What is the word of God according to the Bible?

I believe, then, the Word of God to be the testimony of God from the first with ever-increasing fulness, in the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, by Christ when on earth, and then by the Apostles as empowered for it by the Spirit, and now recorded for us in the Scriptures as completed — the complete revelation of God in them.

The word of God is the mind of God revealed to us. Christ's word is the whole mind of God as to Christianity, whether given directly from the Lord, as He can say, "I have given them thy words," or through the mouth of the Apostle Paul, to whom it was given "to complete the word of God" by unfolding the truth of Christ and the Church (Col. 1:25-27).

It is noteworthy that our Lord is called in the Scriptures “The Word of God” (Rev. 19:13). The Scriptures, likewise, are called “The Word of God” (John 10:35). The One we often call the living Word; the other the written Word.

It is remarkable that Christ and the Scriptures should have the same title given to them—“THE WORD OF GOD.” Christ—the living Word—is the one Person, and the Scriptures—the written Word—the one Book that men can, and do, attack, for Christ gives body and substance to the Book, and the Book presents Christ in type and shadow, in actual life down here, and as the Revealer of the Father, and the Giver of the Holy Ghost, and fallen man hates Christ because he hates God.

Keeping our feet unshod, let us for a little still linger near this “great sight” of revelation. “The Word (Logos) was God,” and “the Word (Logos) became flesh” form the Holy Spirit's dual description of what the Word was essentially and what the Word assumed mediatorially. What special significance, then, had this term “Word”? It is, if we may attempt to define it briefly, that which expresses or communicates what is hidden in the mind or thought. Accordingly, the scripture itself is designated the word (logos) of God, in Heb. 4:12 and elsewhere, being an exact expression in writing of divine truth.

118 "The Word of God." — Cf. Luke 8:11, Luke 11:28. "As used by Luke," writes Harnack, "the Word did not mean Church doctrine; it did not mean even the Bible; it meant the message of the free grace of God in Christ" (op. cit., p. 274). Cf. Acts 8:11 where "the Word" and "the Scriptures" occur together. In Matt. 15:6 (R.V.), and Mark 7:13, it certainly means Old Testament Scripture, as again in Rev. 1:2.

What used to be called "proof-texts" of Scripture were singly a word (ῥῆμα) of God; but in Evangelical parlance by the Word of God is meant the whole of Scripture (Hofmann, "Scripture Proof," part. i., p. 96 ff.). See Acts 20:32 for like use of λόγος; Heb. 6:5, and Heb. 11:3, for the employment of ῥῆμα.

It is no doubt correct that, as A. B. Davidson has said for the Old Testament (Hastings, vol. iv., p. 127), "the word" stands for the spiritual meaning of the "words" (see John 8:43, and cf. John 17:8, 14). It is, however, an exaggeration on the part of Farrar ("The Bible," etc., p. 134 f.; cf. Beet, "Manual of Theology," p. 65) to represent that "nowhere in the New Testament is the Old Testament called the word of God" — that this phrase is used of Christ alone. That "the word of God" is used in the New Testament chiefly of the contemporary oral word, as in Mark 2:2 (Cf. 2 Tim. 4:2) and Heb. 13:7, is unquestionable. But even if such a passage as Heb. 4:12 could be shown not to refer to Scripture, it seems certain that Mark 7:13 distinguishes "the word of God" from aught oral. Cf. "it is written in your law" this last word, we know, applies in the New Testament, not only to the Pentateuch, but to the Psalms (John 10:34). As for the New Testament, when Timothy was enjoined to "preach the word" (2 Tim. 4:2), this precept was given in close connection with what the Apostle says of the Scriptures (end of chapter 3 — i.e., in the same context), so that the material of the written word can scarcely be excluded from the preaching. Professor Theodor Zahn, in a sermon on James 1:16 ff., has said: "When we talk of the word of God, we first think of the Bible, the word of God reduced to writing for His community (Church). But James is not speaking of the Bible. … It is possible to honour the Bible, and not to hear thus the voice of God. "

How important it is to hold fast the great truth that the Bible is the Word of God, and therefore "God-breathed." All apostasy starts with the denial of this fact. The Scriptures are the permanent expression of the mind and will of God. It is not merely that the truth is given in them by inspiration, but they are inspired. They are the expression of His own thoughts. They are our only authority. Upon the constant use of them depends everything. Without adhering to the Scriptures and being obedient to them, we also would be swept along by the current of apostasy. They are the one thing profitable. Note the order: Profitable for doctrine, which we get alone from the Word of God, and which is the foundation of everything. Then follows "reproof" or conviction, and that is followed by correction and instruction for righteousness. It starts with the doctrine and leads, after conviction and correction, to righteousness. And then the man of God, obedient to the Scriptures in all things, is perfect, thoroughly finished unto every good work.

The introduction of the Word of God leads the Apostle to state the character and uses of all Scripture. He says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (or, "every good work"). vv. 16, 17. All or every scripture is then divinely inspired, given by the operation of the Holy Ghost through human vessels as a revelation of the divine mind (see 2 Peter 1:21), and the Apostle in another place claims this inspiration for the words in which he delivered his message: "Which things also we speak," he says, "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which [in those which] the Holy Ghost teacheth" (1 Cor. 2:13). It is not only therefore that the Scriptures contain, but they also are the truth; and they are thus absolutely infallible and, as such, have attached to them God's authority because they are the expression of His own mind. They are therefore to be received, unquestioningly received, as the voice of the living God to our souls; and thus the only proper attitude to be taken up when they are read is that of Samuel, who said, "Speak, for thy servant heareth."

Keeping our feet unshod, let us for a little still linger near this "great sight" of revelation. "The Word (Logos) was God," and "the Word (Logos) became flesh" form the Holy Spirit's dual description of what the Word was essentially and what the Word assumed mediatorially. What special significance, then, has this term, "Word"? It is, if we may define it briefly, that which expresses or communicates what is hidden in the mind or thought. Accordingly, the scripture itself is designated the word (logos) of God, in Heb. 4:12 and elsewhere, being an exact expression in writing of divine truth.

But, while in both cases the mind of God is expressed, there is evidently a wide and weighty distinction between the Word of John 1:1 and the written word of scripture. The former is the Person Who was God and Who was in the beginning with God; the latter, which is described as "the word of God," is impersonal; moreover, it only began to come into existence when "holy men of God spake under the power of the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:21).