Listen Before You Lecture

Audio By Carbonatix

Every generation inherits context.

Whether it’s family stories, Scripture, great literature, or the founding documents of a nation, we have a choice.

We can listen first.

Or we can lecture first.

Guess which one comes more naturally.

We have become astonishingly confident people. About morality, government, faith…all of the areas we seem to be lacking wisdom in.

Give us thirty seconds, one Google search, a TikTok clip, and a meme with fancy lettering, and suddenly we’re constitutional scholars, epidemiologists, economists, theologians, and Greek experts.

We don’t merely have opinions.

We have certainty.

The problem is that certainty isn’t the same thing as understanding.

And nowhere is that more dangerous than when we open the Bible.

Context is King

We love verses.

Sometimes more than we love Scripture.

We’ll memorize a sentence while ignoring the paragraph.

We’ll quote a promise while skipping the condition attached to it.

We’ll build entire theologies on one verse while neglecting the chapter, the book, or the whole counsel of God.

Context is the difference between hearing God and hearing ourselves.

Seek and Ye Shall Google

The internet has given us unprecedented access to information.

It has not given us wisdom.

If anything, it has tempted us to believe that searching is the same thing as studying.

Googling is not meditation.

Scanning is not scholarship.

Knowing where a verse is found is not the same as understanding why God inspired it.

We don’t know jack.

Or George. Or Jefferson…Paul or Peter.

We don’t know John.

Or Moses.

Or Isaiah.

Or Paul.

Or James.

Sometimes I’m not even convinced we know Jesus nearly as well as we think we do.

We know the verses that fit on coffee mugs.

We know the memes.

We know the slogans.

But do we know the context?

Do we know who was speaking?

To whom?

Why?

Under what circumstances?

Do we know what came before?

Or after?

Rumor Has It…Wrong

One of the greatest gifts God has given His people is that we are not dependent on rumors about Him.

He has spoken.

He preserved His Word.

He invited us to read it.

To study it.

To meditate on it day and night.

The beauty of Christianity is that our faith isn’t built on whispers passed from generation to generation.

It’s rooted in documents.

Inspired documents.

Reliable documents.

Living documents.

What an extraordinary kindness that God didn’t merely tell someone else what He was like and expect us to trust the retelling.

He gave us His Word.

Saints and Sinners Alike

Reading Scripture isn’t the same thing as canonizing Bible characters.

In fact, Scripture refuses to sanitize them.

David.

Moses.

Peter.

Paul.

Abraham.

Jacob.

The Bible tells the truth about flawed people because that’s how God tells stories.

Not to shame them.

But to glorify Himself.

If God only used perfect people, redemption would be impossible.

Humble Thyself

Perhaps that’s why humility must come before interpretation.

The first question isn’t:

“What do I think this verse means?”

It’s:

“What did God intend to say?”

Those are not the same question.

One begins with me.

The other begins with Him.

So before we post…

Let’s read.

Before we argue…

Let’s study.

Before we object…

Let’s understand.

Before we defend…

Let’s listen.

Before we assume…

Let’s ask.

What does God actually say?

Because in an age overflowing with commentary, perhaps the most radical act of obedience is returning to the Source.

Not to the opinions about God’s Word.

To God’s Word itself.

As we return to truth, take a minute to see this brilliant work in progress. The Founders. A primary source movie about the words, thoughts, and ideas that shaped our country…from the founders themselves.