Hearing Problems

In knowing that God chooses whose prayers to hear and whose to ignore, as mentioned in my recent post, many of us are very offended by this message. But when it comes to listening to His commands, it is a double-standard for we seem to choose what to listen to and what to ignore as well.

Truth is, we want God to hear us and do what we ask when we pray, but we are not willing to listen and do what He asks through His Word.

We are eager to jump at any opportunity to be kind, loving, caring and peaceful because let’s be honest this is what make people “like” us, and with the addiction we have with internet friends, followers and likes , this all we care about. However in regards to repentance (cf. Matt. 4:17), holy living (cf. 1 Thess. 4), preaching the word, reproving, rebuking and correcting (cf. 2 Tim. 4:1-2) most of us choose to ignore and turn a deaf ear when it comes to these instructions and commands.

Christians love to express how they “love” Christ, but the problem we are seeing today is our love for Him doesn’t necessarily mean we will “listen” and “obey” Him. This is why Jesus Himself reiterated it 3 times in the Book of John saying:

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments…(v.15)”, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me…” (v.21), “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word…” (v.23)

I strongly believe many of us have grown to have some serious hearing problems. Not the type of hearing problems that comes with age, but a hearing problem towards anything in His word that could potentially bring an offense to others.

We are so occupied with making sure everyone likes what we say and do that we are forgetting that every author in the New Testament along with many other godly people throughout history endured persecution due to delivering God’s truths.

• John the Baptist, beheaded for pointing out the king’s sin
• Stephen, was stoned death. 34 AD.
• James (Son of Zebedee) was beheaded in 44 AD.
• Philip the Apostle was crucified in 54 AD.
• Matthew the Evangelist killed with a halberd in 60 AD.
• James, beaten to death with a club after being crucified and stoned.
• Matthias was stoned and beheaded.
• Andrew, Peter’s brother, was crucified.
• Mark the Evangelist, was dragged in the streets of Alexandria then beheaded
• Peter, crucified upside-down.
• Apostle Paul, beheaded in Rome.
• Jude was crucified.
• Bartholomew flayed alive and crucified.
• Thomas the Apostle was killed by a spear in Mylapore, Madras, India in AD 72.
• Luke the Evangelist was hanged.
• Simon was crucified in 74 AD.
• Antipas of Pergamum, according to tradition, roasted to death in a brazen bull during the persecutions of Emperor Domitian, c. 92 A. D.
• (Note: John the Evangelist according to legend was cooked in boiling hot oil but survived. He was the only one of the original twelve Apostles who was not martyred).

These people did not suffer because they always had positive messages, they were not jailed for leniency towards falsehood and contrary teachings and they did not die a martyrs death because they chose to only mention the up-lifting and joyful messages of Christ. These things happened because they loved Christ and kept His commandments by preaching every single part of His word no matter what the consequences were – as should everyone else who professes to love Christ.

Making sure the world loves and likes us is something we shouldn’t pursue, especially as Christians, for scripture teaches us:

“…do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)

John repeats this, saying:

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” (1 John 2:15-16)

And this is why Jesus warned how the world will hate us…

“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (John 15:19)

God’s Word was not given to us to make friends with the world, that’s what the modern church teaches to fill its pews. We as Christians ought to preach the word, reproving, rebuking and correcting (2 Tim. 4:2), contend for the faith (Jude 3), give a defense (1 Peter 3:15), expose sin (Eph. 5:11) and rebuke falsehood (Titus 1:13) – this may not make many people like us, but the Bible is not an extension of Facebook.

Think About It.

In Him,
Marc