Just as sand slips so easily through your hands if you are not holding tight, so we sometimes lose truth. This is not usually a deliberate, premeditated error; rather, it is the consequence of neglect and passivity. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation” (Hebrews 2:3)? Suddenly we “awake out of our sleep” and realize that Christ had visited us and we knew it not (2).
The Word of God, in the demonstration of the Spirit, awakens the soul to a dimension of life that slips by so many. The facts of truth can become information (Gnosis) for the hearer, but the simple perception of truth needs to be received in a process of heart transference. Facts become truth imparted to the heart (kardia), so that knowledge becomes full knowledge (epignosis). Truth arrested by my soul cannot be neglected or mildly passed over.
The Bible frequently deals with dull or negligent hearers. “Ephraim feedeth on wind…” (Hosea 12:1). “The ox knoweth his owner…” (Isaiah 1:3). The following sequel of verses should be our prayer. “Teach me… Give me… Make me… Incline my heart… Turn away mine eyes” (Psalm 119:33-37). Let us be careful to stay away from neglect by living a life characterized by prayer and meditation in the truth of God’s Word.
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