The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of our soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.
(Hebrews 4:11-13)
There are two passages in the books of Acts where the word of God is being preached to a group of people and the Bible says the people were “cut to the heart.” The first is Acts 2:37 at Pentecost as Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and was publicly preaching the gospel for the first time. It says that upon hearing the word and being deeply moved, the people asked the apostles what they must do to respond appropriately to what they’ve been told. This is one way to respond to truth that you have not previously understood:
1) allowing your ears to hear
2) stopping for a moment and reflecting on what you’ve heard that moved you
3) believing something needs to change
4) committing to a response in action
5) humbly asking someone who knows more than you how to proceed
The other passage is when Stephen is addressing the council of religious leaders and his entire speech is walking them through the word of God, and recounting how the people of Israel time and again respond in rebellion and resistance to the word of God. And how do these ones respond to truth when they were cut to the heart? Here is another way to respond when confronted with truth (read the account of Acts 7:54-58):
1) get very angry
2) silence the truth with your own noise
3) plug your ears and refuse to listen
4) gather with others who will join you to in an attack on the truth
5) push the truth as far away from yourself by any means necessary, going so far as to kill it so it doesn’t spread beyond your ears
In these two accounts we see the Hebrews scripture being demonstrated where the hearing of the word gets down to the very heart of a people who are being affected by it. God’s word is unchanging, His truth is immutable. We are the ones who are pliable to the truth and we’re able to be transformed by it; but will we transform into a Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde upon hearing? It depends on if we see the “sword of the Spirit” as a razor that will gently and safely shave off the undesirable bits of us until we are clean, polished, and smoothed down…or do we see it as a filet knife, designed to inflict trauma to our flesh, peeling back our layers and exposing tender parts inside? Believe me, depending on the word you hear and the places you are tender it can and will do both to all of us.
We must learn to trust that the hearing of the word is designed to produce holiness in us, and when we can rightly respond with reason instead of raw emotion and rashness we have the best chance of letting God have His way with us and the word to do its job in disciplining us.