Category: Being a Disciple

“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.”  Hebrews 4:12, ESV

When we open the Scriptures, we’re not simply turning to an old book with yellowed pages and fading ink. We are stepping into a conversation that God Himself has chosen never to stop speaking. The Word is alive—not because the paper has power, nor because ink has some hidden spark, but because the living God breathes His Spirit into it. Every time you hear it, it is as though God is leaning close, His breath warm against your ear, whispering words meant for this very moment in your life.

And this Word is not idle. It moves. It works. It searches. It does what no surgeon’s scalpel can accomplish. It reaches places inside of us we’ve hidden for years. We may sit down thinking we are reading the Word, but before long it becomes clear: the Word is reading us. It is alive and active, drawing out motives, exposing fears, uncovering the secret longings of the heart—not to shame, but to heal, to cut away what is killing us and to breathe new life into what we thought was long gone.

The animating force behind all this is God Himself. His Spirit animates the text, takes familiar lines we’ve read a hundred times, and suddenly makes them burn like fire in our bones. Have you noticed how a passage you thought you knew becomes a brand-new word just when you needed it? That’s not coincidence. That is the living Word doing what it was always meant to do: awaken, convict, strengthen, and guide.

So when you come to Scripture, don’t come expecting silence. Come expecting a voice. Don’t come expecting to master a book. Come expecting to be mastered by the One who still speaks through it. The Word is alive and active—and when you let it work in you, you discover that you too are becoming more alive, more active in faith, more in step with the Spirit who breathes through every line.

When Luke tells us that Jesus said, “But I say to you who hear,” it’s easy to skim past the words and focus only on the command that follows: love your enemies. But pause for a moment on that phrase. Luke is showing us that Jesus isn’t talking to the whole noisy crowd in some general way—he’s speaking directly to the ones who are really listening. It’s as if Jesus is looking out at the people before him, locking eyes with those whose hearts are open, and saying, “This part is for you.”

That little addition, “to you who hear,” makes all the difference. It’s not enough to be within earshot of Jesus. Lots of people were there. Some were curious, some skeptical, some just caught up in the moment. But there were also those who leaned in, who wanted to be changed, who had ears to hear. Luke wants us to see ourselves in that group. Do we just overhear Jesus, or are we truly listening?

This is Luke’s way of pressing us deeper into discipleship. Matthew has Jesus say, “You have heard that it was said…but I say to you,” which ties his words back to the Law. Luke, instead, widens the invitation. He puts it in front of everyone, Jew or Gentile, religious or irreligious: “If you’re really listening, this is for you.” It is a reminder that what matters most is not where you come from or what you already know, but whether you will open your ears and your heart to what Jesus is saying.

And the theme runs through the whole Gospel. Jesus says his true family is those who hear the word of God and do it. In the parable of the sower, some hear but the word never sinks in, while others, with good soil hearts, hear and hold fast, bearing fruit with patience. Even at the end of Acts, Paul sums up the whole mission of the church in terms of who will listen and who won’t.

So when we hear Jesus say, “But I say to you who hear,” we should take it personally. It’s a call to lean in, to let his words land, to let them undo our natural ways of thinking and remake us in his way. Anyone can overhear Jesus; only a disciple hears him and obeys. The real question isn’t whether the words of Jesus reach our ears. The question is whether they reach us. Are we among those who hear?