I Thessalonians 2:13 – “The Root of It All”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³And because [of] this, we also give thanks to God continually because, receiving from us [the] Word of God of hearing, you received not [the] word of man but, as it truly is, [the] Word of God, which also works in you the believers.

Yes. Yes. The root of it all. The Word of God. The words of the living God. This one verse is worth and pause and ponder. E. Cooper said, “Ministers and hearers are alike responsible, the one for preaching and the other for receiving. The Word of God is not to be trifled with. It is either a savour of life unto life, or the reverse.”

Looking at this passage, I suspect practically every sermon ever preached on it probably focused on how important it is for the people to approach church sermons and lessons as the Word of God. I’ll come back to that. However, I think there is an enormous issue which ought to get pondered first – is what the people hear in fact the Word of God? Paul could commend the Thessalonians for receiving his teaching as the Word of God – but that’s because it was.

I suppose evangelicals and conservatives can easily condemn “those liberals,” those pastors and churches who teach what is obviously not the Word of God. But I fear what those same evangelicals and conservatives do is perhaps worse, for the very reason that they do claim to teach the Word of God. But do they? How much of what they say from the pulpit is actually the Word of God … and how much of it is not? I know for myself, having done a lot of teaching in my life, I do not think there was the holy awe I should have born, even the fear, that I must speak only God’s words and no more and no less. We are only messengers. We have no right to add to or take away from His message. Paul could commend the Thessalonians for receiving his teaching as the Word of God – but that’s because it was. Is ours?

As I have studied the Bible over the years and come to know the Lord much more, I can look back now and see how little I even understood back then. I almost wish someone would have told me to “sit down and be quiet.” I wish someone would have told me to keep studying, keep growing, living, learning how to walk by faith, and wait until I honestly knew the Lord Himself was ready for me to be His messenger. I honestly suspect there’d be few young men in the ministry if that were the case. And I’m not so sure it would be a bad thing.

And then there’s us – those who gather to listen. God help us all be like the Thessalonians. If we aren’t there to hear a message from God, then why, pray tell, are we even there? Unfortunately, I wonder how few really gather to hear a message from God. Church is just something “we do.” It’s Sunday morning, so there we are sitting in a pew or seat.

I think about the verses that fire me up:

“And if you know the truth, the truth shall set you free!”

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

“The Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword …”

“Thy words were found and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of Hosts.”

“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”

I am so thankful one of the first books I ever read as a Christian was “How Shall We Then Live,” by Francis Schaeffer. In it, he carefully explained how important the Word of God is to us. It is important because we need absolute truth to build our lives on. People’s opinions, no matter how seemingly wise or appealing, are still just that – opinions. We can only build strong lives, strong families, and strong nations if we first embrace the absolute truth of the Word of God. G. Swinnock said, “Man yearns for certainty, and is unhappy till he find it. He cannot find it in philosophy and speculation, but he can in Him who is “the Truth,” who reveals Himself and speaks in the Word.”

Finally I want to note how Paul refers to how the Word “works in you the believers.” This is that subjective element which is nevertheless true. How do I know it’s the Word of God? There is a very real sense in which I know it is the Word of God because I know it works in me. I feel its power. I know how it jumps off the page and arrests my heart. It changes me from the inside-out. I know it. God’s plan is that I should be a living epistle, known and read by everyone. Let us all hope and pray that in fact the Word would do its work in us and that work will be so obvious that people around us will know that our God is powerful, when they see what He does in us, when they see it make us into people who love and people whom others can count on to be where we should be, doing what we should do, when we should be doing it.

It’s all the Word of God. But it must be the Word of God.

It is the root of it all.