Careful Listening

Anita Delene Manthe
Nov 25, 2017
3 min read

How carefully do you listen to discussions and conversations? Do you really listen to what others say? Do you listen well enough to discern a hidden agenda in their message? Or, do you readily agree with others because what they say sounds wise, knowledgeable, peaceable and directive?

This past week I sat through a week of panel discussions where I got to listen to a very well put together challenge of Christianity. It was so very well done, skillful, subtle and disguised in a presentation that no one else seemed to notice. They were oblivious. The presenter was so very cunning in how he did it, and what he said.

Why did no-one notice the clear agenda of deceit? Why were they so easily led? Why was it so easy for them to follow his train of thought and consider him wise and caring?

The answer is simple. They wanted to.

Although everything happened there and then, it was not a sudden and momentary affirmation of what he said. The choice they made was a long time coming. It was a response from conditioned thought. They chose to be easily deceived because they are deceived. Their theology is weak, their churches are weak.

Congregants accept weak theology and do not challenge it because they don’t want to. In their communities Christianity is a tradition, just an aspect of their culture. Christianity is not a relationship with a Savior, and Christ is not God – the true and living God. He is compartmentalized as just another leader. He is written about in the Bible, so they speak of Him with respect. But they have never been taught more.

Some may think my observation and subsequent comments unkind and suggest I heard what I did because I have studied theology, they did not have the same opportunity. Yes, that is partly true. However, it is not only because I studied theology that I could discern the presentation was leading to blasphemy and theological error. When Jesus is called a prophet and equaled to other prophets – those gone before, and those living today it’s not hard to miss.

We need to listen attentively to what others say and teach. We need to speak up and correct error when we hear it. We are accountable to the Lord to do this! Are you?

If someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough (2 Corinthians 11:4).
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed (Galatians 1:6-8).
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end (Hebrews 3:12-14).