In our new Bible study series on the words of Jesus, we looked at the fact that the Bible describes Jesus as the Word (see John 1) and that God uses words powerfully, something we first see in creation (Genesis 1-2, when we read repeatedly ‘God said…’ in the creation account.) Ps 33:9 tells us that God spoke, and it came to be, reminding us that when God speaks, things happen! (‘One word, and the walls start crumbling,’ as Chris Tomlin puts it in his song, ‘Impossible Things.’)
Words and speech are what distinguish human beings from other created things, and speech development is a fascinating subject. We learn to speak through hearing speech; Jesus told His disciples that He was the good shepherd whose sheep hear and recognise and follow His voice. (John 10:1-17) The words of Jesus are powerful and life-giving, but we must learn not only to discern His voice (which speaks love, truth, correction, kindness and understanding to us with scalpel precision, being a double-edged sword as Hebrews 4:12 reminds us), but to hear His words and put them into practice. In Matthew 7:24-29, we are reminded that there is a vast difference between the wise and foolish person. Wisdom involves not only hearing the words of Jesus, but putting them into practice (see also James 1:22-25).
We must, therefore, act on what we hear as we hear the words of Jesus. We must recognise the authority of His words, recognising that in the past God spoke through the prophets but has now spoken to us by His Son. (Heb 1:1-3) God has both the first word and the final word; His words are sources of life to us. As Peter said, ‘You have the words of eternal life.’ (John 6:69) Jesus holds the key to life and we discover what it means to have life in all its fulness only as we hear, understand and act on His words.
