Exploring Hope: Hearing and doing

Posted by Will Stern on July 21, 2019

One thing I love about music is the close connection between theory and practice. If someone claims to be an expert in classical violin, people expect him or her to be able to play. But imagine if he says, “I’ve watched tons of videos on YouTube and read all the most important books about violin technique. Therefore, I’m an expert!” I think most people would be suspicious. You can’t be an expert in violin without also being able to play because the theoretical and the practical are intimately connected.

Now, I believe the same logic holds up for Christianity. Jesus says that we must be both “hearers and doers of the Word” (see Luke chapter 8:1-21). In other words, it’s not enough to fill our head with abstract knowledge about God, the Bible, and salvation; we must take God’s Word and put it into action in our daily lives (to do otherwise is the definition of hypocrisy).

Jesus sums it up very well in Luke 8:18: “Take care then how you hear…” (Luke 8:18 ESV). In other words, we need to consider the way in which we go about hearing the Word of God. Specifically, I believe we need to “take care” before, during, and after we hear God’s Word.

First, we need to take care before we hear God’s Word.

Now, by hearing, I certainly mean going to church to hear God’s Word preached week after week. Hopefully you’re connected to a church that faithfully teaches the Bible. But I also think it can refer to individual Bible reading. In other words, we hear God’s Word either aurally (with our ears) as we listen to sermons or visually (with our eyes) as we read Scripture.

So before we engage in either one of these activities, it’s important to “take care how we hear,” as Jesus says. If you’re at a church where you know what passage the pastor is preaching in advance, you can read it and meditate on its meaning. If you have the opportunity, you can pray for the pastor and his sermon preparation. You can pray before reading the Bible. You can ask that God would have you in the frame of mind to hear, receive, and rest upon his Word as you hear/read.

Second, we need to take care while we hear God’s Word.

Again, hearing could be the act of sitting down to read your Bible or could be listening to the preacher explain a passage of Scripture and church. Either way, it’s easy for our minds and hearts to wander. We can begin making our to-do-lists. We can be distracted by the snores on the back row. We can be distracted by so many things that keep us from really hearing and applying God’s word. It simply comes in one ear and out the other without making any difference.

Therefore, it’s also important to pray while you are hearing God’s word. Pray that you would be able to hear what God wants you to hear. Pray that he would give you wisdom to apply it to your life. Pray that you would be convicted of sin and renewed in righteousness. Pray that God’s word would be a lamp unto your feet and a light onto your path.

Third, we need to take care after we hear God’s word.

Sometimes we close our Bible or leave church glad that we can “check that off of our list” and then move on to the next task of the day. We go to the shore. We go to the gym. We go about our “business as usual.” But this is not the way that we’re called to respond to God’s word. We pray beforehand that God would prepare our hearts to hear his word. We pray while we hear, that we would be attentive to what he has to say. And then we pray after we hear that God would apply it to our lives retrospectively.

And as we “take care how we hear,” we began to see God’s spirit at work in our lives. We begin to see ways that we have wronged others or sinned against God. This drives us to repentance. We see ways that we could better love and serve our neighbor. We see how God’s word impacts the way we think about politics, economics, or art. And slowly, we become hearers and doers of the word. As James the brother of Jesus reminds us, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:22-25 ESV).

About Will Stern

Originally from Colorado, Will Stern is the pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church in Garnet Valley. He majored in violin performance for his undergrad and taught violin for a number of years before being called into ministry. He studied theology at Duke University and Westminster Theological Seminary.