Hearing and Understanding

Colossians 1

For we have heard of your trust in the Messiah Yeshua and of the love you have for all God’s people. Both spring from the confident hope that you will receive what is stored up for you in heaven. You heard of this earlier in the message about the truth. This Good News has made its presence felt among you, just as it is also being fruitful and multiplying throughout the world in the same way as it has among you since the day you heard and understood the grace of God as it really is.
Colossians 1:4-6

The words “heard and understood” stuck out to me in these verses. Paul writes that the Good news has made its presence felt and that it is being fruitful and multiplying since [the Colossians] heard AND understood God’s grace as it truly is. I think this is so key. We can hear the Good News, we can know facts about the bible and what it means to be saved, but there is a difference between hearing, or even knowing something, and truly understanding it.

I found this explanation of knowing and understanding:

Understanding takes a long time to take place whereas knowledge can take place sooner. The moment information is given, it is immediately processed in the mind, and then the individual will know about the subject.

In order for the brain to understand, it must be presented with the same knowledge constantly. The more information that the brain receives about a subject, the better it will understand.

When you understand, you are able to distinguish, explain, interpret, and summarize data. When you know, you are able to identify, label, list, name, and recall data. Both understanding and knowing are very important for our growth as individuals. They determine how we view and react to our environment and the people we associate with.

I found it interesting that the more the brain receives information about something, the better it understands. I think this is so true in our journey of faith – the more we come to know about God, the more we fully begin to understand His character – His grace, love, mercy, justice, holiness, sovereignty, etc. I can “know” God is sovereign, that He is good, that he is loving…but unless I experience it either in my own life or as revealed by the Holy Spirit through His word, it is just head knowledge. My “faith” is a saying faith, rather than a saving faith. In Matthew 13, Jesus is explaining the parable of the Sower and the Seed. He said,

“Here is why I speak to them in parables: they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding. That is, in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Yesha‘yahu which says,
‘You will keep on hearing but never understand,
and keep on seeing but never perceive,
because the heart of this people has become dull —
with their ears they barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
so as not to see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their heart,
and do t’shuvah,
so that I could heal them.’
But you, how blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear! Yes indeed! I tell you that many a prophet and many a tzaddik longed to see the things you are seeing but did not see them, and to hear the things you are hearing but did not hear them.”

When we have a heart that is dull or callous to God, it prevents us from hearing and understanding the truth. Jesus says that because of the state of a hard heart people do not see, do not hear, do not understand, and do not repent, and therefore He does not heal them. Wow. How important then, is a soft, tender, humble heart – one that is easily shaped and molded by the Holy Spirit to enable us to hear and understand God’s truth? I think about clay in the hands of a potter. When it is soft and pliable, the potter can do anything he wants with it – shape it into whatever form pleases him. But when the clay becomes hard it is basically useless and will be discarded or thrown into the fire. I always want to me malleable for my Maker!

As Jesus defines the different types of “soil”, you see the words “hear and understand” come up again:
“When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But the one sown on the good ground—this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”

Many people can hear the word, and even accept it for a time, but unless they understand it, it will either fail to take root or be choked out. May my heart, Harry’s heart, and Abby’s heart be tender, fertile soil for God’s truth to grow with deep roots that will bear fruit and multiply!