Living Words

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

LIVING WORDS

Acts 7:37-38

37 "This is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.'   38 He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.

NIV

Stephen now comes to the point of the living words of God. We know from our other studies that those religious men, those who are of the Sanhedrin, had already turned away from the living word of God and turned toward their own traditions of men. Had they been open to the living word of God they would have seen that Jesus was the long-awaited Christ, but they were blinded by their dead traditions which led them to a place of perishing. Following their own traditions would leave them stranded in the tomb until the time they were judged and found wanting, being sent to eternal damnation. Stephen knows that God’s word lives, as he gave to Moses, and as he speaks through the Spirit into Stephen’s life. This same Spirit is now alive in us and we also have the living words of God within our hearts. This is due to the fact, as Stephen is pointing out, Moses told the people that God would send a prophet like him from the people of Israel. He was speaking of Jesus, which Stephen will get to, and it is because of Jesus we have the Spirit. What is interesting is that it would seem throughout the ages, religious men have always had a slant toward traditions rather than the living word of God. Even today it appears many churches are steeped in their own brand of traditions and have in some sense set aside the living word of God. We must be careful not to get caught up in that kind of thinking and allow tradition to take precedence over God’s living word. Some traditions are fine, they are comforting to us. We follow certain traditions we base on the living word of God, but have we added certain things that are not from the word, but rather passed down to us from men. We should be careful to pay attention to the fact the word of God is living, and it is like a double-edged sword. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews makes that very clear:

Heb 4:12-13

12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

NIV

 

The traditions of men cannot and will not do that, but only stunts the minds and hearts of men, captivating them with dead untruths that tickle their fancy. As the Apostle John would put it, men love the darkness and hide there, for the light exposes their sin. The light is the living words of God, this double-edged sword that shows the way to life everlasting. Who, in their right mind, would not want the living words of God that have been passed on to us, through the power of God the Father, Jesus, the Son, and through the Spirit, who dwells within our very being?