Open Ears for God's Kingdom ...

Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Do we have open ears for God's kingdom? In some parts of the New Testament we find the phrase “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” What does that mean?

Ears to hear? …

The words “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” are words which Jesus himself uses after he talks about living in faith. The sentence implies two things: first, it is possible that people have ears to hear, and then they are able to hear or to understand. Second, there must be those who do not have ears to hear, and then they are not able to listen, or not able to understand.

The kingdom of God is of a special nature. It is there, in the middle of this world. But it is not of this world. It is not easy to grasp. Everyone is invited to come, but not everyone has ears to hear. There are many, too many, who cannot hear and do not listen.

In todays cultural climate, any type of discrimination is considered to be bad. Everyone must have the same rights. That is, in many parts of our society, a very good development. We should not be discriminated for to our background, our race, our nationality and not for many other things. But there are discriminating things in this world. Some are gifted with musical talent, others are not. Some have mathematical capabilities, others do not have these. And faith does have a strong impact on our life. Some come to faith in Jesus, others do not! There is a huge impact on these decisions …

Followers Listen …

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The kingdom of God is built on freedom. We have the freedom to come to him. He wants us with our will and our heart and our mind. He wants us to come to him freely. It is an old theological question, how much choice we have - and the biblical books know both moments: the choice of God to determine who can come to him, and the choice of the individual, who loves God and searches him and asks God to save him. Who seeks the Lord sincerely will be given ears to hear!

People with ears to hear will follow the Lord. They will hear what Jesus says, they will understand and turn it into practice in their life. It might be a long way to fully understand and do, but people with ears to hear will start to walk that path, they will move forward, they will change, they will succeed step by step.

At the same time, we can expect that it will happen occasionally (at least) that those who do not understand oppose the steps which are very clear and natural if you follow the Lord. We will need to talk about this another time - but conflicts are bound to come. Jesus himself was thrown into these conflicts. We cannot expect to be able to avoid them. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts