Unsheathing the Sword
3/5/25 Bible Thought (Luke 4)
Multiple passages in the Scripture liken God’s Word to a sword. In the famous “armor of God” passage found in Ephesians 6:13-17, the apostle Paul concludes the list with, “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). The author to the Hebrews describes the Word in this way,
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
Lastly, in Revelation, when the Lord Jesus appears to the apostle John, his initial vision climaxes with, “In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength” (Rev. 1:16).
We see no better example of what it looks like for the Word to function as a weapon than in Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. In Luke’s account it is found in chapter four. Jesus, the Messiah, was the One destined to crush the serpent’s head (see Gen. 3:15). Whereas Adam and Eve fell to the serpent’s temptation in the Garden, Israel failed in the wilderness as they resorted to doubting God’s promise, and longing for Egypt, the Messiah overcame.
Three times the tempter came, and three times Jesus answered his temptations with Scripture from Deuteronomy. Even once, the tempter came quoting Scripture himself! He challenged Jesus to test the Father by using a presumptuous reading of the psalms to which Jesus fired back, again, with more Scripture. Truly, Jesus lived out the perfect example of Psalm 119:11:
“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11)
Jesus is many things to us. He is first and foremost our Lord and our Savior. He is the One whom we owe our complete allegiance. He is our Lord, our King, our supreme Ruler. He is the One who calls the shots in our lives. Likewise, He, as Savior, is the sole reason that we can be forgiven for our sins. He was the only sinless One who could lay His life down as a perfect sacrifice for sins. He is a friend, being a friend of sinners and tax-collectors, and no one was, or is, or ever will be too lost for Jesus to find. But amongst the many things that Jesus is, He is also the believer’s example.
If we want to look at what true humanity is like, we look to Jesus. This world has been stained by sin which was not part of the original creation. Humans, in the beginning, weren’t made as sinners. Therefore, Jesus, as the sinless One, is more human than any of us (although He is much more than this as God-incarnate!) He has shown us what it looks like to love others and what it looks like to give His life, both in life and death, in perfect obedience to the Father’s will. Amongst these things, the Lord Jesus, in today’s passage, shows us the importance of knowing Scripture.
After 40 days of fasting, when His humanity was at its weakest, it was the Word that kept Him. What’s probably most interesting about this, is that He is the Word Himself. The apostle John, in the prologue of his Gospel describes Jesus as the eternal word of God made flesh (John 1:14). With this, I want to encourage us today, if the Lord Jesus, who is literally the Word of God embodied, used the Word as His defense against temptation, then certainly the everyday believer must do so as well.
The apostle Peter once warned, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). If we have a spiritual adversary that is after us, if we have fleshly temptations that will try to devour us, and if we have to sift through countless false prophets in the world today, then surely we must know God’s Word and know it well.
Unfortunately, some believers go six days of the week without Scripture in their lives. Perhaps, in today’s world, where “regular” church attendance has been defined by some as once or twice a month, it’s far longer. The believer in Jesus Christ can’t afford to leave their sword in its sheath for days on end. We can’t have our Bible getting dusty on the shelf. We need to know God’s Word if we’re going to stand against our spiritual adversary, our fleshly sinful desires, and all manner of false teaching that’s in the world. Regular Bible reading, study, and even memorization, are ways that the believer can keep their sword battle-ready and follow in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus who used the Word to conquer temptation on our behalf.