Every soul is known to God before a word is even on the tongue. In Luke 8:4-18, we trace Jesus's teaching that nothing hidden will remain so not our thoughts, our motives, nor the true state of our hearts before him. This is a truth meant to strip away every pretense of self-sufficiency and drive us to the only remedy: Christ.

Jesus's command, "take care then how you hear," presses the point: how we receive God's word reveals whether the Spirit has done his effectual work within us. Fruitfulness compounds; fruitlessness compounds and neither is finally hidden from God or man.

For believers, this is a summons to repent of careless hearing and cultivate Spirit-wrought attentiveness at home and in worship.

For the unconverted, the good news remains: God did not leave mankind to perish in sin and misery, but of his mere good pleasure has provided a Redeemer. The call is not to try harder, but to confess and believe, trusting wholly in him who alone gives ears to hear.