Thought for the Month (July/August 023

Without the Bible, we cannot understand the world we live in. The world bears, in every atom and fibre of its existence, the imprint of the mind of God. It was made as God spoke it into existence (Genesis 1). God the Word is the One Who made it through the words he spoke (John 1:1–3). Therefore, it works as he made and makes it work. But how could we know how it works if we neglect the Word?

Even the curse on the world comes from the mouth of God (Genesis 3:17–19). As Paul says, God has subjected the created world to frustration (Romans 8:20). This explains the trouble in the world. But how could we know this, if we neglect the Word?

Yet God subjected the world to frustration (v20–21 states), “in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay, and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” The promise for the removal of the curse, the way back to a blessed state with God, unsurprisingly, comes from the mouth of God (Genesis 3:15). But how would we know this, if we neglect the Word?

Wisdom, right living that flows from right thinking, begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7). In light of the above, this makes perfect sense — how could anybody live well in God’s world, without regard for God, and what he says? And how could we know why it is suffering, and what the solu-tion for that suffering is? Small wonder that a world that turns away from the Word is confused, troubled, and cannot find the way out. It is lost. “The way of peace they do not know.” (Romans 3:17)