Our Bible Reading can be so easily performed on a merely surface level, skimming over words without letting their real import be felt at all. Philip realised this when he quizzed the eunuch with a play on words in the Greek: “Understandest thou what thou readest?” (Acts 8:30): ginoskeis ha anaginoskeis? “Do you really understand, experientially, what you are understanding by reading?”
James 1:22 (“Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers [readers] only, deceiving your own selves”) plainly states how easy it is to read the word, and deceive ourselves into thinking that this very process justifies us. But if we are not doers of the word, we only “seem to be religious…(deceiving our) own heart, this man’s religion is vain” (James 1:26). We are invited to see a parallel between the process of only reading God’s word, and seeming to be religious.
Parable of the sower
The good soil is characterised by understanding (Mt.), receiving (Mk.) and keeping, the word (Lk.). We can hear the Bible explained and at that point understand intellectually. But this is something different to real understanding; for if we truly apprehend the message, we will receive it deep within us and keep that understanding ever present in our subsequent actions.
Hebrew hear = obey
The Hebrew word for “hear” is also translated “obey” (Gen. 22:18; Ex. 19:5; Di.. 30:8,20; Ps. 95:7). We can hear God’s word and not obey it. But if we really hear it as we are intended to, we will obey it.
If we truly believe God’s word to be His voice personally speaking to us, then we will surely obey. The message itself, if heard properly and not just on a surface level, will compel action.
We can feel satisfied with knowing God’s laws and praying daily to Him, when at the same time we are forsaking Him and His laws; if we truly hear, then we will delight in doing God’s law (Is. 58:2 cp. 14).
We have a tendency to have a love of God’s law only on the surface. John especially often uses “hearing” to mean “believing” (e.g. Jn. 10:4,26,27). And yet the Jews “heard” but didn’t believe. We must, we really must ask ourselves, whether we merely hear, or hear and believe. For we can hear, but not really hear.
True preparation for the coming
Amos 5:18 and Malachi 3:1,2 warn that just desiring the coming of the Lord isn’t enough; for what end will it be, if we don’t truly love His appearing? Yet Amos goes on to say that Israel “put far away” the reality of the day of the Lord in their minds (Am. 6:3). And yet they desired it. We can study prophecy, but not really love his appearing in seriously preparing ourselves for that day. Indeed, we can subconsciously put it far from us.
When we grasp for a fleeting moment how very near is the second coming for us, can we dwell upon it, retain that intensity? Or would we rather put it “far away”? This is surely why the Lord brings the list of signs of his coming to a close with some chilling parables concerning the need for personal watchfulness. It’s as if he could foresee generations of believers straining to interpret his words carefully, correctly matching them with trends in the world, and yet missing the essential point: that we must watch and prepare ourselves for His coming, whenever it may be for us. Having given so many indicators of his soon appearing, the Lord then says that his coming will he unexpected by the believers (Mt. 24:36,44). He wasn’t saying, “Well, you’ll never properly interpret what I’ve just said.” He meant rather: “OK, you’ll know, more or less, when my return is imminent; but all the same, in reality it will be terribly unexpected for most of you unless you prepare yourselves. You need to make personal changes, and be watchful of yourselves; otherwise all the correct prophetic interpretation in the world is meaningless.”
Those described in Romans 1:32 know the judgment of God; they know it will come. But they have a mind “void of an awareness of] judgment” (Rom. 1:28 AVmg.). We can know, know it all, but live with a mind and heart void of it. Titus 1:16 AVmg. uses the same word to describe those who “profess that they know God” hut are “void of judgment.” We can know Him, but have no real personal sense of judgment to come. These are sobering thoughts.
The case of knowledge experts
Solomon had the wisdom of God. And yet Ecclesiastes has two contradictory layers of thought — Divine wisdom, and a philosophy of life “under the sun” that disregards that wisdom as irrelevant and pointless. I reconcile these by concluding that Solomon knew God’s truth and preached it, and yet at the end of his life he concluded it was all just so much theory. When he was younger, as a good king of Israel, he had copied out the portions of Deuteronomy concerning how a king should behave, not making links with Egypt, not loving horses, silver, gold or many wives. And yet in his reign he flouted these principles on a grander scale than anyone else.
He warned “my son” in his Proverbs of the dangers of the Gentile (“strange”) woman, but at the same time married them himself. He knew, but simply failed to personally apply all the wisdom to himself. The very sensation of having the wisdom and preaching it world-wide, as he did, must have lulled him into a sense of numbness to the personal reality of it all. And the greater and deeper goes the Biblical research of our Christadelphian community, the wider we preach, the more the Truth we preach brings joy and salvation to others, the more prone we are to sink into the Solomon syndrome.
On a lower level, this, perhaps, is why lung cancer specialists and sportsmen smoke (albeit on the quiet), why skilled and experienced pilots take incomprehensible risks and crash. The possession of knowledge and truth, when mixed with the perversity and untruth of human nature, can tempt us personally to do the very opposite of that which we know we should do.
Hearing but not hearing
God prophesied that those to whom Ezekiel witnessed would not hear His words (Ez. 3:11). And yet they came and sat before him, desiring to hear God’s word (Ez. 33:30-32). They wanted to hear, they heard, and yet they didn’t really hear.
The man who hears and does not appears to be building something — he has the sensation of going some place in his spiritual life. He did dig a foundation — in sand, where it is easy to dig. But the Lord said that he built “without a foundation” (Lk. 6:49). Are we really hearing and doing — or just going through the motion of it, experiencing the sensation of appearing to do it?
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One