Hard Hearted Hearing

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
(Hebrews 5:11 – ESV)

So this passage (Hebrews 5:11-14) says that there is much to learn from the Word of God (the bible), about the Word (Jesus), but too often we don’t give it the due diligence it requires, we let it go and become slothful and stagnant. Then persecution, problems, suffering and situations draw our attention back to our old life and our old ways. We see them as more comfortable than moving forward, and we start to continue to look back, and we become hard of hearing and hard hearted. We can be a Christian for a long time and think we have heard it all before, but while we may have heard it, we have stopped being affected by it.

Now someone can have intelligence but not be learning. Someone can be smart but not skilled. Someone can be doing but not be developed. Some one can have been built up in the faith, but become lax and worn down. This is not simply about biblical knowledge but obedience and faith (trust). 2 Peter 3:18 – this is not simply a call to be more studious but more serious. It is a call to surrender control and submit to study. It does take BOTH to grow. If we don’t keep growing, we start to be slowing, and then we will wither away.

In the Pastoral Epistles, Timothy was instructed to pass along what he had learned, a fully orbed faith. It was not just doctrines of facts and figures. Instead he was given instructions on how to recognize those who had learned. Here in Hebrews, the writer recognizes that by their affections for comfort and companions rather than Christ, he can see that they had stopped learning and were looking back and starting to move backward. A lot of people get confused on these types of issues, because they think that they are simply trying to minister to spiritual stragglers, but they are the ones being left behind.

While it is certainly true that we must be doers not simply hearers of the Word, we cannot be doers if we are not hearers. Otherwise our doing may just be doing what we think is right but it is wrong. Now all of this is about becoming skilled, yes, but it is a matter of will before it is a matter of skill, and if you get the order wrong you will be out of order, which we see so often with people who know a whole lot of bible but are a whole lot of ungodly. This isn’t an excuse for the rest of us to not study, it is a call to rightly handle the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). It is a call to keep on moving forward in our sanctification, becoming less like the world and more like Christ, in true holiness and in the knowledge of Him. Sometimes we can be so preoccupied with ministering to others that we become casualties ourselves. Can you hear what I am saying, or do you think you have it all figured out?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©