Mk. 4:23-25 “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." 24 "Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you-and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."
Jesus has been challenging the people to live a fruitful life and to be a light that exposes the deeds of darkness for what they are, a deceptive lie that robs us of the life God intended. He is in the midst of teaching his disciples of the struggles that they will face to succeed in living a fruitful life; making it clear to them that they will not enter this place of fruitfulness unopposed and without struggle. In this context of calling us to be that light and to overcome the barriers to fruitfulness He pauses to insert a warning that challenges them on a deeper level still. “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” This phrase immediately challenges them to apply what they have just heard personally, as if to say, “will you let Satan steal even this seed that I am sowing into you right now?” What a call to be alert.
Jesus is very direct in teaching the people how to hear, not just imparting a string of parables. In Mk. 4:23-25 Jesus challenges the people to be focused listeners. “Will you hear what I am saying to you even now?” Can you imagine the thought of standing directly in front of Jesus, listening to His very words in person and yet missing the point of those words entirely? It happened all the time! This is a frightening thought and evidence of Satan’s capacity to steal the word from the careless listener. The point of these three simple verses is; “how will you hear the voice of the Lord?” “Will you listen with your heart open or will you just listen from your intellect?” If we hear with the intellect alone we will be robbed. The hearing that lasts is the hearing of the heart, the hearing of faith!
In verses 24-25 Jesus unveils the spiritual principle that is at work when we listen. We are cautioned to “consider carefully” what we hear. How often do we truly do that? How many times have we heard the word of God without deep reflective consideration of what it is calling us to do and how it is calling us to live? This is the great danger of careless listening. James builds on this principle in great detail in James 1:22-25 when he says “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.” We are called to hear and to do the word of the Lord!
Jesus does not stop with the simple warning to be careful listeners. He continues on to identify the impact of how we listen and it is this impact that is central to the message of these verses. In the second half of verse 24 and verse 25 Jesus continues “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you-and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” In these verses we are called to hear with faith. We have been promised abundance. We have been promised increase but these things come to those who have a heart of faith. In these verses Jesus says that for those who listen with faith more will be given. But for those who listen with no confidence in God that which they have will be taken away. Jesus calls us to listen with a heart of expectation, a heart that carefully considers both the standards of God that He calls us to live by and the promises that He makes to us. With this calling comes the assurance that if we embrace these things from a heart of faith we will receive a steady flow of grace and increase in our lives as we show forth God into the darkness of the world around us.
No comments:
Post a Comment