by David Gibson<\/p>\n
One advantage of a hearing aid, they say, is that you can turn it off. But even a person with excellent hearing can easily tune out an unwelcome message.<\/p>\n
Jesus said, “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them<\/em>” (Matthew 13:15). Note the progression: hear\u2192understand\u2192turn\u2192be healed. Healing is dependent on hearing-receptivity to God’s message of grace, life, hope and peace. And some would close their ears to this?<\/p>\n To His disciples, Jesus said, “For blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, for they hear<\/em>” (Matthew 13:16). Then He told them, “… many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it<\/em>” (Matthew 13:17). Why didn’t they? They died long before Jesus came, and therefore did not hear what the apostles were hearing. But they desired to, nonetheless (I Peter 1:10-12). By telling His disciples this, Jesus wanted them to realize just how privileged they were to hear God’s message.<\/p>\n Jesus’ most often repeated statement is, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear<\/em>.” The Bible records examples of both those who were eager to hear the gospel (Acts 8:30-39; 10:33; 13:42, 44; 17:10-12) and those who were not (Acts 13:44-46; 18:5-6; 19:8-9; 28:23-28). Of these two kinds of people-those with ears open and those with ears closed-which are we?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by David Gibson Closed ears One advantage of a hearing aid, they say, is that you can turn it off. But even a person with excellent hearing can easily tune out an unwelcome message. Jesus said, “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1506,522],"class_list":["post-89447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-hearing","tag-listening"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23119,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-matthew-1312-mean\/","url_meta":{"origin":89447,"position":0},"title":"What does Matthew 13:12 mean?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Matthew 13:12 it says, \"For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.\" What does this mean? Answer: \"And the disciples came and said to Him, \"Why do You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92542,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-jesus-taught-in-parables\/","url_meta":{"origin":89447,"position":1},"title":"Why Jesus Taught in Parables","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Roger D. Campbell No one ever taught as Jesus did (John 7:46)! When He taught people, He often employed parables. By doing so, He fulfilled Old Testament prophecy (Psalm 78:2; 49:4). Jesus was neither the first nor last person in history to teach via parables, but He used them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55055,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-you-teachable\/","url_meta":{"origin":89447,"position":2},"title":"Are You Teachable?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Larry W. Rouse When I first became a Christian I thought that the key to bringing others to obedience to Christ was to have clearly reasoned evidence based on the Word of God. \u00a0I thought \"if others could just hear the truth taught simply and plainly then they too\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Teaching.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":58162,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/more-fair-minded\/","url_meta":{"origin":89447,"position":3},"title":"More Fair-Minded","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bryan Matthew Dockens \"Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46795,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-change-in-attitude-come-first-before-a-person-can-believe\/","url_meta":{"origin":89447,"position":4},"title":"Does a change in attitude come first before a person can believe?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it necessary to repent, or turn from sin and toward God (whether you have performed one single action or not, I'm simply talking about a heart attitude change) to be able\u00a0to see or believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin? Is that who has 'ears to hear'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10286,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-sacrifices-during-the-millennium\/","url_meta":{"origin":89447,"position":5},"title":"Are there sacrifices during the millennium?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Isaiah 6:1 refers to a heavenly temple. My question is: Is that in the future or during the millennium? Also, there are some scholars, such as Tim Lahaye, who teach that there will be sacrifices during the millennium. What are your thoughts on these matters? Answer: To answer your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Open ears<\/h2>\n
Open or closed?<\/h2>\n