"Dull of Hearing"

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”(Hebrews 5:11 ESV)

“Dull of hearing,” I think that describes all of us at some point in our lives, does it not? We hear, but we do not listen. We hear, but we can not comprehend what is being said. That is kind of what we do when we ignore a speed limit sign, is it not? We know that the authorities have determined that there is a speed that no one should exceed. We “hear” the warning, but we make a decision not to obey it.

Oh, of course, we justify our actions. We are late getting the kids to school, we had trouble leaving the house, the pets were acting up. We got behind a slow car, and they made us run late. Our world runs on a clock, and if we are late, we fear that we will miss out on something. We “hear” the warning speed limit sign, but we are “dull of hearing” and ignore it, and we cannot believe we would ever get caught ignoring that warning. Now, many of us do not get caught ignoring that sign, but it is only a matter of time until our being “dull of hearing” catches up with us.

It is similar to being “dull of hearing” when it comes to the warning that we find in Scripture is not it. Oh, we “hear” the Pastor, or the radio teacher, or the memes on Facebook, or the written word of God, and we know what they say. Still, because we are familiar with those messages, we become “dull of hearing” and ignore the message of Jesus being the source of eternal salvation. We think that we will not get caught “speeding” today, we make excuse after excuse as to why we cannot accept the gift of eternal salvation right now. We keep putting it off, and we “drift” further away from God’s grace until, one day, it will be too late.

The original Greek says, “You have become sluggish in hearing " the truths about eternal salvation. The verb is in the Perfect tense, which means that the action has taken place and has ongoing or abiding results. It is in the active voice, which shows that this action is not by accident but on purpose and that we are actively continuing to be “dull of hearing.” Our ignoring God’s message is not something that happened to us but that we have actively caused to happen.

Being dull of hearing is something we constantly need to work on correcting. It is not just for that individual who “drifts past” the words of Salvation; it is also something that plagues those of us who have accepted Jesus as our savior. Way too often, we get “comfortable” in our Christian lives, and when God speaks to us through a sermon, devotional, song, or a word from a friend, we once again fall into being “dull of hearing,” sluggish, slow or lazy in our response to what God is calling upon us to do.

All of us, at some point in our spiritual lives, face this problem. We hear but do not allow ourselves to comprehend and act on what we have heard. We hear but “drift” on in our everyday lives and miss the privilege of participating in one of God’s blessings. So, let us stop this process of being “dull of hearing.” Let us hear and comprehend what God is telling us so that we will bring honor and glory to the One who saved us.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"