“The first service that one owes to others in the
fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with
listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to
listen to them. It is God’s love for us that He not only gives us His Word but
also lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we
learn to listen to him. Christians…so often think they must always contribute
something when they are in the company of others, that this is the one service
they have to render. They forget that listening can be a greater service than
speaking.
Many people are looking for an ear that will
listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are
talking where they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his
brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing
nothing but prattle in the presence of God too. This is the beginning of the
death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual
chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words. One who cannot
listen long and patiently will presently be talking beside the point and be
never really speaking to others, albeit he be not conscious of it. Anyone who
thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually
have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own
follies.
…There is a kind of listening with half an ear
that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an
impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting
for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person. This is no
fulfillment of our obligation, and it is certain that here too our attitude
toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God…But Christians have
forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who
is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should
listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.”
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich
James 1:19 "Know this, my beloved brothers:
let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger."
