Today the Lord addresses one of the most important questions to us: “How do we listen?” We read the Bible regularly and even visit Bible websites, but do we have ears to receive the Word, let it take root in our heart, and bear fruit? The Savior says...
Today the Lord addresses one of the most important questions to us: “How do we listen?” We read the Bible regularly and even visit Bible websites, but do we have ears to receive the Word, let it take root in our heart, and bear fruit? The Savior says, “The measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given to you who hear.”
In essence, this means that a person will find in Scripture, and in God's revelation as a whole, what that person wants to find. The Bible can provide us with a wealth of material on history, literature, philology, mysticism, and so on, but only one who seeks in it the knowledge of God, that is, a living, personal relationship with Him built on trust and love, will be able to find Him in the pages of Holy Scripture.
And here the words “to those who have, more will be given” take on their meaning. In hearing and understanding the Word of God, we can only deepen and multiply what we already have. That is, we must approach it on the foundation of an already existing bond with God, in faith and prayer.
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4:21 And he said, Is a candle - As if he had said, I explain these things to you, I give you this light, not to conceal, but to impart it to others. And if I conceal any thing from you now, it is only that it may be more effectually manifested hereafter. Mat 5:15; Luk 8:16; Luk 11:33.
4:22 Mat 10:26; Luk 8:17.
4:24 Take heed what ye hear - That is, attend to what you hear, that it may have its due influence upon you. With what measure you mete - That is, according to the improvement you make of what you have heard, still farther assistance shall be given.And to you that hear - That is, with improvement.
4:25 He that hath - That improves whatever he has received, to the good of others, as well as of his own soul. Mat 13:12; Luk 8:18.
4:26 So is the kingdom of God - The inward kingdom is like seed which a man casts into the ground - This a preacher of the Gospel casts into the heart. And he sleeps and rises night and day - That is, he has it continually in his thoughts. Meantime it springs and grows up he knows not how - Even he that sowed it cannot explain how it grows. For as the earth by a curious kind of mechanism, which the greatest philosophers cannot comprehend, does as it were spontaneously bring forth first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear: so the soul, in an inexplicable manner, brings forth, first weak graces, then stronger, then full holiness: and all this of itself, as a machine, whose spring of motion is within itself. Yet observe the amazing exactness of the comparison. The earth brings forth no corn (as the soul no holiness) without both the care and toil of man, and the benign influence of heaven.
4:29 He putteth in the sickle - God cutteth down and gathereth the corn into his garner.
4:30 Mat 13:31; Luk 13:18.
4:33 He spake the word as they were able to hear it - Adapting it to the capacity of his hearers; and speaking as plain as he could without offending them. A rule never to be forgotten by those who instruct others.
4:35 Mat 8:23; Luk 8:22.
4:36 They take him as he was in the vessel - They carried him immediately in the same vessel from which he had been preaching to the people.
4:38 On the pillow - So we translate it, for want of a proper English expression, for that particular part of the vessel near the rudder, on which he lay.
4:39 Peace - Cease thy tossing: Be still - Cease thy roaring; literally, Be thou gagged.