And the third issue is the requirement that we will be tested. Hearing the words of Jesus We live in a house that has a somewhat circular layout due to the way it has been added onto and changed over the years. And it has always seemed to me that noise gathers volume as it circulates around our house. Maybe there will be a stereo playing in one bedroom, a television on in another room, and the dishwasher running in the kitchen, and the din just seems to build. You can be saying perfectly useful things to someone in conversation, and their ears can work just fine, but very little communication takes place unless you can deal with the noise.
Effective hearing has to take place in a setting where the competing noise is done away with.
One of the clear teachings of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' insistence that we pay attention to what he says and stop listening to the other voices that crowd in on our thoughts. Everything in me resists wanting to hear that. I don't want such language to penetrate very far. I want to protect myself, to not take seriously all the risks that go with that. The world in fact will threaten us.