THERE is a living freshness in the Scriptures, when read in faith, that brings us into direct communication with God Himself. This freshness ever exists in the Scriptures, but we realize it solely as we read them in simplicity. Do we really hear God speaking to us when we open His Book?
The way in which the Thessalonian believers received the Word is most instructive on this point—"When ye received the Word of God, which ye heard of us," says the apostle, "ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." (1 Thess. 3:1313To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. (1 Thessalonians 3:13).) This their reception of the truth accounts for very much of their state of soul, for which the apostle could and did give God thanks.
We may be sure that, as Christians, we are what we are in proportion to the depth or shallowness with which we receive the Word of God as the Word of God. It does not effectually work in us who believe, unless we truly believe it. As a matter of fact, believers but faintly believe the Word of God as the Word of God. There is very great trifling with it. We do not now refer to that Christianized infidelity, which sits in judgment upon the Scriptures, and believes only what it professes to understand, for that is not faith at all. That is to say, it is not faith in God at all, but faith in the ability of human reasonings. We take it rather as the word of man than as it is in truth, the Word of God.
When the Word of God is received by us, as it is in truth, the Word of God, we listen to God. We are then, spirit, soul, and body, commanded by His Word. Hence it works effectually within us. It never occurs to us either to question or to evade His Word, and such a spirit soon tells its own tale to the world around us; for as the lives of the Thessalonians sounded out the Word of God far and wide, so does the Word sound out from every believer into whose heart it has been received as it is in truth, the Word of God.