STEEMCHURCH: Listening is not enough.

Do not be satisfied with just listening to the word, for that is how you deceive yourselves. Take it to practice. The one who hears the word but does not put it into practice is like the one who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, leaves and immediately forgets what he looks like. James 1: 22-24

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Many professed Christians maintain a passive relationship with God. We think that listening to the Word with attention and good cheer is enough to achieve a holy and consecrated life. We are not rebellious at the moment of listening, but we are rebellious about our actions. We behave like that young man who always responded to the indications of his father with a seemingly determined and firm "yes", but always ended up doing something different, or simply did not do what was expected of him.

People who claim to be followers of Jesus abound in the world. They go after him, proclaim themselves as "Christian", and exalt the sayings of the Master.

Obey the message of God! If you listen to it, but you do not obey it, you deceive yourselves and it will happen to you as you look in a mirror: as soon as you leave, you forget what it was like. Santiago 1:22

It is very important to emphasize the difference between what it means to hear the Word, to hear and understand the Word, and to hear, understand and obey (do) the Word.

There is a difference between hearing and listening, the first is the normal hearing ability that every human being has but that together with what he wants to hear come other noises that do not allow him to understand what he wants to hear. It means that you can forget what you heard or misinterpret the meaning of what you heard and give an incorrect feeback. To listen, no effort is required, however, to listen requires attention, effort, and interest because you want to understand the message you are receiving and in the same way give a coherent answer. The clear evidence that the recipient has understood the message received is that he obeys it and puts it into practice. Do not forget that in all this teaching-learning process there are strong distractors which must be evaded or eliminated.

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When Jesus told the parable of the sower to his disciples in Matthew 13, he only told them that the sower went to sow the seed, and that it fell into four different kinds of land: on the road, on the stones, in the middle of thorns, and in fertile land. At this level of exposure, the disciples still do not understand anything, therefore, although they have heard everything, they can not obey it. In the second part, Jesus returns to tell them but with the corresponding explanation, which helps the disciples not only to listen to it with attention but to understand it easily. Jesus explains that the seed that fell on the road are the people who only hear the Word but do not understand it. The seed that fell on the stones are the people who hear the Word and pretend to understand it because they receive it, but not enough to obey it.

The seed that fell in the middle of thorns and weeds are the people who also hear the Word, do not understand it very well therefore, they respond incorrectly. Finally, the seed that fell on fertile soil, is the one that represents the people who heard the word with attention that is equivalent to listening, that helped them to understand it clearly, to the point that they responded positively to the message, taking it to the practice that is to bear fruit. This is the true meaning of good sowing, that the person listens to the message with attention, and the explanation is so clear that it is easy to understand the meaning that decides to accept it, and to obey it by taking this same seed to another fertile ground until achieving that all people listen to the gospel, understand it and decide to receive it in their hearts and obey it in daily life.

It is not enough to hear 400 Sunday sermons, it is not enough to read the Bible 620 times, if things do not change, if you remain the same. It does not help much if you memorize the whole Bible, attend the temple on Sundays of the year, attend the 24 prayer vigils and the 12 prayer fasts, and the 36 evangelistic outings, and participate in the 15 missionary projects if your you do not change in the way of being. It is not enough to be the founder of the church, of the radio ministry, and to have 60 years of being a Christian if you still do not obey the Word that you hear because you have not learned to listen carefully, since you are still a capricious and rude child. You have not yet let the Word change your character, your discipline, the order of priority, the wrong relationships you have, the immoral way of thinking, the way you talk. You do not show internal and external changes in your life, even though you say you have read, heard and liked the Word.

Dear Lord: We do not want to be only hearers of your Word, but doers of it. Teach us to listen to you as it should be, when you are speaking to us.

However, they proclaim to the four winds that they live as best suits their personal interests. The woman who really tries to please God will be willing to bend her will before the Lord and do what he seems to indicate for her life.

Friend, what the world sees in us is what we do at every step, not only what we say. The practical gospel, not the theoretical one, is the one that overcomes the world. We need women who live honestly, who do not go to the left or the right, Christian women from head to toe. The Lord tells us: "Do not be content with just listening to the Word." He insists: "Take it to practice" (James 1:22).

Moving from listening to practicing what is heard is a process of conversion that must begin in the heart from the moment we have an encounter with Christ. If this does not happen and the practice is in us the result of the conversion that comes from hearing, we will only be like "a metal that resonates or a dish that makes noise" (1 Cor 13: 1).

This is what Jesus expects from us that we not only hear and understand the Word but that we obey it, that is to be doers and not just hearers.

Ellen White says: "It is not enough to understand the loving kindness of God or to perceive the benevolence and paternal tenderness of his character" (The way to Christ, chapter 2, page 28). It is necessary that with increasing humility and unconditional surrender, we allow the Holy Spirit to convince us and free us from the rebelliousness that is in us.

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