How do you hear?

“Take heed therefore how ye hear.” (Luke 8:18)

In the Christian life it is a question not only of what we hear but also of how we hear.

It is possible to hear the Word of God with an attitude of indifference. We can read the Bible as we would read any other book, seemingly unconcerned that the Almighty God is speaking to us in it.

We can hear with a critical attitude. Here we put human intellect above the Scriptures. We sit in judgment on the Bible instead of letting the Bible judge us.

We can hear with a rebellious attitude. When we come to portions that deal with the stern demands of discipleship or with women’s subjection and head-covering, we become enraged and utterly refuse to obey.

We can be forgetful hearers, like the man in the Book of James “who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was” (James 1:23, 24).

Perhaps the most common class is the callous hearers. These people have heard the Word so much that they have become insensitive. They listen to a sermon mechanically. It has become a ho-hum routine. Their ears are jaded. Their attitude is “What can you tell me that I haven’t already heard?”

The more we hear the Word of God without obeying what we hear, the more we become judicially deafened. If we refuse to hear, we lose the capacity to hear.

The best way to hear is to hear reverently, obediently and seriously. We should approach the Bible with the determination to do what it says, even if no one else is doing it. The wise man is the one who not only hears but does. God is looking for men who tremble at His word (Isaiah 66:2).

Paul commended the Thessalonians because when they heard the word of God, they did not receive it “as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). In the same manner we should be careful how we hear.

W.D.