“But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” (John 10:5, NIV)
Golf, we know, can be learned in a variety of ways. While essential fundamentals make up any good swing, different teachers have proven methods of teaching and different learners have preferred ways of learning. For instruction to happen best, teachers and learners match up in ways that really allows the lessons to “click.”
For this reason, you may have two friends of equal ability who play together often at their local club. But one takes his instruction from the older teacher at the club, while the other takes his lessons from the younger teacher. Each has found the professional whose voice rings true for him, and both walk away from the lesson tee satisfied each time that they have found something helpful for their game.
Jesus spoke to his disciples of voices that resound in the ears of those who follow.
We must first understand that he was speaking generally of followership, for all people choose to follow some counsel, even if it is their own. But he was speaking, too, of his own voice as the shepherd of the flock that was his.
We must also see that Jesus was allowing for a difference among voices. Specifically, his own voice was the voice of the good shepherd, one so committed and loving that he would lay down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).
Then we must realize that our repeated listening to the voice of one particular leader conditions us to hear that voice and to recognize it. That word, “recognize,” can have two meanings in both the Greek and the English: (1) to know, and (2) to pay attention to or allow for. There are some whose voices we know and heed; such is the case with our Lord Jesus. But there are others whose voices we know, and though we may kindly listen to them if they are addressing us personally, we dismiss their words as opposed to the truth we find in Jesus.
This last phenomenon is anything but popular in our time. Secularists and universalists promote an acceptance that would allow many, if not all, voices equal emphasis in our minds and our hearts. If, in the common argument, “all truth is God’s truth,” we should be able to discern the good things that any person says and latch on only to those for our own growth.
Jesus’ teaching in John 10 suggested no such thing. Rather, some voices should not even prick our ears. We should hear them instantly as “not Jesus” and walk on. We do this best when we know Jesus best, when we learn the quality and content of his voice. In the end, you will not have been mistaken to listen to him and to no one else.
—
Jeff Hopper
December 4, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.