Volume 5 Issue 3 July 1999
by Danny Glover
readers a couple of months ago, just before they published a special section on religion.
What books, the editors asked, have most influenced your spiritual lives?
Their readers’ answers were rather telling of the age in which we live. They extolled
works from the cult-like (books by Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy), to the
philosophical (Plato's "Myth of the Cave" essay), to the intellectual (Jacob Bronowski's The
Ascent of Man), to the pagan (The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the
Great Goddess).
But one book was noticeably absent from the list: The Holy Bible.
This may have been the doing of editors who had only limited space to print readers'
letters, or who do not equate "spirituality" with the Bible. But even so, the omission of the
word of God itself from a list that purported to identify some of the greatest religious
influences in the world today was curious to say the least.
Why? Because God's word should be the most influential "book" in the life of all who
hope to get to Heaven. The Bible is more than just another book, for by it alone can man
know the truth.
Our study of the Bible must be motivated by more than the passing intellectual
curiousity that prompts men to read the musings of Plato. Our passion for the truth must
equal that of King David, a man after God’s own heart, who wrote this in Psalms 19: “The
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”
The writer of Psalms 1 conveys a similar message. The "blessed man," he writes,
delights "in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night." Like Jesus
when he was tempted by Satan, we must always remember that man lives "by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)
Even before God's mysteries were revealed in print, man feasted on His word. "The God
of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob" told His chosen patriarchs what they must do to inherit
His promises, and they listened. At the giving of the old law, furthermore, Moses made
clear the importance of God's statutes when he told Israel to "learn them and be careful to
observe them."
Under the old law, God's ordinances were important enough to be written on stone
tablets and stored in a holy ark (Deuteronomy 10:1-5). They also were carved in the stones
of the altar after Israel entered and conquered the promised land. (Deuteronomy 27:1-8;
Joshua 8:30-35) And today, if we let Him, God will store His law in a place more precious
(and beneficial to us): in our minds and hearts. (Hebrews 8:10)
Perhaps no passage demonstrates the spiritual significance of God's word more than the
Psalms 119. God’s ways, judgments, testimonies, statutes, etc., are the writer’s focus in all
but a few of the 176 verses of that longest chapter in the Bible, and he gives one of the many
reasons in verse 11. "Your word," the psalmist writes, "I have hidden in my heart, that I
might not sin against You."
The New Testament preaches the same message. God's Word is the "seed," Christ says
in the parable of the sower (Luke 8:11-15), and if we are "good ground" -- those "with a
noble and good heart" -- the seed will take root, and we will "bear fruit with patience." Just
before His crucifixion, moreover, Christ prayed that the Father would sanctify His disciples
"by Your truth" and then emphasized that "Your word is truth."
We must remember that although men penned the Bible, God inspired them to do so. Its
words are His alone, and we should follow them alone in our quest for righteousness.
The writer of Hebrews said "the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than
any two-edged sword … a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." He said
nothing of the words of Mary Baker Eddy, Jacob Bronowski or any other mortal. The
apostle Paul, in fact, discouraged just that type of thinking in I Corinthians 1 when he
scolded the Christians at Corinth for saying they were "of" certain men rather than of Christ
alone.
Something is horribly wrong when, as with the readers of the "Book World" special on
religion, so many people credit their spirituality (or pseudo-spirituality) to men. There is
only one way to Heaven, that being through Christ (John 14:16), and the Bible makes it
abundantly clear that we cannot know that way to salvation without "the implanted word."
(James 1:21)
"If you abide in My word," Christ said in John 8:31-32, "you are My disciples indeed.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
In closing, I will follow the "Book World" example and pose a series of my own
questions: Does "the word of Christ dwell richly in you in all wisdom"? (Colossians 3:16)
Does God's Word burn like a fire in your heart to the point that you are "weary of holding
it back"? (Jeremiah 20:9) Or do you find your spirituality in the teachings of men?
