This is where these words begin to shape life. Jesus was the first one to become God’s words in the flesh. “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” (John 1)
God’s word by its very nature changes us to make us like Christ: “God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey” (Hebrews 4). If you read what God has written, think about it, pray through it, but don’t allow it to change you, you’re missing a big point.
James puts it this way: “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God – the free life! – even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.” (James 1)
Imagine going on a dream date – the right person, the right clothes, the right food, the right conversation… perfect! You excuse yourself from the table, take a look at the mirror in the restroom, and… uh-oh, not so perfect. “Aaah! How long has that been there in my teeth? Did my date notice? How could someone not notice?” Then having seen yourself clearly, you walk back out and sit down at the table, with a piece of your dinner adorning your teeth in all its glory.
The same kind of thing happens when you read the Bible and do nothing. Not only is the sin that you leave in place ugly and damaging, but it stands in the way of your relationship with God – in a much bigger way than something hanging off your face. For God to share his mind and his heart with you, only to have you do nothing about it, implies more than a self-destructive choice. Instead of doing what God says, you have chosen yourself as master, as God.
The great part is that God doesn’t leave you alone. He doesn’t show you how lost you are and then leave you high and dry. God helps you live the way he wants. Like Paul told the Philippians, “Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure” (Philippians 2).
The amazing thing about reading the Bible is that as you spend time with God, this reading becomes part of you. Like the way relationships with other humans change us and shape our lives, our relationship with God changes us on a much larger scale. In lectio divina, reading, thinking and praying come together within us, become part of us, and we are lived out even beyond our awareness – like the way a baseball player swings a bat or catches a ball or the way a violinist performs a concerto. Over time, soaking in God’s word leads to our living out those words without even thinking about them.
This offers a tremendous sense of freedom – from our futile and determined attempts to save ourselves by being “good enough,” from the captivity of sin that makes us slaves. In Matthew 11, Jesus says, “Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
The Bible and its message help you leave behind things that seem to offer pleasure (like living for ourselves) but fail and leave us empty. God’s Word does more than that. You’ll find true life. Jesus says in John, “I came so that they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of” (John 10). Jesus himself is life (John 14). So don’t miss this: When you live the Word, you truly live.
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Text taken from the Introduction to THE MESSAGE REMIX: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Copyright 2003 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved. Used with permission of NavPress, a division of The Navigators.
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