Matthew 7:24-27, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
The children’s Bible song based on this passage plays through my head when I counsel from Matthew 7:24-27. I am often tempted to break out in song in counseling! While this song focuses on the obvious differences between the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand, I think it is important to also study the similarities these men share.
In verse 24 and verse 26, Jesus talks about everyone who hears His words. Jesus states that both the wise man and the foolish man heard the Word of God. Today, we have the great privilege of not only having the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount or even the Gospels, but we have God’s complete, authoritative, infallible, inspired testimony, the Bible. We must consider Jesus’ point: both the wise and the foolish may hear and read God’s Word. We can easily deceive ourselves into thinking we are wise simply because we have read the Bible and heard biblical truth. This however contradicts Jesus: it is possible to hear truth, even directly from the mouth of the Lord, and still be foolish. James 1:22 warns against the self-deception of merely hearing truth: “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” This is a message I and the residents at VOH need to continually remember and then apply. Simply being at VOH, attending church, reading good books, going to counseling and even memorizing Scripture does not guarantee that we will become wise women. If we and those we counsel want to grow to become wise, we cannot content ourselves in merely hearing. Rather, we need to take the step of acting on Jesus’ teaching and personally applying biblical truth, thus proving ourselves doers of the word.
Christ calls us to wisdom by walking in obedience to his words, and not being hearers only. Follow the steps of the wise man and build your life through hearing and acting on the words of Jesus.