If we compare Ephesians 5:18-20 with Colossians 3:16 and 17, we shall see that, as the New Testament reveals, the word is the Spirit and the Spirit is the word. John 6:63 indicates this. Here the Lord Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.” The Spirit is living and real but rather mysterious and intangible and difficult for us to apprehend. The words, however, are substantial. In John 6 the Lord Jesus first indicates that for giving life He would become the Spirit. Then He says that the words He speaks are spirit and life. This shows that His spoken words are the embodiment of the life-giving Spirit. He is now the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, and the Spirit is embodied in His words. When we receive His words by exercising our spirit, we get the Spirit who is life.

Many readers of John 6 are puzzled by the Lord’s word in verse 63, not knowing what it means for His words to be spirit and life. Some Christians care only for the Bible in letters; they are reluctant even to talk about the Spirit. Their desire is merely to understand the Bible in letters. However, if we do not touch the Spirit in the Word, we cannot receive life. The Spirit is the extract of the Bible. Yet this extract is embodied in the Word. Today the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is embodied in the word of the Bible. Daily we need to come to the Lord and touch Him as the Spirit in the Word.

The New Testament assures us that the Word and the Spirit are one. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word.” But in John 20:22 the Lord Jesus breathed upon the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” At the beginning of the Gospel of John, Christ is the Word, but at the end of this Gospel He breathes out the Spirit. We have seen that in 6:63 He says that the word is the Spirit. Hence, the Word and the Spirit are one.

A further indication of this is seen in Ephesians 6:17. Here Paul charges us to receive “the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.” This verse indicates that the Spirit is the word of God. The antecedent of the word “which” in this verse is not sword but Spirit. This indicates that the Spirit is the word of God, both of which are Christ (2 Cor. 3:17; Rev. 19:13).

In our Christian experience the word of God and the Spirit must always be one. It is an utter falsehood to say that we can take the Spirit without taking the word of God, or that we should take the word of God without the Spirit. Without taking the word of God, we cannot have the Spirit. In our experience we receive the Spirit mainly through the Word. As we contact the Word in a living way, it becomes the Spirit to us.

Christ is both the Spirit and the Word. He is not the Spirit without being the Word, nor is He the Word without being the Spirit. Because He is both the Word and the Spirit, we need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and we need to be filled in our spirit with the Spirit.

Another verse which indicates that the Spirit and the word of God are one is 2 Timothy 3:16a. Here Paul says, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” This indicates that the Scripture, the word of God, is the breath of God. Every word of the Bible is God’s breath, and this breath is the pneuma, the Spirit. God’s breath is His pneuma, the Spirit. The Spirit is the breath of God, and the word of God is also the breath of God. Thus, because both the word of God and the Spirit are God’s breath, they are truly one. On the one hand, the word of God is the Spirit; on the other hand, the Spirit of God is the word.

God’s speaking is His breathing. Hence, His word is spirit, pneuma, breath. This means that the Scripture is the embodiment of God as the Spirit. The Spirit is therefore the very essence, the substance, of the Scripture, just as phosphorus is the essential substance in matches. We must strike the Spirit of the Scripture with our spirit to catch the divine fire.

In our Christian life we should neglect neither the Spirit nor the Word. Because the Lord is both the Spirit and the Word, we should not separate the Spirit from the Word. It is actually dangerous to have the Spirit without the Word, for then we are in an unlimited and unrestricted sphere. But without the Spirit the Word has no life, for apart from the Spirit the Word is dead letters. The Spirit is the life content of the Bible. The Word conveys God’s life because the Word conveys the Spirit. In fact, the substance, the essence, the constituent, of the Word is the Spirit. Therefore, the Bible cares for both the Spirit and the word of Christ. We are charged to be filled in spirit with the Spirit, and we are also charged to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.
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