Hebrews 4:12 English Standard Version (ESV) For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We left of yesterday with John’s proclamation that Jesus Christ is the Word. Now we come to this issue in Hebrews which tells us that the Word is living and active. We have gone over passages about hiding the Word in our hearts.

Psalm 119:11 English Standard Version (ESV) I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

The majority of passages related to the word and the heart are contained in the Old Testament. That is man’s effort to help himself. Christ had not come, lived, died and been resurrected during those days. The relationship between the written word and the heart was literary education, understanding, and human effort.

Now that we live after the cross and have accepted Christ by faith, we take Him, the Word Himself, into our hearts. It is no longer a matter of human effort alone. We have been given the Holy Spirit in order to keep the truth, the Word, alive and active in our hearts. He is the one who is able to divide those parts of us that we were unable to do without His help.

There is a difference between soul and spirit. We did not know that as we do now. Joint and marrow are two different aspects of our ability to move and where life blood is renewed. There is a difference between our actions and our lives. They are not the same thing.

The last and most important is the issue of thoughts and intentions of the heart. Our thoughts are easily influenced by everything earthly and fleshly. The heart belongs to Christ and is not influenced by anything that is of the world. It is the mind that has to be transitioned from self-talk to listening to the heart that belongs to Christ.

It is more than a matter of reading and believing as we did in our old lives. It is a matter of living by faith.

Colossians 1:15-20 English Standard Version

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

The difference between eminence and preeminence is the condition of fact. For eminence to be preeminence it has to be a fact, not a vision, belief nor faith. Preeminence can only be establish in fact by God who created all that exists just for His Son.

It is one thing to create and give it away, but to create all things not only with the love of the Son in mind but to share creation so that His vision of creation is a vital part of His creation.

Paul’s letter to the Colossians was written long before John’s gospel. In this we might consider how John laid out his gospel in view of what he considered important. John begins his gospel with this very important fact, the preeminence of Christ.

John 1:1-3 English Standard Version

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John went one step further than Paul in his declaration of this fact, Christ is the Word.