When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,
yet he liked to listen to him.
There is something about the voice of God that makes us want to listen even when it is saying things that are difficult to hear. We need to honor that instinct and pursue that voice. It is not a voice of condemnation because no one likes to feel that. It is a voice that, by what it says, shows the hope of something better.
The risks to that voice are many. We might let our own self-protective ego silence it. We might also allow it to be deadened by our trying to please those around us more than we should. Simply hearing it again and again without going deeper puts us at great risk. We are being invited to grace by the words the voice speaks. We are being invited to deeper lives and renewed minds. We should respond.
In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that
if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.
It is important to not simply be passive. It is not enough to be around the word. In such a state we are actually presuming upon the good graces of the community. We must allow the word to transform us as well, including our thoughts, minds, and actions. If we do not we won't have anything of true value to offer others. We will be willing to give away half of our kingdom to them. But it won't amount to anything if we are not transformed. The thing of value which we did have we kill. The things of seeming value turn out to not be valuable on the scale of eternity.
May the Lord of peace himself
give you peace at all times and in every way.
The Lord be with all of you.
Let us allow the word of Christ to transform our hearts. Let us listen again to the Baptist's cry to behold the lamb of God who takes away our sins. Let us repent and be renewed.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
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