What Is The Difference Between Logo and Rhema?

Logos—The Word of God

There are two primary Greek words that describe Scripture which are translated word in the New Testament. The first, logos, refers principally to the total inspired Word of God and to Jesus, Who is the living Logos.

Biblical Examples of Logos

The following passages of Scripture give examples of the logos of God:

“In the beginning was the Word [logos], and the Word [logos] was with God, and the Word [logos] was God” (John 1:1).
“The seed is the word [logos] of God” (Luke 8:11).
“Holding forth the word [logos] of life” (Philippians 2:16).
“Carefully study to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word [logos] of truth. ” (II Timothy 2:15).
“For the word [logos] of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two edged sword ” (Hebrews 4:12).
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word [logos] of God, which liveth and remaiineth forever” (I Peter 1:23).

Rhema—The Spoken Word

The second primary Greek word that describes Scripture is rhema, which refers to a word that is spoken and means “an utterance.” In the written word, [logos] the rhema is God's logos communicated by word [rhema] of mouth.

Every word of God is inspired, and “All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice” (II Timothy 3:16). It is the Holy Spirit, Who through the spoken word or the written word, illuminates particular Scriptures for application in a daily walk with the Lord.

The words of Jesus are significant on this point. “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word [rhema] that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4). Jesus also stated, “The words [rhema] that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

When God gives a rhema for us to act upon, He confirms it by a second rhema, that “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word [rhema] stand.” (II Corinthians 13:1).

Hence, the spoken word is confirmed by the witness of Apostolic Tradition (anything the apostles authoritatively passed down to the Church, whether written [logos] or spoken [rhema] ).

Biblical Insights Into Rhemas

The following passages of Scripture provide insight into the rhemas of God:

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word [rhema] of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word [rhema] of God” (Ephesians 6:17).
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it by the laver of water in the word [rhema] of life: ” (Ephesians 5:25–26).
“If ye abide in me, and my words [rhema] abide in you, ye shall ask whatever ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).

Biblical Examples of Rhemas

The following passages of Scripture give examples of the rhemas of God:

Under the high priests Annas and Caiphas; the word [rhema] of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. (Luke 3:2).
But if you do not believe Moses writings, how will you believe my words [rhema]? ” (John 5:47).
Simeon recalled the promise that he would see Christ before he died: “Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word [rhema]” (Luke 2:29).
God gave John the message he was to preach as a forerunner to Christ: “The word [rhema] of God came unto John” (Luke 3:2).
It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing. The words [rhemas] that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life. [John 6:63].
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the figure of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high. (Hebrews 1:3).

Scripture and Apostolic Tradition, (teachings that the apostles passed on orally through their preaching and teaching.-rhema) are important because anything the apostles authoritatively passed down to the Church, whether written or not, is inerrant. As one Catechism states: “There exists a close connection and communication between sacred Tradition and sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit. To the successors of the apostles, sacred Tradition hands on in its full purity God’s word, which was entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. Thus, by the light of the Spirit of truth, these successors can in their preaching preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred Tradition and sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same devotion and reverence.”