One of the first lessons we have to teach children is how to listen. In most cases, they have no problem learning to talk, but learning to listen is not so easy. We must teach them to cease other activities and concentrate on that which is said. Then they must learn to properly react to the message.
Jesus noted that the hearer of spiritual truth must also learn to listen properly. He said, "Therefore take heed how you hear" (Lk. 8:18). If we are to listen as Jesus wants us to listen, we must "take heed" to how we hear. Where can we go for instruction on how to hear God's truth?
One inspired writer tells us several things about becoming acceptable hearers. In James 1:21-27, the principles are recorded for us.
"Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (Jas. 1:21). We cannot receive the word of God as we ought if filthiness and wickedness abide in our lives. The message of Christ reproves such evil and cannot coexist with it.
Just as filthiness and wickedness are inconsistent with God's truth, "meekness" is an essential quality for all who desire God's word to have a lasting impact upon their lives. The word translated "meekness" in our Bible refers to the strength of character which is brought under the controlling harness of God's will. It is the willingness to let God direct our path.
The writer does not stop at that point. He goes on to instruct, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (Jas. 1:22). God wants us to be the kind of hearers who put His instruction into action. He does not want His truth to merely change our intellect. Proper hearing of God's word should change our lives! Notice how useless non-active hearing is to God:
"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was" (Jas. 1:23-24). Why would we look in a mirror if we did not intend to correct that which is amiss? It would making looking in the mirror a waste of time.
So it is with the those who read the Bible, but never intend to change that which they find to violate the will of God. The word of God is designed to scrutinize our heart and prick us to change our ways (Heb. 4:12-13). It was never meant to satisfy mere intellectual curiosity.
James goes on to show the way we should react to God's message. "But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does" (Jas. 1:25). God demands that His message be remembered in our day-to-day activities, not forgotten when we close our Bible.
The inspired writer also shows how we must "continue in" God's word. "If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" (Jas. 1:26-27).
According to James, proper hearing demands that we cease actions which are not approved by God and do those things which God does approve within His truth. We must be seeking to let God direct our actions to please Him as is shown within His word. It is just that simple.
If we claim to hear God, we will not reject any instruction found within His will for us today. We cannot put evil into our lives and still be true hearers of God. Let us learn to listen and take heed how we hear.