Are You Dull of Hearing?

[Sue J Love]

“Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 NASB1995)

There are many people today professing faith in Jesus Christ who have also become dull of hearing, for they have closed their minds and their hearts to the truth of the Scriptures and to the truth of the gospel of our salvation in favor of a diluted and altered gospel. And they ignore many teachings of the Scriptures meant to apply to the church today, which they don’t like. And many of them are now attacking the truth of the Scriptures because what the Scriptures teach them does not agree with their adopted philosophies.

And if you are a person of faith who believes what the Scriptures teach, which are intended for the body of Christ, for us in practice, and so that is what you are sharing with the church and with the world who needs Jesus, you may find your character and your beliefs and your teachings being attacked by a number of those who profess faith in Jesus but who do not adhere to his teachings, if his teachings interfere with their preferred beliefs, practices, and lifestyles. For they like things the way that they are.

It won’t matter to them if you can show them the Scriptures, taught in their appropriate context, which teach what you are sharing and what they are refusing to believe and to accept and to put into practice in their own lives. If they have willfully become dull of hearing because they prefer the lies over the truth, or their own ways instead of God’s ways, unless the Holy Spirit gets a hold of their hearts and minds, and they repent of their dullness of hearing, they will not listen. And they may treat you as an enemy.

For so much of what is being taught as “the gospel” today is not the biblical gospel, not if taught in the appropriate context, which is the context of the whole of the teachings of Jesus and of his New Testament apostles on what it looks like if we are people of genuine faith in the Lord Jesus. So many have cut the gospel message short to make it more attractive to the world and less offensive to the ungodly who want the hope of heaven but without having to put their sins to death and without having to obey God.

So, they rest in the fundamentals of the faith, but not even in all of those, but only those that suit their preferred lifestyles. Like they will accept that Jesus Christ died on that cross to take away our sins and to give us the hope of heaven when we die, as long as it does not require that they give up their sins and their practices and that they obey God. And many pull Scriptures out of context to make them say what they do not say if taught in the appropriate context, in order to suit their own lifestyles and life choices.

Now, if we read Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4, and 1 Corinthians 10, we will learn that if sin is our practice, and not obedience to God, that we will not enter into God’s eternal rest. We will not have eternal life with God when Jesus returns for his faithful bride. So this passage in Hebrews 5 is not giving anyone a pass who chooses their sinful lifestyles over walks of obedience to the Lord. For Paul (the assumed writer of Hebrews) made it clear that faith in Jesus = obedience, and disobedience = unbelief.

So, please do not get the idea from this that you can remain a spiritual infant, and remain dull of hearing, and refuse to move to maturity in Christ, and continue in your deliberate sins and in your refusal to submit your life to the authority of Christ, and that God is going to let you into his heaven. Hebrews 6 definitely shoots that idea down. For if we are not willing to discern good and evil, and to follow good and not evil, and so we continue in sin and not in obedience to God, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

So, please know what the Scriptures teach on this subject, for they do not teach that we can make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and now we are promised forgiveness of all sins and heaven as our eternal destiny, regardless of how we live. They teach we must die to sin and now walk in obedience to our Lord, and to his commands, in practice, in the power of God. But if we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and not in walks of obedience to the Lord, then we will not inherit eternal life with God.

Broken and Contrite

An Original Work / May 13, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

I come before You, Lord, my Savior,
With humble heart and crushed in spirit.
I bow before You, I implore You,
Heal my broken heart, I pray.
Love You, Jesus, Lord, my master,
You are the King of my heart.
Lord, purify my heart within me;
Sanctify me, whole within.

Oh, Lord, I long to obey fully
The words You’ve spoken through Your Spirit.
I pray You give me grace and mercy,
Strength and wisdom to obey.
Father God, my heart’s desire,
Won’t You set my heart on fire?
Lord, cleanse my heart of all that hinders
My walk with You, now I pray.

Oh, Jesus, Savior, full of mercy,
My heart cries out for understanding.
I want to follow You in all ways,
Never straying from Your truth.
Holy Spirit, come in power,
Fill me with Your love today.
Lord, mold and make me;
Your hands formed me;
Live Your life through me, I pray.

Are You Dull of Hearing
An Original Work / May 18, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love