Hearing, Listening and Obedience

One of the first things I learned in higher education is something that I wish had been specifically taught many years before. Maybe they teach it now, I hope so. It is a very simple concept:  hearing is not listening, and listening doesn't necessarily translate into doing.  In today's world very often the words hearing and listening are used interchangeably when they are not actually the same thing.

Hearing is the physical act of hearing someone talk, listening is paying attention to what is being said. This includes comprehension and thinking actively about what is being said. Finally there is the act of doing what is said. In the secular world this is applying the knowledge, when we are talking about Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Spirit this is an act of obedience.

Luke 6:46-49 

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

I don't know if it a change in common usage or a translation aspect (remember these words originally come from Aramaic and Greek). Either way it seems to me that the word hearing here is referring to both aspects hearing and listening.

When we heard the word of the Lord we become responsible for doing what we have been instructed to do. You may recognize these verses as the inspiration for the children's hymn about  The Wise Man and the Foolish Man. It is worth a look again as an adult. We not only have to have a strong faith to build upon our rock but we must act on the knowledge and faith. We are responsible for doing what we have been taught. The rains and the floods will come, if we have acted on what we have been taught we will be the wise man whose house stood firm.

And that leads right back into the first statement Jesus made: "Why do you call me Lord and not do the things I say?"