A Life Speaks Louder than Actions
We’re all familiar with the phrase, “actions speak louder than words”. We all know the truth of that phrase. But there is something else that is just as important. As I began to read the book of Hebrews today, I was struck by the first couple of verses. Here they are: God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; The writer of Hebrews is talking to a primarily Jewish audience. These Jewish believers would have been very familiar with how God spoke in the past. They knew the writings of Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Moses, etc… and quite honestly, they didn’t care much for what these prophets had to say. The Jews gave lip service to what the message of the prophets was, but they did not take it to heart. Then Jesus enters the scene. The writer of Hebrews says that in these last days God has “spoken” to people by His Son. Jesus was the express “word” of God. Of course, this fits with other passages of the Bible where Jesus is called “the Word”. But I never really thought about Jesus “speaking” through His life. But He did. Jesus was/is God in the flesh. His very life speaks volumes about who God is and because of that truth, we know more about who we are, and who we are not. Sometimes we might say, “I just wish God would speak to me.” or we read about the people in the Bible and how God used an audible verse and we think, “well, if God would speak to me then I’d obey also” but would we?
According to the writer of Hebrews, God has spoken to us….through Jesus Christ. The life of Jesus Christ and the teaching that is recorded for us is meant to shout to us the things of God. The very creator of the universe confined Himself to a body and suffered a horrible death on the cross. In every way, Jesus’ life spoke vastly more effectively than any amount of audible words from the heavens could ever have. But we won’t “hear” the “words” of Jesus’ life if we do not read the word of God. Let’s read His word, understand and meditate on the life of Jesus, a life which clearly spoke louder than actions…and definitely louder than words.