LESSON SEVEN
THE WORD OF LIFE

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

2 Tim. 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

THE NEED TO KNOW THE BIBLE

After we are saved, in order to have spiritual growth, we must know the Bible. For two thousand years Christians have acknowledged one thing, that no one can know the Lord well without knowing the Bible.

The spiritual inheritance which God has given to us includes, on the one hand, the invisible Holy Spirit and, on the other hand, the visible Holy Bible. On the one hand, the Spirit is within us; on the other hand, the Scripture is outside of us. A proper Christian must be balanced in these two sides. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit within and you also know the Bible without, then, as a Christian, you are living and stable, and you are also active and accurate. You are a Christian who is living and stable as well as active and accurate. (Truth Lessons, Level 1, Vol. 1, ch. 1)

THE SCRIPTURES—ALL GOD-BREATHED

Verse 16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The Greek words rendered, “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable,” may also be translated “Every Scripture God-breathed is also profitable.”

To confront the death, corruption, and confusion in the church’s decline, the eternal life upon which chapter one is based (vv. 1, 10), the divine truth emphasized in chapter two (vv. 15, 18, 25), and the Holy Scripture highly regarded in chapter three (vv. 14-17) are all needed. The eternal life not only swallows up death, but also renders the life supply; the divine truth replaces the vanity of corruption with the reality of all the divine riches; and the Holy Scripture not only dispels confusion, but also furnishes divine light and revelation. Hence, in this book the apostle stresses these three things.

The Scripture, the Word of God, is the breath of God. God’s speaking is God’s breathing. Hence, His word is spirit (John 6:63), pneuma, or breath. Thus, 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 kindle the divine fire.

As the embodiment of God the Spirit, the Scripture is also the embodiment of Christ. Christ is God’s living Word (Rev. 19:13), and the Scripture is God’s written Word (Matt. 4:4). (Life-study of 2 Timothy, pp. 50-51)

THE WRITTEN WORD BECOMING THE LIVING WORD

The Lord is the living Word, and the Bible is the written Word. Are the written Word and the living Word two kinds of words? If we consider the written Word to be something different from the living Word, the written Word will be dead knowledge to us. The written Word cannot be separated from the living Word but must be one with the living Word.

We have to deal with every verse of the Bible in this way. We read it by our eyes, understand it spontaneously by our mind, and deal with it by exercising the spirit to translate or transfer the written Word into the living Word, which is Christ Himself. Never pray in a way to ask the Lord to help you do something. That is the wrong way. Instead, always take Him as the fulfillment of His word. Suppose you read John 15:12, which says that we have to love one another. Do not pray, “Lord, I have to love my brother. But Lord, You know I am weak. Lord, help me to love.” After this prayer you will make up your mind to love the brothers and you will be exposed and see the failure. You have to expect nothing but failure. You may be successful for a short time, but eventually you will fail. Even if you were successful, that would not mean anything nor would it be worth anything.

The word of the Bible must be dealt with and taken in the way of enjoying the Lord. Then we will really feed and feast on the Lord through the reading of the Word. Then the written Word will become the living Word, that is, Christ Himself. Christ and the Bible will be one. We need to taste and see. We have to help the brothers and sisters to contact the word of the Lord in this way. By the mercy of the Lord, we need to keep the Bible as a book of life, the tree of life, not as the tree of knowledge. Knowledge puffs up (1 Cor. 8:1).

The more that many Christians learn the Bible, the more puffed up they become. They acquire knowledge just to condemn and to criticize others. Too much knowledge in dead letters results in pride. Do not make this living book a book of dead letters. Paul said that the letter kills (2 Cor. 3:6). That means that the Bible in the letter kills. We should not take the Bible as something in the letter. We have to take the Word as something in life and in the spirit. May we all taste and see that the Lord is good. (The Tree of Life, pp. 105-108)

THE LORD’S WORD BEING THE BELIEVERS’ BREAD OF LIFE

The word of the Scriptures is also our spiritual bread of life (Matt. 4:4). Just as our physical life needs nourishment, so also our spiritual life needs nourishment. The nourishment of our spiritual life can only be supplied by the word of the Bible. In order to be living and strong before God, we cannot depend on bread alone, but on every word, that is, the word of the Bible, that proceeds out through the mouth of God. We must take the word of God as food and eat it (Jer. 15:16), even regarding the word of the Bible as more important than our food (Job 23:12b). Otherwise, our spiritual life cannot grow. We must practice to have our faculties exercised in apprehending the word of the Bible so that we may be able to understand the words that are hard to interpret; that is, like those who are mature, we can eat the solid food (Heb. 5:13-14). Otherwise, our spiritual life cannot be strong. (Truth Lessons, Level 1, Vol. 1, ch. 1)

THE LORD’S WORD BEING SPIRIT AND LIFE

God’s Word is merely theological knowledge to many people; it is not life to them. But the Lord says that His word is spirit and life. The word of God touches our spirit and our life; it does not relate to our mind. It matters little if the mind does not understand. In reading a book or listening to a sermon, we can tell immediately whether we have touched spirit and life within or whether we have touched the mind. If we have heard only knowledge, the result is death, and we feel uneasy within. If we have heard spirit and life, the result is peace and assurance within. (CWWN, vol. 45, pp. 1016, 1018)

References: Truth Lessons, Level 1, Vol. 1, ch. 1; Life-study of 2 Timothy, msg. 6; The Tree of Life, ch. 11; CWWN, vol. 45, ch. 141.