What’d you say!

Luke 8

9 Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?”
10 And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that ‘Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand.
11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
12 “Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
13 “But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
14 “Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
15 “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
16 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lamp-stand, that those who enter may see the light.
17 “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.

18 “Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”

I included a lot of scripture to clarify, but the point that struck me today was when Jesus says, “take heed how you hear.” There is a promise of reward if I do “it” right and a warning of consequences if I do “it” wrong. So I better understand…

A couple other translations rendered these words as – “pay attention to how you listen”/ “pay attention to how you hear”/ “consider carefully how you listen”. That didn’t help much.

Then while poking around in my “old commentaries” I found this statement. I can’t give credit to the author because the author is not obvious. The comment reads:

“Take heed therefore how ye hear”: Take heed therefore — not only what, but — how ye hear. The mingling of truth and error makes it of the greatest importance what we hear. In Mark this is the warning: “Take heed what ye hear.”

But Luke regards the heart of man; and it is not only of importance what I hear from another, but how I hear it myself. My own state may expose me either to receive error or to reject truth. It is not always the fault of what we hear, but my own.

Well Said!

Point #1 – Not what I hear, but how I hear it…

Point #2 – My own mental situation may make me susceptible to hear something that is wrong and accept it as correct (or) to hear something that is correct and reject it as wrong.

How does the old children’s song go? – “be careful little ears what you hear…”

Take heed (pay careful attention; take notice; make careful observation) of not only what you hear this week – but how you hear it…

Ron