What God's Word Doesনমুনা

GOD’S WORD CLEANSES

Psalm 119:9 One of the pieces of furniture in the Old Testament tabernacle was called the bronze laver (Ex.38:8). It consisted of a large, upright bronze bowl filled with water, resting upon a pedestal. The priests would stop at this laver and wash. The Word of God may be thought of in terms of that laver, for it also has the power to cleanse. The Old Testament laver could only remove the physical dirt from human hands, but the Scriptures possess the ability to take away our moral filth (1 Pet. 1:22). “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

What areas of our lives can the Bible cleanse? Here are three:

a. It can cleanse us from wrong thoughts. Sometimes we are tempted to think critically of others. God’s Word can prevent this (Ps. 1:2). On other occasions fearful thoughts may race through our minds. The Scriptures can prevent this also (Josh. 1:8). In fact, the Bible will establish our total thought life if we allow it to do so (Phil. 4:8–9; 2 Pet. 1:5–10).

b. It can cleanse us from wrong words. James seemed to be an expert on the sins of the human tongue. In James 1, he dealt with this very thing and showed the absolute necessity of dependence upon the Scriptures to keep our words true (James 1:22–26; cf. Ps. 119:172).

c. It can cleanse us from wrong actions. Jesus promised this would be the case: “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).

Certainly, the old adage is true: God’s Word will keep us from wrong thoughts, words, and actions, or else wrong thoughts, words, and actions will keep us from God’s Word.

This Bible study is an excerpt fromThe OPEN Bible, Published by Thomas Nelson Bibles