Speaking and Hearing

He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God. (John 8:47)

For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. (John 3:34)

There is a different word in the Greek that seems to implicate something a little deeper than simply spoken words. As far as I can gather so far, this original word rhema seems to imply something more along the line of sentiments instead of just speech. The second reference above indicates to me that Jesus came to condense the sentiments of God down into language in order to try to get us to catch its spirit, its meaning, its true intent, to infect us with its contagious spirit that comes from God.

What I am now seeing in chapter 8 is an increasing emphasis by Jesus on the logos or related words which seems (again in my perception so far) to be the attempts by Jesus to convey to us through the use of words we can hear with our ears, the sentiments that are behind the words and that are far more important than the surface value of the words alone.

This emphasis begins to show up around verse 25 but suddenly takes center focus at verse 31 and throughout the rest of the chapter. Notice the significance of this idea and how the verses tend to explain and compliment each other.

So they were saying to Him, "Who are You?" Jesus said to them, "What have I been saying to you from the beginning? "I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world." They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. (John 8:25-27)

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine. (31)

I know that you are Abraham's descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father. (37-38)

But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. (40)

Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? (43-46)

"He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." (John 8:47) This original word is the rhema kind of words, not just the logos type of speech that most of the rest of these reference from in the Greek. It seems more along the line of referring to the sentiments of the Father that Jesus came to reveal through the words (logos) designed to draw us into alignment with those sentiments. The only other place in this chapter that this word rhema is used is in verse 20. These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. (John 8:20)

Jesus finished out this discussion with just a few more references to this idea before He is run out of town.

Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death. (51)

You have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. (55)

The central key to this issue of really grasping the sentiments of the Father through the words of Jesus seems to be in the receiving part of the equation. That shows up in the references where Jesus talks about the problem of hearing effectively and what we choose to do with what we hear from Him.

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine." (John 8:31)

I know that you are Abraham's descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. (37)

Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. (John 8:43)

He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God. (47)

Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death. (51)

You have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. (55)

It appears to me that there are two layers of effectiveness, two layers of communication referred to in this passage. Jesus is coming from a different reality where sentiments are far more important than simple language; a realm where language is always expected to accurately reflect and convey sentiments more than just information.

But when He operates within our world and tries to interact with humans who have been seriously handicapped in their ability and willingness to operate transparently and honestly, He has to try to use the lower level of communication in words to try to convey the more important issues of heart concepts. But using human words always involves serious risk of being misunderstood because words have been so long abused among us that we are extremely skeptical that anyone really means what they say anymore. In addition many of us do not want to know truth that might make us uncomfortable because it exposes our own hypocrisy or deception so we automatically distort words spoken to us to align them more with what we want to think.

Jesus is addressing this problem head-on in this passage. In verse 47 He declares plainly that if we are not willing to allow God to define the real meaning of the words He uses to communicate with us then we simply cannot understand accurately what reality is about from His perspective. If we are unwilling to submit to allow God's Spirit do its work in our minds and hearts while we are listening to the words of Jesus, then those words will not produce their intended effect in our lives and we will not be able to properly understand or receive through them the life-giving communications that we need from God.