You Cannot Hear God’s Words, Because You are Not of God

Jesus did not soften His language when confronting those who claimed to know God but rejected His teachings. In John 8:43-47, Jesus expressed the same idea repeatedly: “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word” (v. 43). He then concluded, “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God” (v. 47). Their problem was not that Jesus had failed to make the truth understandable, but that they were unwilling to receive it. They could hear His words with their ears, but they could not hear them with receptive hearts.

This is a common concept throughout the Bible. Jesus repeatedly said, “He that hath an ear, let him hear” (Rev. 2–3). He also said, “their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed” (Mt. 13:15). Stephen accused men of being “uncircumcised in heart and ears” and of resisting the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). In these passages, the problem was not confusion, but resistance.

What often happens is selective hearing. A person hears God’s Word gladly when it agrees with what he already believes, but resists or explains away other passages that are just as clear. In modern terms, this reaction is sometimes called cognitive dissonance—the discomfort that arises when the truth challenges long-held beliefs. Instead of adjusting beliefs to fit God’s Word, many try to reshape God’s Word to fit their beliefs.

Sometimes the truth is rejected because of incomplete study or the false belief that one passage must be rejected to uphold another. God’s Word always harmonizes, so further study is required to learn how to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). Sincerity does not turn error into truth, and the Scriptures must be allowed to harmonize rather than be pitted against one another.

With all that in mind, can you hear these truths?

• “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators…nor homosexuals…will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10 NKJV).
  
  
• “Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery” (Mt. 19:9).
  
  
• “There is one body” (Eph. 4:4; cf. 1:22–23; 5:23).
  
  
• “There is…one faith” (Eph. 4:4-5; cf. Jude 3).
  
  
• “There is…one baptism” (Eph. 4:4-5; 5:26).
  
  
• “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mk. 16:16).
  
  
• “Baptism doth also now save us” (1 Pet. 3:21).
  
  
• “The head of the woman is the man” (1 Cor. 11:3; cf. 1 Tim. 2:11-12).
  
  
• “The head of Christ is God” (1 Cor. 11:3).
  
  
• “They that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober” (1 Thess. 5:7-8).
  
  
• “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar” (1 Jn. 2:3-4).
  
  
• “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only” (Jam. 2:24).
  
  
• “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us” (2 Thess. 3:6).
  
  

These statements harmonize with their contexts and with the rest of the Bible. Are you able to hear them? As Jesus said, “He that is of God heareth God’s words.” In many cases the issue is not the clarity of such passages, but the condition of the heart when hearing them. May we all be the good soil God desires: “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).