Jump Start # 1733

John 9:31 “We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.”

  A friend asked me to share some thoughts in Jump Start about this passage. This passage is layered with thoughts and is a great way to show the value of looking at the context. Here’s the background. Jesus and His disciples passed a man who was blind from birth. The disciples, with the common Jewish thinking of the day, assumed the man had been punished for some sin. They asked Jesus, who sinned? Was it the man or was it his parents? Interestingly, they never thought to ask Jesus if He could or would make the man better. Just a curious thought that involved no action on their part. Jesus, in a remarkable miracle, spit in the dirt, made mud, rubbed it on the man’s eyes and told him to go wash in the pool Siloam. Jesus didn’t have to do that. He could have cured the man by just saying the words. The man returned seeing. The miracle covers about three verses. The entirety of the rest of the chapter is an intense interrogation by the Jews concerning this miracle. The Jews continually refer to Jesus as a “sinner.” They question the blind man. Then they question his parents. Then they again question the man. The man is getting irritated with the Jewish questions. He asks the Jews if they want to become a disciple of Jesus? That sets them over the edge. In response, where our verse is found, the blind man states, “You do not know where He is from…and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners…” His conclusion was that Jesus could not be a sinner, otherwise God would not have heard him.

That’s the story. Now comes the question that we struggle with from this verse: Does God hear sinners? We must think this out before we shoot out a quick answer. I’ve heard folks quote this proudly in a Bible class without thinking this out.

First, if God doesn’t hear sinners, how does he hear anyone? Romans tells us that all have sinned. John tells us in this first letter, that if we say that we have no sin, present tense, the truth is not in us. That’s a problem. Does God hear any of us?

Second, although this is in the Bible, this statement isn’t from God. Jesus didn’t say this. Neither did one of the apostles. This comes from the blind man in a heated exchange with the Jewish establishment. He doesn’t quote any specific passage. This is how he sees things. This tells us that the Bible contains conversations of uninspired men. The words of Pharaoh, Herod, Nebuchadnezzar, Pilate, soldiers, servants and others are found in the Bible. These words are part of the conversation and the story. This man’s perspective may not be correct.

Third, we know that God has heard the prayers of sinners. In Acts 9, when Saul of Tarsus, saw Jesus in a vision and became blind, God sent Ananias to him. God told Ananias  that Saul “is praying.” How did God know that if He doesn’t hear the prayer of sinners? The next chapter, Acts 10, we find Cornelius, a God-fearing man, but not a Christian. An angel appeared to Cornelius and reported, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.” God heard the prayer of a man that wasn’t saved. In Jesus’ great sermon, He said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”  The person who has does not ask, seek or knock. It’s the person who doesn’t have that will do these things. To say categorically, God does not hear the prayers of sinners, is not Biblically correct.

Fourth, Psalms 66 states, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, God will not hear.”  This is probably where the blind man in John 9 came up with his idea that “God does not hear sinners.” The intention of the heart is what is important here. Cornelius was not saved, but he was God-fearing. Saul was not saved, but he was questioning and seeking. That is so different than a man who never worships, never follows the Lord, never cares about the spiritual side of things and then one day troubles come and then, and only then, he prays so that the trouble will end. Once the troubles are over, he’s back to his selfish, one dimensional, materialistic pursuits in life. He needed prayer to get him out of trouble. Once the trouble ended, he was finished with prayer and with God. His only motive for praying was selfish. He has no intention of pursuing the will of God.  He has no faith. He has no understanding of God’s word. He couldn’t name the four gospels if his life depended upon it. As soon as trouble leaves, he quickly is done with the spiritual stuff until the next time trouble comes. The fact that he prayed never changed him, moved him nor affected him. He’s not even sure who He is talking to when he offered his emergency prayer in the moment of crisis. He’s not even concerned about knowing who he is talking to. For such a person, his prayer is not heard. He is not interested in God. He is not interested in doing what God says. He simply wants a nice, smooth life with little trouble. That’s the only reason he prays. The only time he ever hears the Bible read is at a wedding or a funeral.

We pray not to just get us out of trouble. Sometimes trouble teaches us things that we need to learn. We pray to thank God. We pray to praise God. We pray to talk to God. We pray because we know, like and love God. We pray because we want to be with God. We pray because God is our Father.

Our verse today, shows us that statements found in the Bible must be understood. Who is speaking? What is the background? What’s going on? Those thoughts help us to get an understanding on the meaning of a verse. The statement, God doesn’t hear sinners, was used by the blind man to justify Jesus. How could Jesus be a sinner, like the Jews were saying, if God had heard and answered His prayer. The proof was in the eyes of the man who once was blind. He now had sight.

In a hard to understand statement, the Bible is from God, but not every word is a quotation of God. This does not mean that man has added his own words into the Bible. The Bible is a product of inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but even the devil is quoted in the Bible. God included man’s words to build the historical story behind the Bible events. Study helps us to understand this concept. This also helps us to see that just flinging out a statement of the Bible can be dangerous. If misused, if taken out of context, the conclusion may not be God’s conclusion. We could build a whole system of faith around, “God doesn’t hear the prayer of sinners.” From that, we could easily build the bridge to, “God doesn’t hear the praise of sinners.” Just a step or two more, and we get to “God doesn’t even like sinners.” None of that is true. That’s the danger of taking a statement out of it’s background and context.

I hope this has been helpful. It makes us think about that statement, “handling accurately” the word of truth. That’s our responsibility. Don’t cut corners. Don’t be sloppy in your study. Don’t assume. Be diligent. Do your homework. Dig deep. Look carefully. Lower the nets. Think things out. See the big picture.

I’d expect most of us were praying to God before we obeyed Him and were saved. I’d also expect that most of us didn’t think that was a bad thing to do. The more folks prayed to God, the better our world would be.

Roger