Why Am I Listening?
Those of you who, like me, enjoy talking, have probably had James 1:19 quoted at you. “Be quick to listen, slow to speak.” But there are wrong and right kinds of listening.

Listening to Top the Speaker’s Story.
As a teenager, I worked in a pick-and-shovel crew with three recent immigrants from several countries in Eastern Europe. We often shared stories about our lives and I noticed that every time one of us was talking, the others all listened intently.
When the speaker stopped talking, one of the listeners would say, “In my country this happened to me and . . .” He then would tell something he experienced that was even more dangerous, more thrilling, or ended in worse trouble than what happened to the previous speaker.
These listeners were focused on their own story, which would top the current speaker’s story.

Listening for a Break and Jumping in.
As a pastor, I had preached on why believers need to get involved in some form of ministry outreach. I greeted the congregation as they left the church. Three couples stopped to talk.
“We have been financial partners of a missionary family in Africa,” one woman said. Her husband mentioned they had spent a month in Africa to help build a medical clinic, living and eating together with the African staff.
The other two couples were listening intently. I hoped to hear some ministry-experience stories from them. When the speaker paused for breath, however, the wife of one of the other couples jumped in with a vacation-in-Mexico story and how the food had made her sick.
This totally derailed the personal-ministry-in-missions conversation and deteriorated into sharing bad foreign food experiences. Yes, she had listened intently but was just looking for a break so she could tell her off-topic story.

Listening to Argue
We have all heard people arguing about sports, religion, and, of course, these weeks about politics. The listener is strongly focused on the speaker’s words, but only to pounce on something the speaker said and use it to win the argument.

Biblical Reasons for Listening
The apostle Paul expanded on what James wrote about being quick to listen and slow to speak.
“Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don’t just think about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and in what they are doing.” (Philippians 2:3-4 TLB)
The motivation for listening biblically is to focus on the person speaking, to get to know the other person better, to strengthen relationships, to meet their needs—to understand the other person; to learn what they value, what they think or feel about a situation, event or person.
Listening Biblically is listening to learn, to become wise (Prov 1:5), listening to validate the speaker, in effect saying, “You are there, you matter, you care”.
We listen biblically when we want to meet a need in the other person—to mourn with those who mourn; to rejoice with those who rejoice; to encourage the downcast; to build up the ones we listen to.
Biblical listening is other-centered listening—the kind of listeners we all like to have when we speak—the kind of listeners we need to be when others speak.