As we begin this New Year, Rose and I plan, for some weeks, to be focusing these meditation thoughts around the word of God. When a poetic rhyme accompanies the meditation it has been written by Rose, and her insights set the theme for the meditations. She and I seek to work together, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to bring you these weekly thoughts, and we hope you will continue to be helped and blessed by them. Perhaps before we delve too deeply into the subject of the word of God, we should try to define what we are speaking about.
The first thing we probably think of when the word of God is mentioned is the written word, the Bible. There are several terms that are translated as word in the Bible; RHEMA and LOGOS are from the Greek, and are used in the New Testament, whereas IMRAH and DAVOR are Hebrew from the Old Testament. In brief, LOGOS is the message of the entire Bible, the thoughts, revelations, instructions, and doctrines of the whole; while RHEMA is the spoken utterance expressing a thought, message, or discourse. This may come from a verse or passage that is especially made to come alive, and speaks to us at a particular time, which we can then wield as the sword of the Spirit for the specific need in that hour, as it becomes in our hand “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). IMRAH, in the Old Testament, is derived from AMAR, meaning to speak or to say, so it is the words, commandments, and pronouncements of God; this noun is used 35 times, 21 of them in Psalm 119 alone, with verse 11 giving a clear statement that should be emulated by every one of us, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.” DAVOR (which is translated as words, plural) is very similar to LOGOS in the New Testament. John 1:1 speaking of Jesus says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Being Himself the message of the entire Bible, Jesus is the living LOGOS; the pages of the Bible are the written LOGOS from the Father; and the Holy Spirit utters the spoken LOGOS making its words come alive to us (Hebrews 4:13 and 1 Corinthians 2:13).
So, to recap, the Bible as a whole is the written Word of God; Jesus is the living Word of God, being the center and circumference of the entire message; as we come to know Him, He implants the life giving Holy Spirit in us, who both turns the LOGOS into a RHEMA, and reproves, corrects, instructs, and establishes us through the Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17), equipping us and enabling us to wield the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit, (Ephesians 6:17).
Scripture quotations are from the new King James Version copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson Co. used by permission.