Sunday Go To Meeting Bun!

Sunday Bun
by
L. A. Marzulli
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  Matthew 4:4
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:17

These two scriptures, when taken together, give us an understanding of how we are to use our sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Let’s look at what Jesus does when he is tempted by The Fallen One.  First, the back story.  Jesus has been baptized by John and the voice of the Father announces to the crowd, This is my beloved son. Then the spirit of the Living God descends like a dove over Him.  He then leaves the area and goes out into the desert, where He fasts for 40 days.  During this time The Fallen One throws the book at him, enticing Him in every way possible.  We are only told of a few examples of this tempting but let’s look at Jesus’ answers.   With every one of these temptations by The Fallen One, Jesus replies, It is written!  

He is using the word of God, which is the sword of the spirit!  But wait, it gets better.  We are told in John that Jesus is the word of God!  In other words when we are tempted—and most of this happens in our thought life—we are to use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God and this is essentially putting on Jesus.

Notice He doesn’t argue the point, or begin to think about it, like Eve did in the garden.  He simply replies, it is written, and then applies the appropriate scripture which counteracts the temptation offered by The Fallen One.  

In closing today’s Bun: The sword of the spirit is the word of God.  So in order to wield it we must become familiar and adept in it.  This is why we study to show ourselves approved.  It is essential for the Christian to know the word, so when temptation comes, and it will come, we can overcome it by taking our offensive weapon—the sword of the spirit-the word of God—and cutting down the thoughts which are contrary to what is written!