Making God’s Word Known

[The image above includes Luke 2:1-5a from a 1410 hand-written copy of John Wycliffe’s translation of the New Testament into Middle English in the 1380s.  You can access high-resolution images from this source through the website of Lichfield Cathedral in England.]

About 150 years prior to the 16th century Protestant Reformation, and also well before Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press, God was sowing seeds of reform through his servant John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384).  Wycliffe was a leading professor at Oxford, as well as a pioneer Christian reformer.  The church of his day was deeply caught up in the pursuit of political power and wealth, and Wycliffe denounced this corruption.  He also spoke out against the way the Bible was kept out of the hands of com­mon people (as yet there was no English translation), insisting that every Christian had a right to know God’s Word.  This passion led Wycliffe to the task for which he’s best known:  he completed a translation of the Bible into English shortly before his death in 1384.  (One wonders what might have happened if the printing press had come along in Wycliffe’s time.)

After Wycliffe’s passing, Catholic authorities spearheaded a backlash against his work, and it led to the execution of fellow reformer, John Hus.  Then, in 1428, at papal command, Wycliffe’s remains were exhumed, burned, and his ashes were scattered into the River Swift.  But the notion that Wycliffe’s ideas could be oblit­erated this way proved to be badly mistaken.  As one historian put it, the River Swift “hath conveyed his ashes into [the River] Avon; Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; and they into the main ocean.  And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine which now is dispersed the world over.” [Christian History, vol. 2.2, p. 30].

Wycliffe poured out his life to make God’s Word known.  How about us—do we cherish Scripture the way he did?  Do you depend on the Bible for life and hope and peace?  Do you go to the Word in order to commune with the Living God and to shape your thinking and lifestyle?  Do you value the Bible like you value your aorta?

God’s Word changes lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  I know this from experience—I’ve seen God work through the Bible to bring me joy, truth, guidance, warning, hope, forgiveness…  Like when he opened my eyes to Psalm 27:1 years ago, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? How about you?  Take a lesson from John Wycliffe:  build your life on God’s Word, and shine the light of his gospel!