I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)
Jesus said something that sounds almost cruel.
He said, “Whoever has, to him more will be given, and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”
That sounds like the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
So let’s look at this verse more closely. It’s Luke 8:18 and it says, “Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”
This can be a hard verse to understand, but the key is in the beginning when Jesus said, “Take heed how you hear.”
The words “take heed” are a warning. It’s saying watch out, be careful how you listen.
Are you being careful how you listen?
You can’t just open up your brain and dump everything in! You have to listen with an ear toward wisdom.
Proverbs 2:2 says, “incline your ear to wisdom.”
The NIV says: tune your ear to wisdom.
On your radio you “tune in” to a radio station. When listening we need to tune in for wisdom and truth.
Be careful how you listen.
Take heed how you hear.
So what did Jesus mean when He said, “For whoever has, to him more will be given, and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him”?
It all starts with this tiny bit of wisdom to listen carefully. You have to be smart enough to know that not everything is true. Not everything is wise. Not everything is godly. Not everything is helpful.
You have to be smart enough to know that some things you shouldn’t listen to at all. There is poison. There are lies. There is foolishness. There is evil. You have to be careful how you hear.
If you start there, then when you listen you will be tuning in for wisdom and truth. And when you tune in to hear wisdom and truth specifically, you will hear it!
This is what Jesus meant when He said, “To him who has, more will be given.”
When you listen for wisdom and truth, you will hear it, and you will learn, and you will grow. More will be given to you. And the wiser you grow, the more wise you will be in discerning what you hear. It has an exponential effect.
But what about the poor guy who apparently doesn’t have anything, and even what he seems to have is taken away from him?
That’s the guy who DOESN’T take heed how he hears. He isn’t careful about what he listens to. He listens to any old thing and lets it take root in his brain.
It can SEEM like he has wisdom and truth because he has a lot of DATA. But if he isn’t careful about it, he is letting in a host of foolishness and ignorance and even lies. Steve Taylor wrote a song that said, “He’s so open minded that his brains leaked out.” If he keeps letting all this in, eventually even what wisdom he SEEMED to have will be gone. Any wisdom he seemed to have will be washed away in a flood of information.
Proverbs 1:5 says a wise man will hear and increase learning. The only way that happens is if you listen with a discerning ear.
If you are careful about what you listen to.
If you take heed how you hear.
May God bless you today.
I’m Doug Apple.
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