WE CONTINUE: “IF you abide in me, and my words abide in you” (John 15:7). The study of the words of Jesus must not leave us with our emphasis on the words—the words must lead us to the Word—the Word made flesh. Neither must emphasis on the Word make us neglect the words. The words interpret the Word. Through them we see Him.
These words have become so important and so coherent that they are no longer mere words—they become the word—“You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you” (v. 3). The words of Jesus were so consistent, so harmonious, so much a part of a whole, so luminous that they became the word. Not the Word—that is, the Person—the word—that is, the product of the Word. Most of us speak words, but some speak so consistently, so harmoniously, so much as a part of the whole, so luminously that their words become the word. When you think of them you think of a philosophy of life—their word.
Jesus spoke the word—a revelation of Himself. As the disciples listened to the word, they were cleansed—“You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you.” He cleansed their idea of God from a Jewish Jehovah to the universal Father; their ideas of religion from an obedience to a Law to a manifestation of Love; their ideas of man so that a man was no longer a man, but a man for whom Christ died. He cleansed woman from a creature, obedient to and subordinate to man, to a person equal to and a partner of man. He cleansed prayer from being a means of getting the selfish desires of an unsurrendered self granted, to a surrender of the self and a desire for His desire. He cleansed everything.
O Lord Jesus, Thou didst cleanse everything Thou didst touch, and Thou didst touch everything. Now we walk into a world of thought, of motive, of action, and all is made clean through the word Thou hast spoken. We thank Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Thy Word is cleansing me from untruth to truth, from half-truths to whole truth, from my best to Thy best.
