"He who has ears, let them hear."For example:
3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:
4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.
5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:
6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
9 And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
This scripture passage is one of many examples of Jesus saying this. But what does He mean?
What He means is that if you understand His message then go out and live it. It was an idiom that emphasized action. Jesus is showing us the door but we have to walk through it. To believe in Christ as our Savior and Redeemer in a literal sense or to believe in Jesus without living His teachings serves no purpose.
Imagine a man who is a celebrity for his Christian Faith and preaches the truth of Christ in a literal sense. But in leading his life he abandons this message and molests children and has numerous affairs outside of his marriage. It may be true that an atheist can be a good person and not abuse children or cheat on their spouse but if the one who does is Christian they are more than a hypocrite they know the path but they can't or won't walk it. They believe Jesus in a literal sense but they do not have faith that His teachings represent the best path.
It's not believing Jesus is our Savior that really saves our soul, it's living out His teachings like loving our neighbors and our enemies, forgiving as infinitely as He did when He begged God to forgive His executioners, that saves our soul and may save the lives of those who come into contact with that Christlike love for possibly the first time in their lives.
In my life from childhood to my teens and through adulthood until I met my wife at 31 years of age, I never lived down my mistakes or my sins. I was constantly reminded of them no matter how much "progress" I thought I had made.
The result being I had no motivation to do better because my successes were forgotten but my mistakes and sins were eternally remembered by my family and friends.
When I met my wife she did not gloss over my mistakes but she didn't remind me of them daily either. Neither did my step kids. I felt legitimate and real forgiveness for the first time in my life.
I started going to church regularly even if I sometimes skipped to go to a Hindu or Buddhist service. And as I read the Gospels I found that Jesus was every bit as forgiving as the messages He preached. Yet most of His "disciples" had more in common with the Pharisaical teachings of eternal condemnation for the most insignificant and limited of crimes than with forgiving 7x77 times.
So how can we claim to be His disciples if we are known more for our spiritual elitism and exclusiveness than for our inclusiveness? How can we claim to be His disciples if we say that families are forever but only if they are "good enough" or if they have a Temple recommend or if they look like us or meet our rigid criteria and standards?
How can we say we are His disciples if we hate our enemies or our neighbors when our "Master" taught the opposite?
None of us is perfect. We will all fail. Which is why we have no room to judge others for sinning differently than we do or to condemn others, that is His job alone.
My point in all of this is that we cannot do the opposite of what Jesus taught and truly call ourselves His disciples.
Because if we truly accept Christ we will not just accept His teachings in a literal sense but we will live them out as best we can and as best as we understand those teachings.
Belief in Christ in a literal sense may be valid but belief in His teachings and living them out is what Salvation really is all about.
Authority is not what gave Jesus' teachings or His ministry it's true power, the power came from Jesus practicing what He preached. He didn't just deliver His message, He was the message.
