The law as the living word of God has many functions. To the loving seekers of God these functions are the blessing received through God’s law as His living word. In this message and in the message following we shall consider the blessing we may receive from the living Word of God.
Although the loving seekers of God receive blessing from His Word, it is possible to come to the Word of God and not receive anything. I know of many who have read the Bible and even studied it without receiving anything from it. This is the situation among many Christians today. When they read the Scriptures, many Christians do not receive any blessing. The only thing they get is vain knowledge. Using the knowledge they gain from reading the Bible, they engage in controversies over matters in the Bible. Instead of being truly helped by reading the Bible, they argue about the Word of God. As a result, first they themselves are killed by their kind of Bible knowledge, and then they use this knowledge to kill others. To them, the Bible is not a book that gives life; it is a book that kills.
Throughout the centuries, many have been killed by taking the Bible as nothing more than a book of knowledge. Perhaps the most striking example of those killed through Bible knowledge is the so-called higher critics of the Scriptures in the nineteenth century. In their study of the Bible, these higher critics exercised their mind to an extreme. Consequently, they did not receive any blessing from their study of the Word of God.
If our condition is normal, we should be helped and very much blessed whenever we come to the Word of God. If we do not receive any blessing, there must be something wrong with us. All Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16); therefore, the words of the Bible are God’s breath. Furthermore, as the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), the Lord Jesus is Himself called the Word (John 1:1, 14; Rev. 19:13). Thus, coming to the Word should be the equivalent of coming to God. Because the Word is the embodiment of God, it contains the riches of God. The Word of God contains all that God is. This is the reason the Word of God is so rich, substantial, living, and enlightening. All that God can be to us, the Word can be also. Provided we have no problems within us which cause a hindrance, we should receive blessing whenever we come to the Word of God.
If you fail to receive help when you come to the Word, there is probably a problem of some kind in your heart. Your heart is not right. It may be that you have no genuine exercise of heart in coming to the Word. You read the Bible, but you have no heart for the Word. In human life it is possible to do many things out of necessity without having a heart for those things. For example, a young person may be forced to attend school, but he may have no heart for education. He goes to school only because he is compelled to do so. Likewise, although we may read the Word of God, perhaps out of a sense of duty, we may not have a heart for the Word.
Another problem you may have in your heart is the problem of a divided heart. It is possible that your heart is divided into two or three parts, perhaps even more. This may especially be true of young people. A young person may love many different things. This causes the heart to be divided. One thing occupies one part of the heart, and something else occupies another part. Suppose a young man has a heart for his studies, but also has a heart for a particular form of worldly entertainment. This will cause his heart to be divided.
If a person’s heart is divided into two parts, one part for something good and another part for something evil, the evil tendency will always prevail. This seems to be a natural law or principle. In his heart a person may have two opposite intentions; he may intend both to lie and to tell the truth. The evil intention, that of telling a lie, will prevail over the good intention, that of telling the truth. Whenever our heart is divided, reading the Word of God will not help us. If we come to the Bible halfheartedly or with a divided heart, we shall not receive blessing from the Word. Whenever we come to the Bible, we must come with a whole heart and with a single heart. It is not profitable to read the Word of God in a halfhearted way.