I just got back from our morning men's Bible study. We are on chapter 10 of John Eldredge's Wild at Heart
that discusses man's relationship to women. A peculiar thing happened,
instead of talking about what the text or the Bible said about the
subject, everyone just started to talk about their own opinions and
experiences as to what makes a marriage work.
There is one individual in our Bible study that I really
respect. He is an older gentleman, with a lot of experience and a great
deal of spiritual wisdom. Over the past few weeks I have learned some
of the story of his life come to know him well. As he spoke I was
absolutely focused on his words. When others spoke that might have
points that are just as valid as my friend I had trouble concentrating.
As I listened to them I actually wished that my friend would say
something else. I also found myself digging through my mind for the
scripture verses that would help illuminate the issue instead of
listening to what the other members of the group had to say.
What I seemed to be dealing with during Bible study this
morning is which voice I should listen too. I made the subconscious
choice to pay more attention to my friend whose wisdom I was certain of
than the others in the room. I also chose to listen to the voice of
scripture over people that I didn't know well enough to be certain of
their wisdom.
I thought about what scripture said about this and I know that
we are to test the validity of the "voices" we hear before we listen to
them. 1 John 4:1-6 says:
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to
speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have
comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is
the way to find out if they have the Spirit of God: If a prophet
acknowledges that Jesus Christ became a human being, that person has
the Spirit of God. If a prophet does not acknowledge Jesus, that person
is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist. You
have heard that he is going to come into the world, and he is already
here. But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won
your fight with these false prophets, because the Spirit who lives in
you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. These people
belong to this world, so they speak from the world's viewpoint, and the
world listens to them. But we belong to God; that is why those who know
God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to
us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the
spirit of deception.
(1 John 4:1-6 NLT)
The verses I looked at in Matthew a couple days back also have something to say:
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's
clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their
fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the
same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad
fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good
fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown
into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. "Not everyone
who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many
will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast
out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' Then
I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you
evildoers.'
(Matthew 7:15-23 NRSV)
These verses give us some idea of how to test which
voices we should listen too. the 1 John passage says that the voices
should always acknowledge God. This pretty much rules out everything on
network TV and most of the advertising we see! The Matthew passage says
that we should judge the quality of the voice by the fruit that the
person produces in their life.
We have the idea of the reliability of the source in almost every other
aspect of our life. For example, if the kid at the McDonald's drive
through started giving you investment advice, you probably would not
(or at least should not) give him must attention. However, if Warren Buffett
started to give you the same advice I imagine that you would be
furiously making notes and hanging on every work. Why is it that we
will seem to listen to all sorts of crazy voices when it comes to
spiritual things? We will listen to Tom Cruise tell us about how to
find spiritual peace. Tom can act, but he has not more skill or ability
in spiritual matters than the guy that works on your car. Why will we
listen to him?
I think that the key to this is to come up with good standard
for judging the quality of the voice. It has nothing to do with fame or
notoriety. The volume or eloquence of the voice makes no difference.
What is important is that the voice acknowledges the supremacy of the
Lord and his word and that their life bears good fruit. This is the
voice we should listen to and we shouldn't feel guilty about tuning out
all the rest.