Take Care How You Hear, Part 3
March 20, 2025 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments
Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement
In this short series of articles, I am reflecting on Jesus’ command in Luke 8:18, “Take care then how you hear.” This is his application exhortation following the parable of the sower. As Jesus explains the parable, he quotes from Isaiah’s call in Isaiah 6:9-10. The people are dull of heart and cannot receive the truth of the parable (or Isaiah’s preaching) because they have “forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel” (Is. 1:4). Our ability to hear the word of God in a fruitful manner is directly linked with our heart’s attitude towards God. So, let’s take care then how we hear.
Pride, according to church tradition, is one of the seven deadly sins. C.S. Lewis contended in Mere Christianity that pride is the greatest sin, for every other sin springs from pride. It should come as no surprise, then, that pride is one of the hinderances to hearing God’s word. In Isaiah’s day, some 700 years before Jesus, pride was one of the main roadblocks so that the people did not understand, nor did they perceive (Is. 6:9).
Isaiah confronts the pride of the people early and often throughout his prophecy. He says in 2:12, “For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low.” He condemns their arrogance in knowledge, “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” (5:21). He confronts the pride of the king of Babylon in 14:3-15. Prideful people forget their proper place before their Creator; Isaiah says in 29:16, “You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” The prideful foolishly boast in their false security. Isaiah confronts them in 47:8, “Now hear this, you lovers of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children.’” Isaiah goes on to pronounce the judgment God has on such arrogance.
Why does God oppose human pride so vehemently? What is so poisonous about pride? And how do we fight pride?
C.S. Lewis wrote that pride is the complete anti-God state of mind. Just consider those words in Isaiah 47:8 (repeated again in verse 10): “I am, and there is no one besides me.” Compare that statement with God’s declaration in 44:6-7, “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it;” and again in 45:18, “I am the Lord, and there is no other;” and again in 46:9, “For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.” Pride and the prideful boast are a direct affront to God. In order to maintain his integrity and glory, God must be opposed to any challenge to his position.
If we approach Scripture with a prideful posture, we should not be surprised if our time with Scripture feels fruitless. We should not expect the grace of God to flow through his Word to us when “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). The modern fallacy is the arrogance that one can master the knowledge of anything through scientific reasoning. The postmodern fallacy is the arrogance that one can define what is true based upon one’s own experience and perspective. These are the waters we swim in day by day. We are not immune to the influences of the world. We must check our pride as we approach Scripture.
Isaiah communicates God’s words of hope and promise, words that ought to shape our approach to Scripture. God says in 57:15, “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit;” and in 66:2, “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” These verses give us four words that describe a proper approach to Scripture: contrite, lowly, humble, and trembles. Contrition springs from a proper understanding of one sinfulness before a holy God. We don’t deserve attention from God, nor his grace. Lowly and humble are similar in that they spring from a proper understanding of one’s creatureliness. We are utterly dependent and finite creatures. And trembling at God’s word springs from a proper reverence for such a holy and majestic God. What an incredible gift to hear from him!
So, we have a picture of how to fight pride and approach Scripture in a proper manner. First, in brokenness over our sin, we gratefully hear the Word of God as a gracious gift we never deserve. Second, in humility over our creaturely weakness, we eagerly hear the Word of God as the sustaining source of life. Third, in reverence for the holiness and majesty of God, we tremble in fear and joy as we hear the Word of God. We ought never be flippant or presumptuous or casual when we come to hear God’s word. Let us take care then how we hear.
