Hearing Is Not Enough

Receiving the Word with Faith and Love

Many hear the Word of God without ever truly receiving it. This was the case with Israel’s wilderness generation, whom Hebrews 4:2 describes as having heard the good news, yet it “did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” The same danger exists today. We may sit under sound preaching week after week, yet if we do not receive the Word with faith and love, there will be no lasting impact.

Westminster Larger Catechism 160 instructs us that we must “receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the Word of God.” This reception is more than intellectual acknowledgment—it is a heartfelt embrace of divine truth that shapes our affections and our lives.

Receiving the Word with Faith

To receive the Word with faith means to trust that it is truly God’s Word and to submit ourselves to it. The Thessalonian church serves as an example of this. Paul commended them: “When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

Faith in God’s Word is not mere optimism but confident trust that what He has spoken is true. This faith is essential because, apart from it, Scripture will either be ignored or resisted.

Some hear the Word but filter it through their own reasoning, only accepting what suits them. Others approach Scripture with skepticism, questioning its authority.

But true faith receives the whole counsel of God, even the hard truths, because it rests in the character of the One who speaks.

John Owen wrote of this necessity: “The mind must be spiritually inclined toward divine truth, delighting in it, or else it will neither understand nor embrace it.” (The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded)

Faith overcomes the natural resistance of the heart. It silences doubts, steadies us against cultural opposition, and enables us to walk in obedience, trusting that God’s commands are for our good.

Receiving the Word with Love

Faith alone is not sufficient; we must also receive the Word with love. Many can articulate doctrine with precision yet remain cold to its beauty. There is a difference between knowing the truth and cherishing it.

Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.” (John 14:23)

To love the Word is to love Christ Himself, for He is the living Word. A genuine love for Scripture leads to meditation on it (Psalm 119:97), treasuring it above all riches, and seeking to conform our lives to its teaching. Jonathan Edwards warned against a mere intellectual reception: “A true love for the Word of God is not merely an emotional impulse, but a deep, abiding delight in divine truth.” (Christian Knowledge)

How can we cultivate love for the truth? By praying that God would enlarge our hearts (Psalm 119:32), by reading Scripture devotionally rather than only analytically, and by surrounding ourselves with others who delight in God’s Word.

Matthew Henry reminds us: “We should hear the Word with meekness, with humble submission to it as the Word of God, and with a readiness to hear and learn.” (Commentary on James 1:21)

A love for the Word guards us against dullness in hearing. It keeps us from becoming those who listen but do not apply, those who store up knowledge but lack transformation.

Application

Receiving the Word with faith and love requires prayerful dependence on the Lord. When we hear a sermon or read Scripture, we should pray:

• For faith—that we would believe God’s promises and submit to His authority.

• For love—that we would not grow indifferent to divine truth but delight in it.

• For humility—that we would receive correction without resistance.

When we do this, we will not be hearers only but doers of the Word (James 1:22).

George Whitefield once said, “The gospel must be received in the heart, not merely in the head, for knowledge without faith is like a tree without roots.” (The Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent)

May we receive the truth of God’s Word as it truly is—the living and abiding Word that not only informs the mind but transforms the soul.