WHAT You Hear

(Mark 4:24)

The Lord Jesus cautions us to be careful what we hear. We are responsible to control what enters through the eargate, and equally responsible to put what we do hear to proper use.

We should not listen to what is blatantly false or deceitfully subversive. Young people in colleges, universities, and seminaries are often subjected to a barrage of doubts and denials concerning the Word of God. They hear the miracles explained away, the Lord Jesus condemned with faint praise, and the plain meaning of Scripture watered down. Even if the student's faith is not destroyed, his mind is defiled.

We should not listen to what is impure or suggestive. The worst kind of pollution in today's society is mind pollution. The one word that describes most newspapers, magazines, books, radio and TV programs, movies, the internet, and human conversations is filth. Through constant exposure to this, the Christian is in danger of losing his sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

We should not fill our minds with things that are worthless or trifling. Life is too short and the task too urgent for that. "All must be earnest in a world like ours."

Positively, we should be careful to hear the Word of God. The more we saturate our minds with the Word of God and obey its sacred precepts, the more we will think God's thoughts after Him, the more we will be transformed into the image of Christ, and the more we will be separated from the moral pollution of our environment.

HOW You 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, putting human intellect above the Scriptures. We sit in judgment on the Bible instead of letting it 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 James 1:23,24 who looks at himself in the mirror of God's Word, and immediately forgets what he saw himself to be as revealed there.

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

The best way to hear is to hear reverently, obediently, and seriously. We should approach the Bible with determination to do what it says. God is looking for men who tremble at His Word (Isaiah 66:2).

—One Day at a Time, by William MacDonald. Used by permission.