The Proclaimer

"Be Swift To Hear"

Have you ever had someone “tune you out” when you were trying to tell them something?  Have you ever had someone just not listen to you at all?  I read somewhere that community depends upon communication.  It is only when we speak and listen to one another that our relationships develop and mature, whereas when we stop listening to each other, they fall apart. 

Often that part of communication that fails us is listening. We all know the admonition of James, “Be swift to hear, slow to speak” (James 1:19), but how many of us reverse this process.  How many of us are so busy telling others of our needs and our wants that we cannot possibly listen to what others are telling us. The book of Proverbs has many passages concerning the propriety and jurisprudence of listening.  For example:

·        “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes; but he that is wise harkeneth unto counsel” (Proverbs 12:15).

·        ”Where there is no counsel, purposes are disappointed; but in the multitude of counsellors they are established” (Proverbs 15:22).

·        “Every purpose is established by counsel” (Proverbs 20:18).

·        “The ear that hearkeneth to the reproof of life shall abide among the wise” (Proverbs 15:31). 

·        “A rebuke entereth deeper into one that hath understanding than a hundred stripes into a fool” (Proverbs 17:10).

·        The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge” (Proverbs 18:15).

·        “My son heareth the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother” (Proverbs 1:8). 

·        He that giveth answer before he heareth, it is folly and shame upon him” (Proverbs 18:13).

These exhortations to listen to advice and instruction are needed just as much today as in times gone by.  Not only so, this need to listen applies to every sphere of life, including the home, the workplace, and the church.  How many homes are destroyed because husbands and wives do not communicate and refuse to listen to one another?  How many hearts are broken by children who will not listen to their parents?  How many times is a lack of communication the cause for trouble in the local church?

We sing the song, “Angry words! O let them never from the tongue unbridled slip.”  There is a correlation between listening and anger, even as James’ admonition to “be swift to hear, slow to speak” ends with being “slow to anger.”  Communication demands that we quit thinking about ourselves long enough to listen to what others have to say.  It is the consideration of the needs of others that enables us to communicate.  The word rendered “communicate” in many passages in the King James means literally “to share with” or “distribute.”  If we don’t listen, such sharing is impossible.

                                                                                         -- Clark Dugger

The Proclaimer