You Have Become Lazy Listeners

Some thoughts on Hebrews 5

Thanks for hanging with me in this series on Hebrews and not becoming slow in hearing. What does that mean? Well, that’s what today’s article is on about. This one is based out of Hebrews 5:11-14, and as usual we will be using Scot McKnight’s The Second Testament for the passages in Hebrews.

Keep in mind that McKnight’s translations is supposed to read a little clunky. That’s a feature of the text to make the reader slow down and think about what is being said. This potentially helps eliminate reading into the passage to many of our old interpretations before we even give it a chance to tell us something new.

Concerning which the word for us is much, and tough-interpretation to say, since you have become sluggish in hearings. For being obligated to be teachers because of time, you have need again for someone to teach you the first categories of God’s sayings and have become ones having need of milk and not firm provision. For everyone who shares milk is untested in rightness’s word, for the person is an infant. Firm provision is for the complete ones, for those who, because of practice, have exercised sensibilities—for distinguishing both beautiful and bad. Hebrews 5:11–14

The Hebrews writer had some tough things to tell the audience of this letter, but they were not ready to hear what needed to be explained because they had become “sluggish in hearings” or as my friend Rod MacArthur says, they had become “lazy listeners.”

At this point in their faith journey, they should have been the ones teaching others, but now they need someone else to go over the first principles with them again. In some churches this would look like founding members attending a new members class.

Instead of dunking on the audience for being lazy listeners, I want to talk about why we might become “sluggish in hearing.”

Life Gets in the Way

The first, obvious, reason why we might become “slow to hear” is that we go through phases where we have a lot of zeal to study and phases where we simply don’t. Sometimes, or maybe more often than we would like to admit, this phase becomes the norm. We simply get out of the habit of reading, listening, or studying.

And that’s okay.

We don’t have to be always on, and punishing ourself for it is not helpful at all, and it definitely isn’t good motivation to rekindle that fire we once had.

Instead, it’s best to frame these seasons as seasons of rest. Start by reintroducing your old study habits (or new ones) slowly. Cut yourself some slack, and be kind to yourself along the way.

I go through seasons where I don’t read anything for weeks or even longer. Sometimes I can barely read a page or two before I get distracted, even if it’s a really good book. Instead of beating myself up about it, though, I try to find the thing I can focus on now, which may be a podcast or audiobook, or it could be a few good conversations with someone about a passage or something, or maybe nothing at all.

And sometimes we have the fire or the zeal or whatever, but we don’t have the energy because of work, kids, ball, church events, family, etc., etc., etc.

Dude, that’s okay.

Don’t judge yourself by the times when you are most free. That day when all of the kids were out of the house and you were totally caught up on work so you could spend three hours reading is not the bar.

Be honest with yourself and be reasonable when you evaluate your time, and you will probably see that you are not as much of a lazy listener as you think. By the way, you’re reading a blog post about a passage in Hebrews, so give yourself a break. :)

Hyper-focusing Can Lead to Lazy Listening

Sometimes, we tend to hyper-focus on one subject. There was a season when I only studied eschatology… for like four years. I had so much fun doing those studies, and if you go back on my YouTube page or in my article archive, you’ll see just how much time I put into those studies.

But then something happened.

I realized that while I was strong on eschatology, I didn’t really know what I believed about much anything else, so I started to evaluate my priorities and start looking into other areas of study. Before I say what I’m about to say, I don’t think hyper-focusing is wrong, and I believe there is a time and place for it, but it can get out of hand.

Hyper-focusing is deceiving because we give the appearance of being super on-fire for God when really we are serving ourselves.

At least, that’s what I felt like I was doing.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with getting really into one subject, but it can become a distraction from our walk with Christ.

Let me give a couple of examples.

Let’s say you play basketball. You might be a really good shooter, but if you can’t play defense or handle the ball at all, you won’t be as effective as someone who is an okay shooter but puts a lot of effort into defense and moving the ball around.

It’s kind of like those “don’t skip leg day” memes. Someone who only works out their upper body will look pretty ridiculous given enough time.

When we only study the Holy Spirit or we only study eschatology or we only study apologetics we become one-trick ponies who may justify our lack of action by pointing to our amount of time we study.

But we must ask ourselves, “Is the good fruit God wants us to produce measured by the amount we know or how our knowledge transforms our actions?”

We are Afraid of What We Might Find

Sometimes our lack of study comes from being afraid of what we might find. Can we stand to get hurt again? Can we stand to find out that something else we believe may not actually be the true?

I know this is why I’ve shied away from subjects in the past.

If we ignore it, it might just go away.

I’ve been in the place where someone heard the questions I was starting to ask and cut me off at the pass. “We don’t ask those kinds of questions.” “Well, let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater.” “Well, he asked those questions, and we all know what happened to him.”

I’m still not good at shutting out these voices.

Think about the hottest topics right now, and ask yourself the question, “Have I ever seen Daniel talk about that or address those issues?” If the answer is no, then you probably discovered what I’m (intentionally or unintentionally) strategically avoiding so I don’t get hurt again, and so I justify it by saying, “Well, that’s not a gospel issue…”

Yikes, I didn’t realize this would turn into a confession.

But this is totally understandable, isn’t it?

For those of us who have been burned by those whom we loved and trusted most, the idea of going through that again is close to unbearable. Our survival instinct kicks in, so we keep our mouths shut.

How do we beat this?

Well, what I try to do is be the kind of person that others can go to. If I can model zero judgment, total acceptance, and radical patience, then maybe I can learn to trust others too.

Other Factors and a Conclusion

For the first century Christians, their lazy listening might have come from their fear of persecution. If there is potentially a gun to your head, it can be easy to fall into the status quo and keep one’s head down. In these situations, we have to ask if the potential good we could do is worth the payoff of potentially being persecuted, and I think if we really believe in the power of the gospel, then we’ll choose persecution.

But why is not being a lazy listener so important?

The major reason is that lazy listening can create a domino effect that can have long-lasting effects. Our churches, our families, and even our world depends upon us embodying the good news of Jesus, and we can’t do that if we are lazy listeners.

We will all have seasons where we study more or read more, but being quick to hear is more about one’s attitude than one’s day-to-day schedule. So instead of beating yourself up for not studying as much as you’d like, celebrate that you have a desire to seek truth at all.