Hearing Rightly

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

HEARING RIGHTLY

Luke 8:4-8

4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6 Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown."

When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." 

NIV

There is no hidden meaning in this parable other than it is a fact about the kingdom of God and peoples responses and relationship to it. Jesus is going to tell his disciples and us the exact meaning as to the four different type individuals who accept the gospel message and how that plays out in their lives. So we should focus on those last few words of Jesus when he admonishes everyone to hear if they have ears. Who does not have ears? Yet it is the ears which hear the truth or hear something other than the truth which he refers to. With so many voices to listen to, we need to focus in on just one voice, that of our Lord. This is a lesson we have learned before. We cannot afford to listen to the voice of the tempter, nor can we allow ourselves to remain shallow in our beliefs. We must always put aside the passions of the world, the desires for material gain driven by those who simply want our money. We must seek first his kingdom, hearing his words, taking them to heart, trying our level best with the help of the Spirit to understand the truth and to incorporate that truth into our lifestyle. If we are hearing rightly, we will not be distracted by other things. Sure we can enjoy the benefit of being children of God. Yes, he blesses us is many aspects of our lives, spiritually as well as physically. He has told us to ask and if we do in his name, he will answer our prayer. He has told us to have faith, to believe, to trust and if we are hearing correctly, we will live as though we actually do have faith. Not just for salvation, but that certainly is important, but our faith must apply to every aspect of our lives. How can we live like the world does, trusting in how much money we can make to afford the things we desire, when we have heard the words of our Lord? We have to be that ground which he planted his words into us and we need to be growing and producing crops. We need to be touching the lives of others for the sake of the kingdom of God. That is if we are hearing rightly.