Carefully Considering

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

CAREFULLY CONSIDERING

Mark 4:24-25

24 "Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you — and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." 

NIV

This is another parable that is special only in Mark. This is not recorded anyway else, and some of our scholars think it was just added along the way, because it does not appear in a few of the older manuscripts, yet there it is in the canon, included in the text of all the translations we have available to us. Therefore we have to believe we need to deal with it as the word of God. Although scholars are great and learned men, they too are but men, and subject to human thinking rather than the thinking of God. When we consider the awesome power of God, we have to believe he has the power to inspire those who selected that which became what we call the Bible and was not inspired texts or copies which were subject to editorial revisions by men. So then what did Jesus mean here in this jewel of a parable? He was speaking to his disciples, however, this applies to us in the same way. We are to consider carefully what we hear or we should say, what we read when we are reading the scriptures. We pour over them with all diligence seeking out the truth and applying that truth to our lives. We make adjustments, not just in behavior as in a list of do’s and don’ts, but in the way, we think, in our attitudes about life. As we study the scriptures, not just read them and go on, we adopt the way we think aligning our thoughts with the thoughts of God. The more we do this, the more we will understand, and the more we understand, we will understand even more. In other words, it is a continual process of learning and comprehending more and more as we continue to learn. We are never done with our gaining more and more understanding as we pour over the words of God, the Word of God. Now, as far as those who have something taken from him, it seems somewhat strange. But what it appears to be is that Jesus says that to those who just think they have the truth, but it is their thinking, rather than through diligent hearing or reading and, in addition, they are not even applying any truth to their lives, whatever they are thinking about the truth, is only what they are thinking and not doing, therefore they have nothing, they know nothing, they have no understanding, and so their thinking will eventually vanish, and it will be as though they have never thought, never considered the truth of God. If we consider this truth within the context of all scripture, we can see that as long as we are connected to the vine, Jesus, as we are growing, being the good soil, producing a crop, and on and on with all the rest of the truth, we can see that we are to grow in the way Jesus is telling us here. How that happens is to carefully consider what we read, study it, pour over it, hearing it with the power of the Spirit, learning it, and applying it, adapting to it in word, thought and deed, how we think, how we talk, and how we act, and always continually adapting, never coming to the place we think we have learned it all, and have it all down pat. God is always revealing new truths to us as we are carefully considering them.