Hebrews Chapter Four, The Dividing Word

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [13] And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

 

Chapter four has been building to verse 12, which is a cornerstone in the epistle of Hebrews. Verse 1 begins with the promised rest God offers, with a warning to fear that any saint may appear to come short of it. Verses 2 and 3 contrasts the hearers who rebelled and listeners who believed.

We are reminded in verses 4 through 7 how God finished His works and rested, foreshadowing the Jewish Sabbath He would later command Israel to keep. Disobedience prevented entry into God’s Sabbath rest, and David tells us that the path in is still open “today,” so it would behoove the listener to hearken and obey. Verse 8 explains how Joshua did not give Israel rest, and there remains a rest for God’s people, verse 9. Joshua typified Christ leading His children in triumph into the peace only He bestows. Such peace may only be entered by the individual who looks for, and apprehends it. It is not the gift of national privilege, but God’s unmitigated grace. Verse 10 details that the believer entering God’s rest ceases from his own efforts. God opened the door to receive this rest through the blood of our Savior. No more work need be done. God ceased; so should we.

 

Finally, verse 11 commends diligence entering that coveted rest. Rest at this point is synonymous with two things. #1: Belief (Hebrews 4:3) and #2: resultant obedience (Hebrews 4:6, 11). The dividing line between faith and unbelief, or obedience and disobedience is the very word itself. The written word, the Bible, is intrinsically linked with the living Word, Jesus Christ. Listen to the very words of our own Lord when He says of Himself, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword,” Matthew 10:34. This “sword,” is the word of God, the Bible, the same word by which Jesus will smite the Antichrist’s army in the great day of God when He defends Israel from her manifold enemies, Revelation 19:15. This was the same two-edged sword John the Apostle saw on Patmos, when he beheld the risen and now glorified Christ, Revelation 1:16. Finally, it is this same glorified Christ that speaks to the church of Pergamos, where Satan’s throne dwelt, who reminds that church that it is He who wields the sword of the word.

 

Pergamos had become a hotbed of wickedness, a city in which Satanic influence ran rampant, and Christ’s little flock kept their lampstand alight in the midst of it all, by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. The church suffered the martyrdom of Antipas, and held fast their faith despite that. But doctrinal division was robbing the church of abiding strength. Practitioners of Balaam’s doctrine of idol worship and immorality seduced some of the church into its practice. The doctrine of Nicolas, still practiced by certain sects in Irenaeus’ (200 AD) time according to him, had also impacted the church. His teachings were favored over Christian doctrine and seem to be associated with Balaam’s wicked counsel to Balak.

 

The dividing power of the word of God, piercing even unto the soul and spirit, will do what it does naturally: separate. As we continue, bear in mind Matthew 10:34, and what Jesus related about even our closest relations. The name of Christ divides. Not the harmless babe of Rome, neither the spiritual half-brother of Satan according to Mormonism. Neither the neutered, feel-good Jesus of modern gospels that are void of saving power. I mean the genuine, historic, risen and glorified Son of God, who died for our sins, was buried, and rose again to ascend to the Father’s right hand. This Man—the God-man Christ Jesus, preached correctly and without apology—divides. His nature divided those who believed from those that did not, entirely naturally and with hardly an effort. We are warned that many false Christs have been and will be preached by false teachers and apostates, deluded by their desire to stray from truth into flights of fancy. How shall we know the difference? The dividing word of God. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils…for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears,” 1 Timothy 4:1, 2 Timothy 4:3, KJV.

 

Observe Paul’s explanation of this division. “For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions (schisms) among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions (heresies, KJV) among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you,” 1 Corinthians 11:18, 19. It isn’t a matter of how much one believes, but rather WHAT one believes. And we can’t rightly believe anything without sound doctrine as our guide to help us understand and train us to submit to its counsel. The church once was all of one mind in regard to the teaching delivered first by the Lord, then by His apostles. But men of corrupt minds infiltrated after a little while, taught perverse things to lead disciples astray after them, not the risen Christ and the hope of eternal life. The word of God studied prayerfully makes such heresy manifest and simultaneously sunders the pretended fellowship between false professors and genuine saints. Without the word of God we are helpless against every wind of doctrine that comes our way, sadly destined to ensnare at least some wandering souls that have no root in themselves. The written word bears witness to the living Word, our God and Savior, the Head of the church and the Master of our souls. Paul wrote to Corinth that these divisions (heresies) established true believers from those that did not actually believe.