Part 1 – Do We Listen?

The Word Among Us: Listening, Speaking, Mercy & Healing

A four-part series on life together in the body of Christ — from the ear, to the tongue, to the heart, to healing…

This little series walks through four plain truths about how we live together as the body of Christ, and they move in order: from the ear, to the tongue, to the heart, and at last to the place of healing.

We begin where every healthy relationship begins — with listening, to one another and to God. From there we turn to the tongue, and the quiet harm of gossip dressed up as concern. Then to the heart, and the mercy we are called to show because we have first received it. And we close with healing — how a wounded believer lays the hurt down and walks on, free.

Listen well. Speak well. Show mercy. Be healed. That is the walk worthy of our calling: That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work [Colossians 1:10 KJV].

This is where the journey begins — at the ear. Before the tongue, before the heart, before healing, we must first learn to truly listen…

Part 1 - Do We Listen?

When people talk, are we truly listening — or just waiting to talk, hoping they will listen to us?

A Hard Look at Ourselves

Be honest for a moment. When someone is speaking to you, are you actually listening to them — or are you already loading your reply, waiting for the gap so you can say your piece? Most of us, if we are honest, do far more transmitting than receiving. We hear words, but we do not truly listen.

And it is not a small thing. How we listen says a great deal about how we love — and about how we walk with God. So let us go back to basics.

Swift to hear, slow to speak

Scripture could not be plainer:

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath [James 1:19 KJV].

Notice the order. Swift to hear comes first. Slow to speak comes second. We tend to reverse it — swift to speak, slow to hear, and quick to anger when we are not heard. God's wisdom turns our instincts upside down. The godly person leads with the ear, not the tongue.

Answering before we hear

There is a sharp little proverb that ought to make every one of us wince:

He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him [Proverbs 18:13 KJV].

Folly and shame. Strong words. Yet how often do we do exactly that — jump in halfway through, finish a person's sentence, decide what they mean before they have said it? We answer a matter we have not heard. The Bible does not call that clever or quick. It calls it foolish.

Real listening waits. It lets a person finish. It seeks to understand before it rushes to reply.

Listening is love

Here is the heart of it: listening is one of the simplest, most overlooked ways we love one another.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others [Philippians 2:4 KJV].

When you truly listen to someone, you are looking on their things, not just your own. You are saying, without words, "You matter. What you are carrying matters." A great deal of comfort in this world is given not by clever answers but by a patient ear. Job's friends were at their best in the seven days they sat with him and said nothing [Job 2:13 KJV]. It was when they opened their mouths that the trouble began.

But do we listen to God?

Here is the question beneath the question. If we struggle to listen to one another, how well do we listen to God?

We are good at talking at God — our lists, our requests, our hurried prayers. But prayer was always meant to be a conversation, not a monologue. Young Samuel got it right:

Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth [1 Samuel 3:10 KJV].

Most of us pray the opposite: "Listen, Lord, for thy servant speaketh." But faith itself is born of listening: So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God [Romans 10:17 KJV]. If we will not be still and hear His Word, our faith starves.

The posture of a servant

Remember Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus. While Martha was busy and distracted, Mary sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word [Luke 10:39 KJV]. And the Lord said she had chosen the good part. The listener was commended, not the one rushing about.

Again and again the Lord says it: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear [Matthew 11:15 KJV]. Having ears is not the same as hearing. Plenty of people sit under the Word every week and never truly hear it. They are present, but not listening.

To listen well — to God and to people — is the posture of a servant. It is humble. It assumes the other person, and certainly God, may have something we need that we do not yet have.

So, do we listen?

So, do we? Or do we just talk, hoping the other person will eventually fall quiet and listen to us?

Listening is not weakness. It is not passivity. It is love in action and faith in practice. It is how we honour people, and how we receive from God. The world is full of voices straining to be heard and starving to be listened to. What a witness it is when a Christian simply, genuinely, patiently listens.

Be swift to hear. Slow to speak. And before you carry your list to God, be still long enough to say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth [1 Samuel 3:10 KJV].

👣 Walk it out: in your next conversation, listen to understand, not to reply — let the person finish before you speak. And in your next prayer, begin in silence: open the Word, and ask the Lord to speak before you do…

Next time — from the ear to the tongue: ‘Gossip in a Spiritual Disguise!’, and the quiet harm done when soulish chit-chat dresses itself up as concern…

Key Takeaways:

• Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath — [James 1:19 KJV]
• Answering before we have listened is folly and shame — [Proverbs 18:13 KJV]
• Listening is love — looking on the things of others — [Philippians 2:4 KJV]
• Faith is born of hearing God's Word — [Romans 10:17 KJV]
• Pray like Samuel: a servant who listens before he speaks — [1 Samuel 3:10 KJV]