, according to their capacity of discerning, what ought our thoughts to be of all things of the same nature that fall fully and solely under the cognizance of Christ, considering his concernment in them, and how he is affected with them? And so it is with respect unto the first, most secret, and imperceptible spiritual decays that may befall us; yea, he lays most weight on the things that are known to himself alone, and would have all the churches know and consider that he searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of men. Neither can we have in any thing greater evidence given unto our sincerity, than when we have an especial watchful regard unto those things which lie under the eye of Christ alone, wherein we have to do with him only. This testifieth a pure, unmixed, uncorrupted faith and love towards him. Where, therefore, there is any thing of sincerity, there will be a continual care about these things upon the account of the concernment of Christ in them. And,

3. We may do well to remember that he so sees all our neglects and decays, as in an especial manner to take notice of their sinfulness and demerit. Many of the churches in the Revelation pleased themselves in their state and condition, when yet, because of their decays, the Lord Christ saw that guilt in them and, upon them as that for it he threatened them with utter rejection, if they prevented it not by repentance; which accordingly befell some of them. We are apt to take a very undue measure of our failings, and so esteem this or that folly, neglect, or decay, to have no great guilt attending it; so that we may well enough spare it and ourselves in it. And the reason hereof is, because we are apt to consider only acts or omissions themselves, and not the spring from whence they do proceed, nor the circumstances wherewith they are attended, nor the ends whereunto they tend. But saith our apostle, All things are open and naked before him, neither is there any thing that is hid from his eyes.There is no omission of duty, no neglect of the acting or stirring up of any grace, no sinful miscarriage or worldly compliance, wherein the beginnings of our decays do or may consist, but that, together with all their causes and occasions, their aggravating circumstances, their end and tendency, they are all under the eye of Christ; and so their whole guilt is spread before him. And oftentimes there is a more provoking guilt in some circumstances of things than in the things themselves. He sees all the unkindness and unthankfulness from whence our decays proceed; all the contempt of him, his love and grace, wherewith they are attended; the advantage of Satan and the world in them; and the great end of final apostasy whereunto they tend, if not by grace prevented. All these things greatly aggravate the guilt of our inward, spiritual decays; and the whole provocation that is in them lies continually under his eye. Hence his thoughts of these things are not as our thoughts commonly are; but it is our wisdom to make his the rule and measure of ours.

4. He so sees all things of this kind as that he will pass judgment on us and them accordingly; it may be in this world, by sore afflictions and chastisements, but assuredly at the last day. Alas! it is not the world that we are to be judged by, if it were, men might hide their sins from it; nor is it the saints nor angels, who discover not the secret frames of our hearts; but it is he who is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things. This our apostle directs us to the consideration of; for after he hath given the description of the Word of God insisted on, he adds, that it is he to whom we must give up our account. And how shall backsliders in heart escape his righteous judgment? Secrecy is the relief of most in this world, darkness is their refuge; but before him these things have their aggravation of guilt, and will yield no relief.

5. Again; He so discerns all declensions in the hearts and spirits of professors, as withal to be ready to give them supplies of help and strength against all the causes of them, if sought unto in a due manner. And there can be no greater encouragement to them that are sincere, unto the use of their utmost endeavors, to preserve their faith and profession entire for him. And this will be further improved in our consideration of the last observation which we drew from the words of the apostle and the exposition of them, which is that,

Obs. 10. A due, holy consideration of the omniscience of Christ is a great encouragement unto the meanest and weakest believers, who are upright and sincere in their faith and obedience.

To this purpose are all these properties of Christ proposed unto us, and to be improved by us. They all are suited to give encouragement unto us in our way and course of obedience.

Hence is he able to take care of and to encourage the least beginnings of grace in the hearts of his disciples. It is his office to take care of the whole seed of God, of all the work of the Spirit of grace. This he could not do without that all-discerning ability which is here ascribed unto him. By this he takes notice of the beginning, increase, growth, and decays of it, from first to last. Hence he says of himself, that he will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, Mat 12:20. Be our spiritual strength but like that which is naturally in a bruised reed, which is the next degree to none at all, he will not break it; that is, he will take care that it be not bruised, despised, or discouraged, but will cherish it, and add strength unto it. The smoking of flax also expresseth the least degree imaginable of grace; [12] yet neither under his eye and care shall this be quenched. It is easy with him to discover and blast the hypocrisy of false pretenders. He did so by one word to him who boasted of keeping all the commandments from his youth, Mat 19:18-22. So by the breath of his lips he slays the wicked, Isa 11:4. Be their profession never so specious or glorious, do they please themselves in it, and deceive others by it, he can come to their consciences under all pretences, and by his word and Spirit slay all their false hopes, discover their hypocrisy, and strip them naked of their profession, to the contempt of all. And so doth he know and take care of the least dram of sincerity in the weakest soul that belongs unto him. So he did in the poor woman, when she owned herself to be no better than a dog, Mat 15:27-28. He doth not only bear his lambs in his arms, the weakest of the flock who have an appearance of life, and of following him in it; but also gently leads those that are with young, Isa 40:11, who as yet have but newly conceived his grace in their hearts.

[12] In the original edition the word is sin, an evident misprint for grace, or some similar word. Ed.

And this gives us a stable ground whereon to answer that great objection, which many souls make against their own peace and consolation. They are convinced of the excellency of Christ, and of the suitableness of his grace and righteousness unto their wants. They are also satired in the faithfulness of gospel promises, and the stability of the covenant of grace, with all other principles and grounds of evangelical consolation. But they look on themselves as unconcerned in all these things. As far as they know, they have no grace in them; and therefore have no interest in or right unto what is proposed to them. And hereon ensue various entanglements in their minds, keeping them off from sharing in that strong consolation which God is abundantly wilting that all the heirs of promise should receive. The consideration of the properties of the Lord Christ insisted on is exceedingly suited to the removal of this objection out of the way. To confirm this, I shall consider the whole case a little more largely. We may then observe,

1. That the beginnings of most things are imperceptible. Things at first are rather known by their causes and effects than from any thing discernible in their own beings. As they are gradually increased, they give evidence of themselves; as a little fire is known by the smoke it causeth, when itself cannot be seen.

2. That the beginnings of spiritual things in the souls of men are, moreover, very secret and hidden, upon many especial accounts and reasons. Grace in its first communication is a thing new to the soul, which it knows not how to try, examine, or measure. The soul is possibly put by it under some surprise; as was Rebekah when she had conceived twins in her womb. Until such persons seriously consult with God by his word, they will be at a great loss about their own state and condition. Again, Satan useth all means possible to darken the mind, that it may not aright apprehend the work of God in it and upon it. His first design is to keep us from grace; if he be cast therein, his reserve is to keep us from consolation. His sleights and methods herein are not now to be insisted on. Hence most of the objections we meet with, from persons under darkness as to gospel comforts and refreshment, may be easily manifested to be his suggestions. Moreover, indwelling corruption doth exceedingly endeavor to cloud and darken the work of Gods grace in the soul. And it doth so two ways especially:

(1.) By a more open discovery of itself in all its evil than it did before. Grace is come upon it as its enemy, and that which fights against it, designing its ruin. The very first actings of it lie in a direct opposition to the former rule of sin in the heart. This inbred corruption meeting withal, sometimes it is excited unto rage, and presseth for its own satisfaction with more earnestness than formerly, when it was as it were in the full and quiet possession of the soul. This causeth darkness and trouble in the mind, and keeps it off from discerning any thing of the work of God in it.

(2.) By a sensible opposition to gospel duties. This it will raise against that spiritual manner of their performance which a gracious soul now aims at, though it was more quiet when only the outward bodily exercise was attended unto. These things surprise beginners in grace, and leave them in the dark as to what is their interest in it.

3. Believers in this state and condition have in themselves many just grounds of fears and jealousies concerning themselves, which they know not how to disentangle themselves from. The many self-deceivings which they either see the example of in others or read of in the Scripture, make them jealous, and that justly, over their own hearts. And whereas they find much hypocrisy in their hearts in other things, they are jealous lest in this also they should deceive themselves. And many other reasonings there are of the same nature whereby they are entangled.

Against all these perplexities much relief may be administered from this consideration, that the Lord Christ, with whom we have to do, sees, knows, and approves of the least spark of heavenly fire that is kindled in us by his Spirit; the least seed of faith and grace that is planted in us is under his eye and care, to preserve, water, and cherish it. And this may be pressed in particular instances; as,

1. He sees and takes notice of the least endeavors of grace in the heart against the power of sin. This the soul wherein it is may not be acquainted with, by reason of that pressing sense which it hath from the assaults that sin makes upon it. These so imbitter it that it cannot find out unto its satisfaction the secret lustings and warrings of the Spirit against the flesh; as one that is deeply sensible of the weight of his burden, which is ready to overbear him, doth not perceive his own strength whereby he standeth under it. But this lies under the eye of Christ distinctly, and that, so as to give in suitable help and succor unto it in a time of need, as is declared in the next verses.

2. He sees and perceives the principle and actings of grace in that very sorrow and trouble wherewith the soul is even overwhelmed in an apprehension of the want of it. He knows that much of many a souls trouble for want of grace is from grace. There is in it the search of grace after an increase and supply. He sees the love that works in trouble for want of faith; and the faith that works in trouble for want of holiness And these things he takes care of.

3. He finds grace in those works and duties wherein they by whom they are performed, it may be, can find none at all. As he will manifest at the last day that he observed that filth and wickedness, that perverse rebellion in the ways of wicked men, which themselves took no notice of, or at least were not thoroughly convinced about; so he will declare the faith and love which he observed in the duties of his disciples, which they never durst own in themselves This is fully declared, Matthew 25, from verse 34 (Mat 25:34) to the end.

4. How small soever that grace be which he discovers in the souls of his, he accepts of it, approves it, and takes care for its preservation and increase. The life of it doth not depend on our knowledge, but his And as these things do really tend to the relief and consolation of believers, so they do justly deserve to be more largely insisted on and more fully improved, but that the nature of our present design will not admit of it in this place.

Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

The Word of God is

The Word of God is a name for Christ as well as for the Scriptures. It is difficult to say whether this text speaks of the written Word (The Bible), or of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the incarnate Word (Joh 1:1-3). The fact is, we cannot sever the two. Christ is the Word, of whom all the written Word speaks (Luk 24:27; Luk 24:44-47). The Word of God is what it is because the Lord Jesus Christ is embodied in it. Heb 4:12 tells us seven things about the Word of God. It is

1. “The Word of God”

The Bible is God’s final, full, complete, and perfect revelation of himself and his will to man, inspired, inerrant, infallible (2Ti 3:16-17; 2Pe 1:19-21). Since the Book of God is complete, we no longer have and no longer need the signs of the apostles. God no longer gives revelation (in the strict sense of the word) to men. The Holy Spirit now gives us illumination by the Word, revealing Christ to us; but he does not give additional revelation.

2. Living

The Word of God is quick.” Quick is an old English word. It means alive, or living. This is a living Book, the Word of our living Redeemer (1Pe 1:23-25; Jas 1:18). The Word is the living seed of the Holy Spirit, by which chosen, redeemed sinners are born again. God’s Word has life in itself. It is the living and incorruptible seed. It creates life where it comes. Our words pass away. God’s Word lives on (Isa 40:8).

3. Effectual

“The Word of God is quick, and powerful” It brings conviction and conversion. It gives comfort to believing hearts and confirms our faith. The Word of God has power to elevate our hearts and minds to Christ and things above. Christ and his Word are active and effectual. He spoke for the elect in the council and covenant of grace (Heb 7:22). He spoke all things out of nothing in creation (Heb 11:3; Gen 1:6; Gen 1:9). He spoke and revealed the Father (Joh 14:10). He speaks and the dead come forth (Joh 5:24-25).

4. Cutting

“The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” The Word is all edge. It has no blunt side. It is alive all over. It wounds, in one way or another, all who touch it. You cannot come near the Word of God without its having some effect on you (2Co 2:14-16). Our Lord came not to send peace but a sword. When this Sword begins its work in our souls, it wounds and kills. Yet, it kills nothing but that which ought to be killed — our pride, self-righteousness, envy, lust, and sins.

5. Piercing

“The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. It forces its way into the hardest of hearts. It can find its way to its mark. It penetrates the smallest opening, like the arrow which entered between the joints of the harness. Although the soul and spirit are invisible and the joints and marrow are covered and hid, so penetrating is the divine Word that it reaches the most hidden and secret things of men and women. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Christ knows the heart and will make manifest all that is in it by the Word (Luk 16:15).

6. Discriminating

It divides asunder soul and spirit. It separates the precious from the vile, the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats. It divides “joints and marrow,” families and churches, and does so by its own penetrating and discerning qualities.

7. Revealing

“The Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It cleaves a man and exposes up the secret thoughts, imaginations, and corruptions of his heart, like a butcher splits a carcass and exposes all within.

All this we have seen in the preaching of the word of God. Have you not felt it to be so? Does the Word of God pierce your heart? Does it reach your soul? If it does, thank God for it. Does this Sword of the Spirit prick your heart? Does its edge draw out the blood of your heart’s lusts? Bless God for it. Would you not thank a surgeon, who used his knife to lance your diseased body, and sever from it a deadly cancer? Though he caused you great pain, you would thank him for his service, and pay him, too. How much more ought we to bless God for his work for, in, and upon our souls by his Word.

The puritan, William Gurnall, wrote, There is not another sword like this in all the world that can cure with cutting; not another arm could use this sword, to have done thus with it besides the Spirit of God.

O Spirit of God, send your living Word into my heart! Pierce my very soul with that Sword which alone can heal it and give me life!

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

the word: Heb 13:7, Isa 49:2, Luk 8:11, Act 4:31, 2Co 2:17, 2Co 4:2, Rev 20:4

is quick: Psa 110:2, Psa 119:130, Ecc 12:11, Isa 55:11, Jer 23:29, Rom 1:16, 1Co 1:24, 2Co 10:4, 2Co 10:5, 1Th 2:13, Jam 1:18, 1Pe 1:23, Joh 6:51, 1Pe 2:4, 1Pe 2:5,*Gr.

sharper: Psa 45:3, Psa 149:6, Pro 5:4, Isa 11:4, Isa 49:2, Act 2:37, Act 5:33, Eph 6:17, Rev 1:16, Rev 2:16, Rev 19:15, Rev 19:21

and is: Psa 139:2, Jer 17:10, 1Co 14:24, 1Co 14:25, Eph 5:13, Rev 2:23

Reciprocal: Num 5:18 – uncover Jdg 3:16 – two edges 1Sa 2:3 – a God 1Ki 8:39 – for thou 1Ki 10:3 – hid from the king 1Ch 29:17 – triest the heart 2Ch 1:11 – this was 2Ch 9:2 – there Job 42:2 – no Psa 44:21 – knoweth Psa 90:8 – our Psa 119:96 – but thy Psa 139:4 – thou knowest Pro 20:27 – searching Pro 24:12 – doth not he that Isa 30:28 – his breath Isa 66:18 – their thoughts Hos 6:5 – I have Amo 5:12 – I know Zec 9:13 – made Mal 3:16 – that thought Mat 7:29 – having Mat 9:4 – knowing Mat 22:11 – when Mat 23:28 – ye also Mar 1:22 – they were Mar 3:17 – he surnamed Mar 8:17 – knew Luk 4:32 – General Luk 5:22 – perceived Luk 18:4 – he said Luk 24:32 – Did Joh 5:42 – I know Joh 6:63 – the words Joh 8:7 – and said Act 8:22 – the thought Act 24:25 – Felix Rom 7:14 – the law Rom 10:17 – and hearing 1Co 1:18 – unto Phi 2:16 – the word Col 3:16 – the word 1Th 5:23 – your 2Ti 3:16 – All 1Jo 5:7 – the Word Rev 2:12 – which hath

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Heb 4:12. The orginal Greek word for quick is defined in the lexicon as “alive” and that for powerful is “active.” The meaning of the clause is that the word of God is alive and active. When it is absorbed as spiritual food its effect should be to make one a living and active servant of the Lord. A twoedged sword is extra sharp because such instruments are made of the best material. Likewise the word of God is composed of the best material, namely, the wisdom of divine inspiration. It would not indicate any unusual keenness for a knife to sever between things that do not resemble, or that are not closely adhering to each other. The ability of the “sword of the Spirit” to distinguish between the soul and spirit of man Is mentioned as a proof of its keennesss. This indicates that there is not much difference between them, and yet .that some difference exists. This subject is explained in t h e comments at 1Th 5:23. Joints and marrow are other parts of the human system that pertain to the flesh, and are used figuratively for the same purpose as the preceding illustration, showing the sharpness of the divine instrument. Discerner is from KRITIKOS which means a measuring rule or standard, by which things are measured and judged. The statement means that the word of God is the standard by which all our thoughts and intents are to be regulated. It is sometimes insisted that Christians may think whatever they please as long as they keep it to themselves. This verse condems such a notion, and it is contradicted also by Php 4:8-9 which tells Christians the subjects on which they have a right to think.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Heb 4:12-13 give a fresh reason for this warning.

For the word of God is quick (i.e living) and powerful. But what is the word of God? The common Patristic interpretation refers it to the Word incarnate, the personal Word of the writings of St. John: so also Owen and many others. But that use of the term is peculiar in the New Testament to St. John, unless this be an instance. And the interpretation seems hardly appropriate to the description that is here given of it; nor is Christ ever so named in the Epistle itself, where the Son of God is His common title. Had the author been familiar with the Word in that personal sense, he would certainly have used it (as he did not) in Heb 11:3. The ordinary meaning, therefore, is to be preferredthe word of which he has been speakingthe word especially which excludes the unbeliever from the promised rest, and denounces against him the Divine indignation. The description is true of all Scripture, but emphatically true of the passages which condemn disobedience. This word is a living wordnot, as we sometimes say of a law, a dead letter, having its place in our statute book, but never executedhaving living power, and so something of the attributes of Him who is the living God; and powerful, energic, operative, not inefficient, as if God never meant to execute it, or as if He had no means of carrying it into execution. The sentence that the unbeliever shall not enter into Gods rest is the utterance of a living force, not a dead law, which is mighty enough to execute the Divine purpose in relation to transgression, and is sure to execute it. Nor only so: and sharper far (a double comparative) than any two-edged sword (literally two-mouthed), i.e a sword sharpened on both edge and back, cutting both ways, and peculiarly trenchant (Isa 49:2; Rev 1:16, etc.; see also Eph 6:17).

Piercing through, even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow. This quality of the Word has been regarded by some as a mere description of the power of the Word of God to produce conviction, to show the sinner the falsehood and the wickedness of even his inmost thoughts; but this explanation anticipates what follows, and is hardly consistent with the context. It is better to regard the words as a completion of the previous thought. The soul was regarded by the Greeks as the principle of animal life and action; the spirit, as the principle of rational life and action. To separate them is to destroy the life of the man, the description being taken from the inner nature. Similarly the joints or limbs, of which the bones are the framework, and marrow are also closely connected; to separate them is to produce great pain and death itself, the description being taken from the physical life. The threatening of God against disbelief is a threatening that will certainly be executed, and when executed intensest suffering, destruction, and misery will ensue. Suffering with the possibility of destructionnot necessarily destructionmay be the idea, as in similar passages (Luk 2:35; Jer 4:10, LXX.); but this interpretation does no justice to the strong wordthe dividing asunder of soul and spirit. On either interpretation the lesson is solemn and instructive. What occurred in the case of the Israelites who fell by hundreds of thousands in the wilderness will occur under the Gospel with aggravated suffering if men will not believe. . . . Nor does this word take cognizance of outward acts only,open apostasy,it is a discerner and judge of the thoughts and intents (or rather of the inclinations and thoughts) of the heart. Feelings and thoughts, desires and ideas (opinions as we call them), are equally under its jurisdiction; backslidings of heart, as well as of life, it marks and condemns. The religion of Christ is eminently spiritual. Not the outer life only; the inmost nature, mental and emotional, must be subject to the Divine authority, and conformed to the Divine will.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

As if the apostle had said, “Take heed especially of unbelief: for the word of God, or doctrine of the gospel will quickly find you out, if you be guilty of it.”

There is a piercing power in the word of God, through the energy and efficacious operation of the Godly Spirit; it is here compared to a sword, because it does divide things most nearly united, and discover things most inward and secret, or rather God by the word doth this; he by the word pierces, even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit; that is, the actings of the understanding, and the motions of the will and affections it cuts asunder the most resolute and compacted purposes of the will: yea, it pierces to the marrow, that is, the most secret and close contrivances of the soul, the thoughts and intents ot the heart.

O mighty power of the word; and of God in and by the word, to convey strength to the weak, wisdom to the simple, comfort to the sorrowful, light to the blind, and life to the dead; it brings souls out of the captivity of sin into the blessed liberty of faith in Christ.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

God Sees Us As We Are Some might think they can deceive God by pretending to be diligent. However, His powerful insight into the depths of man’s soul is clearly seen in a full understanding of the nature of His word. So, the author next turned to a discussion of the word and the God who delivered it. He spoke of the “word of God” which Peter says is the incorruptible seed by which we are to be born (4:12; 1Pe 1:23 ). It is the seed of the kingdom ( Luk 8:11-15 ). By the hearing of it faith can be gained ( Rom 10:17 ), without which one cannot be pleasing to God ( Heb 11:6 ). If one will hear it, he can obtain blessing ( Luk 11:28 ). The “word of God” was that which was delivered by Jesus and should dwell richly in the heart of the Christian ( Joh 17:8 ; Joh 17:14 ; Joh 17:17 ; Col 3:16 ). By it we can find our salvation ( Joh 5:24 ; Act 20:32 ). It was this “word” that Timothy was to deliver ( 1Ti 4:5-6 ; 2Ti 4:1-5 ). However, the “word” is worthless to anyone who refuses to work the works it tells him to do ( Jas 1:18-25 ). That word would be the good news that was carried to the entire world upon the instruction of Jesus ( Mat 28:18-20 ; Mar 16:15-16 ; Luk 24:47-49 ).

The writer said this word is alive and powerful, meaning that it carries a forceful, living message today. The word, which is the sword of the Spirit ( Eph 6:17 ), is so sharp that it can divide the very “essence of man.” That word is also able to discern, or judge, a man’s very purpose in life. It can cause one to be seen as he really is since it reveals his very thoughts and feelings. It is really no wonder that this word has such powers, since God, who had that word written, is able to see all things, nothing being secret from him. This is the God with whose word we have to deal ( Heb 4:13 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Heb 4:12. For the word of God As if he had said, Take heed of unbelief, for the word of God will try and condemn you if you be guilty of it. It is greatly debated among commentators whether this is to be understood of Christ, the eternal Word, or of the gospel. None of the properties, says Calmet, mentioned here can be denied to the Son of God, the eternal Word. He sees all things, knows all things, penetrates all things, and can do all things. He is the Ruler of the heart, and can turn it where he pleases. He enlightens the soul, and calls it gently and efficaciously, when and how he wills. Finally, he punishes in the most exemplary manner the insults offered to his Father and to himself by infidels, unbelievers, and the wicked in general. But it does not appear that the divine Logos is here intended: 1st, Because St. Paul does not use that term to express the Son of God. 2d, Because the conjunction, , for, shows that this verse is an inference drawn from the preceding, where the subject in question is concerning the eternal rest, and the means by which it is obtained. It is therefore more natural to explain the term of the word, order, and will of God; for the Hebrews represent the revelation of God as an active being, living, all- powerful, illumined, executing vengeance, discernibly and penetrating all things. Of this he produces divers examples. Macknight considers the passage in the same light, observing, The apostle having said, (Heb 4:2,) that , the word which they heard did not profit them; the word of God in this verse, I think, signifies the preached gospel; understanding thereby its doctrines, precepts, promises, and threatenings, together with those examples of the divine judgments which are recorded in the Scriptures; by all which the gospel operates powerfully on the minds of believers. In our common version of 1Pe 1:23, the word of God is said to be living. So also Christ, Joh 6:63, The words that I speak to you they are spirit and they are life; and in the last clause of this verse, actions are ascribed to the word of God which imply life, namely, it is a discerner of the devices and purposes of the heart. And as the word is here said to be, , efficacious, this efficacy is described by Paul, 2Co 10:4, The weapons of our warfare are powerful, for the overturning of strong holds, &c. Also 1Th 2:13, the word of God is said to work effectually in them who believe: Eph 6:17, the sword of the Spirit denotes the doctrine of the gospel, called a sword, because it is of great use to repel the attacks of our spiritual enemies; and a sword of the Spirit, because it was dictated by the Spirit of God: Rev 1:16, the word of God is represented as a sharp, two-edged sword, which went out of the mouth of Christ: Isa 11:4, it is said of Christ, He shall smite the earth with the rod, or (as the LXX. render it) , the word of his mouth. Bengelius and Wesley understand the passage in the same sense, the note of the latter being as follows: The word of God preached, (Heb 4:2,) and armed with threatenings, (Heb 4:3,) is living and powerful, attended with the power of the living God, and conveying either life or death to the hearers; sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating the heart more than this does the body; piercing quite through, and laying open the soul and spirit, joints and marrow, the inmost recesses of the mind, which the apostle beautifully and strongly expresses by this heap of figurative words: and is a discerner not only of the thoughts, but also of the intentions.

In the clause, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, the writer proceeds on the supposition that man consists of three parts, a body, a sensitive soul, which he hath in common with the brutes, and a rational spirit, of which see the note on 1Th 5:23. In representing the word, or gospel, as a person who shall judge the world at the last day the apostle hath imitated Christ, who said to the Jews, (Joh 12:48,) He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: , the word that I have spoken shall judge him in the last day. But to raise the figure, the apostle ascribes to the word life, strength, discernment, and action; qualities highly necessary in a judge.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 12

Sharper, &c.; that is, in respect to the terrible energy with which its threatenings will be fulfilled.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

4:12 {4} For the {e} word of God [is] {f} quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of {g} soul and {h} spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

(4) An amplification taken from the nature of the word of God, so powerful that it enters even to the deepest and most inward and secret parts of the heart, fatally wounding the stubborn, and openly reviving the believers.

(e) The doctrine of God which is preached both in the law and in the gospel.

(f) He calls the word of God living, because of the effect it has on those to whom it is preached.

(g) He calls the seat of emotions “soul”.

(h) By “spirit” he means the mind.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

After we die, or experience the Rapture, God will do a spiritual postmortem on us at the judgment seat of Christ (Rom 14:10-12; 2Co 5:10). He will examine our innermost attitudes and motives. The "scalpel" He will use is His Word. The Word of God is "living" because it is the word of the living God (Heb 3:12), and it is "active" (energetic, powerful). The sword in view (Gr. machairan) was originally a small one like a boning knife that cooks used to cut up meat. In its double-edged form it was a symbol of judges and magistrates in the Roman world. It illustrated the power of those officials to turn both ways to get to the bottom of a case. However it is possible that by the time Hebrews was written machaira (sword) had come to mean a sword of any size, long or short. [Note: Moffatt, p. 56.] The Word of God can express and distinguish what is "soulish" (natural) and what is spiritual in our motivation and actions. It can do so even when those elements are as close to each other as our joints and marrow. It is even able to expose our thoughts and attitudes (cf. 1Co 4:5).

"What the author is saying is that 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." [Note: Morris, p. 44.]

Many Christians use this verse to show that God will judge unbelievers with His piercing Word, but in the context it refers to God judging believers to determine rewards (1Co 3:11-15).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)