"Take heed therefore how you hear."
- Luke 8:18
 
All who preach and teach the Word of God carry a great responsibility. It is a solemn thing to stand before men and to speak in the name of God. "Take heed..unto the doctrine," St. Paul wrote to young Timothy. Every preacher is in duty bound to give heed unto doctrine. One day he must give account as to whether or not he preached the Word in it truth and purity.
 
But you ask, what about us hearers? Have we no responsibility? no accountability to God? Indeed we have. When Christ had delivered His message to the Jews, He warned them: "Take heed how . . .

"Take heed therefore how you hear."
- Luke 8:18
 
All who preach and teach the Word of God carry a great responsibility. It is a solemn thing to stand before men and to speak in the name of God. "Take heed..unto the doctrine," St. Paul wrote to young Timothy. Every preacher is in duty bound to give heed unto doctrine. One day he must give account as to whether or not he preached the Word in it truth and purity.
 
But you ask, what about us hearers? Have we no responsibility? no accountability to God? Indeed we have. When Christ had delivered His message to the Jews, He warned them: "Take heed how you hear" In the Parable of the Fourfold Soil upon which the seed fell Jesus drives home the responsibility of all those who hear the Word of  God.
 
Christian friends, when we have heard or read the truth, the question arises: What will we do with it? Will we accept it or reject it? live by it or ignore it? The Word of the living God is a living Word. It will do something to us. It will either bring us to faith and keep us in the faith, or it will increase our unbelief and resistance to truth. It will either quicken or harden our hearts. It will be to us either a savor of live or death. 2 Cor. 2:16. With the privilege of hearing or reading the Word goes the responsibility of making the right use of the Word. The Savior's loving warning: "Take heed how you hear." "Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves" James 1:22.