Are You Dull of Hearing?
Daily Devo: May 14, 2024
Hebrews 5:11 (vs 11-14) ~ Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
Christ Jesus is our Great High Priest and is a Priest after the order of Melchisedec; He is without beginning or ending; without any lineage. Christ Jesus is the Author of Eternal Salvation for there is no other kind. When He saves you, He saves you all the way. The Book of Hebrews is the living proof that it is a one time, life-changing experience that will last forever without end. Seeing we have such a Great High Priest we should give earnest heed to what the Word of God has to say about Him and about how we are to live our life for Him.
Here in these verses, we have a warning against dull hearing. Being dull of hearing is being sluggish or lazy in hearing; it is choosing not to hear what God has to say. It is a lack of desire to put forth effort to live it. This is a dangerous course to take for it leads to low spiritual intelligence. Those who tend to be lazy find themselves in want more often than someone who is willing to work. They have a deficit that perpetuates in their life because they choose not to put forth the effort required to get out of that deficit. We need to hear what God is saying so that we do not find ourselves in a spiritual deficit.
Dr. J. Vernon Magee wrote, “To be spiritually alert you have to have a knowledge of the Word of God and to be close to it. The Hebrew believers who are being addressed here had a low SQ, not an IQ, but an SQ – spiritual quotient.” It is hard to teach anybody anything about the spiritual life when they are dull of hearing. Many Christians today do not want to hear the deep things of the Word of God because it requires them to put forth more effort in their Christian walk. The more that you know of the Word of God the more blessed you are (Psa 1:1-3). But with blessing comes great responsibility to respond to and apply the truths and principles to your personal life.
The more you know the more you should grow and mature so that you can teach others the things that you have learned. If you are sluggish and lazy in hearing the Word, you can never become a teacher because you always have to be taught yourself. A person can sit down and learn how to read music so they can play a piano, they can learn their lessons for playing, but if they never apply the lessons, if they do not exercise what they know daily, they can never become good enough to teach others. It is more likely they will forget and must be taught the basics all over again.
The “first principles” are the primary elements that are required to have fundamental building blocks. Without them you cannot have a foundation to build from. It is like the “ABC’s” which are the building blocks of the English language. Without the alphabet we cannot form words, sentences, coherent thoughts, or ideas; there can be no intelligent communication. Those who must keep being taught the first principles of the Word of God are those who are never applying them to their own life because they are dull of hearing. As a pastor I have watched many people sit in church and agree with the teaching and the preaching of the Word of God but never apply it in their life. They never become great or even good leaders. Many times, they will get out of church and must come back and be taught the same things over and over again. They are dull of hearing because there is no desire to put forth the application.
Paul said of the Corinthian Christians, “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able” (1 Cor 3:2). Babes cannot receive the meat of the Word because they have not developed the ability to digest the deeper things. If they never apply the Word and use it in their daily life, they cannot receive the deeper things and mature spiritually; they will always have a deficit in spiritual intelligence. Only those who are exercised in living out the Word of God can truly digest the meat, which are the weightier matters of the Word, the spiritually deeper things of God.
We are to learn, to love, and to live the Word of God; we are to hear the word so we can be doers of the Word (Jam 1:22-25). But we must hear with a desire to embrace it and apply it before we can do it. It requires us to be sincere to hear and to do so that we might exercise our spiritual senses and sharpen our spiritual perception. Then we will be able to teach others what we know.
When I was first saved, I had a strong, growing, and insatiable desire for knowing more of the Word so that I could know more of God and of Christ. I wanted to know more about how to live the life that He had given me (1 Pt 2:2). I had a sincere yearning for the unadulterated and pure Word of God. The more I learned the more I was able to do. The more I learned, the more I was able to accomplish for the Lord in, around, and through the church. Are you dull of hearing, or are you growing in the knowledge and wisdom of God?
Be quick to hear, and be ready always to apply, and put to practice what you hear from the Lord, and He will bless you and show Himself strong on your behalf.
Dr. Todd Taylor