24“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24-27)
Hearing Jesus’ words is not enough.
In this passage Jesus explains that when people hear him speak they can respond in one of two ways, each option leading to very different outcomes. This means that our goal should not be just to hear Jesus speak, but to hear Jesus and respond in the right way.
Two people can sit in the same pew, in the same church, hearing the same scripture; yet one can respond with change, repentance and growth while the other doesn’t respond at all.
Since hearing Jesus’ words is not enough, the question isn’t just Have you heart? but Have you acted on what you heard?
If you are struggling as a Christian, you may not need to hear another sermon or read another book. The problem may not be a lack of hearing. It may be that you haven’t acted on what you’ve already heard.
It is infinitely better to hear less and act on it than to hear more and ignore it. Did you know that there are Christians in the world who have very little access to scripture and good teaching that are spiritual giants compared to many of us in America, where we own several Bibles, pass ten churches on the way to our own and can download thousands of sermons via internet and podcast? It is as though we have a sort of spiritual eating disorder in the American church. We take it in but we don’t digest it.
Think of the power that comes from acting on, putting into practice, “doing” just one verse of scripture. Take John 3:16 for example:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Imagine that this is the only verse you have. If you incorporate it into your life, you will:
- Know that there is a God
- Know that God loves the world and doesn’t hate it or feel indifferently toward it
- Know that God gave his only Son to the world
- Be aware of the danger of perishing, for yourself and all of humanity
- Be aware of the possibility of eternal life connected with belief in the Son
- Know that salvation has to do with receiving the Son rather than earning anything
- Be able to put your belief in him, receiving salvation
- Be freed from trusting in false saviors
- Be secure in your eternal security
- Be able to tell others about all this
The problem in the church isn’t that we haven’t heard enough, it’s that we haven’t acted on what we’ve heard. I love Francis Chan’s illustration of this. Imagine I tell my son to clean his room. He says, “You want me to clean my room. Got it.” I come back later to find that he hasn’t cleaned his room. I ask, “Why haven’t you cleaned your room?” He says, “I heard you tell me to clean my room. I love that bit of your word to me. I’ve memorized it and I’ve been meditating on it. My sister and I have been meeting and discussing what it might look like to clean my room. I feel like I’m really growing here.”
This is similar to what we often do. We love Jesus’ words, but we don’t do them. We study his words, but we don’t put them into practice. How many sermons have you heard in your life? How many have you heard this year so far? How much real life practical response have those sermons triggered? How much change? How much repentance? How much action?
We need to remember that merely hearing Jesus’ words is not necessarily good for us. It’s like plopping vegetables on our dinner plates. They only help us if we take them in. But Jesus’ words are more dangerous than vegetables, because hearing them and ignoring them further hardens us. Each passage you read or sermon you hear either makes you more like Jesus or less, newer or older, better or worse.
Don’t be deceived.
The enemy’s deception is subtle. He won’t likely tempt church folks with outright satanism. He’ll be very happy to have them sit in church week after week if they’ll ignore what they’re hearing.
Don’t just hear Jesus, respond rightly to him. Don’t be a hearer only, be a doer.
A word to fathers:
Since this is Father’s Day, I’ll close with a brief word to fathers. There may be no greater gift we can give our children than to be doers of Jesus’ word and to bring them along with us into salvation. There may be no greater damage we can inflict upon our children than to be merely hearers and to bring them along with us into damnation.
