The text sets forth in the words of the Lord Jesus the ideals that the Apostle Paul communicated to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16: “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”

In our previous study of the Parable of the Sower, our Lord Jesus used the parable to describe believers who heard the seed of the word, and that seed falling into good ground, brought forth fruit in keeping with the new life of the seed. Paul describes that as the fruit of the Spirit – one fruit, nine flavours we like to say – in Galatians 5:22–23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Paul usually has something to say about the conduct of the real believers in every letter in the New Testament. These can take the form of lists of sins that have been put aside, lists of good behaviours Christians now display (hopefully), or even encouragements to walk in those worthy behaviours (“walk in a worthy manner” or like that). This text seems like that to me, following hard on the heels of such a gospel parable.

I broke the text down like this:

KV22: Pay Attention to Your Life and Doctrine

22: “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.”

21-23: Light Is Not Meant to Be Hidden
24-25: Consider Your Own Standards

This is nothing less than strong encouragement to be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:9 says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”) and display those fruits of Gal. 5:22-23 to the world as a living testimony to our Lord Jesus. That said, let’s look into the text.

KV22: Pay Attention to Your Life and Doctrine

22: “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.”

The title is intended to reflect the advice of Paul to Timothy in 1 Tim. 4:16, which we have already looked at. After the Lord made the distinction between those who would not receive the gospel for one reason or another and those who would and would bear its fruit in varying quantities, it stands to reason that some instruction on what bearing that fruit in public would mean to the individuals who would bear His name. The Lord is not telling some great secret that He wants kept silent forever. He begins with an analogous statement of that kind, and it is a perfect time to get into the text.

21-23: Light Is Not Meant to Be Hidden

The Lord Jesus begins with a statement about what to do with the most simple and indispensable piece of furniture that would be in every Jewish household – a lamp. The text is more descriptive, so let’s jump in here.

21: And He was saying to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand?”

The most important thing to bear in mind here is that the passage is about being a faithful witness to Jesus. If you can keep that in mind, the passage sorts itself out a fair bit. This verse begins that statement.

In his commentary series on this chapter, John MacArthur brings out that the lamp was a small pitcher or saucer type lamp with a handle on one side made of a clay-like substance called terracotta. Maybe you’ve seen those almost orange clay plant pots. Those are typically terracotta. That lamp would be filled with oil and have a floating wick on the top of the oil. They made bases that could raise said lamp off the floor or table to be above the room to give maximum light. Now let’s read the verse.

A lamp is not bought to be put under a basket or under your bed, is it? This is a rhetorical question, the answer of which is made plain by the question itself—no, of course not. It should be put on a stand. We know this is an analogy, because the Lord of Creation Himself is probably not talking about the proper use and care of lamps. So what is He saying?

He is saying that those who have received the gospel (in this analogy, the light of the lamp) are not to hide it; they are to allow it to be displayed. This will allow others not only to see the light, but use the light to find themselves in relation to the light, and maybe, consider receiving the gospel for themselves. Consider what it says in Proverbs 6:23, “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life…” Jesus makes Himself to be the light of the gospel in John 1:4: “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” With that in mind, this verse is connecting with the idea that faithful recipients of the gospel will not hide it, but will shine, so to speak, for all to see. What they see is usually their sin in relation to the shining light of the gospel, and as I proved to a congregation on Sunday, that isn’t a bad thing.

Let’s move on.

22: “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.”

Here, the Lord is telling us all something like what was said in one of the commentators: “I have privately expounded to you these great truths, but only that ye may proclaim them publicly; and if ye will not, others will. For these are not designed for secrecy. They are imparted to be diffused abroad, and they shall be so; yea, a time is coming when the most hidden things shall be brought to light.” (Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 69.)

In the parallel text in Matthew, in Matthew 5:14 it adds the critical detail, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden…” It is clear there that He is speaking to His followers. He has not saved us to become a kind of “holy huddle,” as I have heard it described. Neither has He called us to ascetic isolation like a cloister of monks. He has called us to display the fruits that the seed of the word produce in us. He has called us to display our light so that men may see by it. Some will not like what they see. Some will. Either way, nothing will remain secret; it will become known, like it says in Matthew 10:26, “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.”

Is the statement both an encouragement to live transparently as a witness for Christ and a warning to avoid spiritual hypocrisy? I think so. Next verse.

23: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

This is a repeat of Mark 4:9, “And He was saying, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’” Something that is repeated twice fits a Jewish poetic pattern that is meant to emphasize a thing said. Remember last time, we looked at the fact that Jesus knows we all have ears. He isn’t talking about our physical ears. He’s talking about our spiritual ears, the ears of our heart (according to John Piper). When the Word is preached, these hear more than just the words spoken. Rather they hear the compelling truth that transforms the hearer into the image of Christ, not just wisdom in a general sense.

What our Lord Jesus is saying here is that our spiritual ears need to always be engaged so that we will hear His wisdom and truth from the Scriptures, and they will help make our hearts even more fruitful to produce that crop of the fruit of the Spirit. That this truth is repeated emphasizes the importance of what is being related to us. As it was then of the utmost importance to the disciples, it is still imperative that we carefully consider the implications of being a fruitful doer of the word, not a mere hearer, as per James 1:22, “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”

In this thought unit, it seems to me that our Lord is telling us to be faithful witnesses for Him. That is the gist, anyway. Next paragraph.

24-25: Consider Your Own Standards

This section is specifically about how you hear the Scriptures, and nothing less. Although the principle applies to other things, it is specifically about how you hear what the Lord commands you from the Scriptures. He is not looking for how you listen to the people who “have a word from the Lord for you” that they cannot show you from Scripture or exegete to you from the pages of holy writ. Such individuals are modern day Montanists, and even Tertullian was carried away by their folly. Our standards must be the righteous standards of Scripture, or be the same thing as having no standard at all. Let’s jump into the text and see what that means.

24: And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.”

Here is the place where our Lord connects this warning and/or encouragement about careful listening to the broader theme of hearing that ran throughout the parable of the sower we looked at last time. It is talking about more than just passive reception of what is said, it is about what enters your mind and how you approach it. Maclear says, “According to the measure of your ability and diligence as hearers, ye shall receive instruction, and be enabled to preach to others.” (G. F. Maclear, The Gospel according to St Mark, with Maps, Notes and Introduction, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1893), 57.) Jesus is saying, “pay close attention to what you hear.”

Your commitment to receiving Jesus’ teaching will be rewarded with corresponding insight of your own. This is a real-world application of the phrase, “God will show it to you.” There are conditions on that process, which operates kind of like a reciprocal exchange: what you put into your careful and active listening will determine the measure of understanding you will receive. You have to be serious enough and attentive enough to care about what you listen to, and how you listen to it. Don’t allow competing concerns, like the anxieties of life or persecutions, or the troubles that come everyone’s way, or immediate pleasures, distract you from pursuing listening as well as you can to the truth of God’s word.

This is particularly urgent when we consider the competing voices of the world, and all of the distraction and misdirection the enemy uses to take us off track. What you attend to is of the utmost importance. Worldly or false teachings, especially those that make immediate gain a priority, can throw even interested parties off the gospel scent, as it were. We need that genuine faith that has a steadfast trust in His word to “hold on” to truth and not let it go under pressure, instead valuing His truth above anything else.

The promise the Lord makes here in the verse is that those who listen well will receive an abundance of wisdom and will continue to grow in Christ toward that conformation of character we talked about in Romans 8:29 when it says, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” Those who neglect that careful and diligent listening with our spiritual ears run the risk of losing that abundance of wisdom, although if such an individual is a saved person, they will not become unsaved. Barely saved is still saved, but our Lord has so much more for those who will follow Him and really hear. Next verse.

25: “For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

This seems to be a statement made with both believers and unbelievers in view. Both groups can be distracted by things like anxiety or persecution, and so on. However, think about this: false disciples are characterized by a lack of fruit, are they not? Certainly we have seen this over the years. The parallel statement in Luke 8:18 shows the principle and meaning of Jesus: “So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.” The JFB commentary says that there is no real difference between this “having” and “seeming to have;” if it hangs on a person loosely and is not taken hold of for its proper use and end, it is both theirs and not theirs, and so has the possibility of being stripped away in the end.

On a related note, MacArthur makes this point: “False converts (as illustrated by the rocky and weedy soils) may claim to have spiritual life, but in reality they do not possess it. They may profess to know God, but through their works they deny Him.” (John MacArthur, Mark 1–8, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2015), 216.)

And just as there are false followers of Jesus, there are false teachers of Jesus. I like MacArthur’s analogy here, in how these false teachers scatter a corrupted seed. Just as there are false followers, there are false evangelists. I saw a “gospel” presentation this week by serial adulterer Carl Lentz and his “wife” (I got the impression she isn’t very happy). Dan Long, in his online analysis of his presentation, rightly said that there was no real gospel presented. There was no mention of how we are all complete reprobates before salvation finds us, no turning away from sin, no real repentance, just some religious call to align your own interests with God’s. I can’t say I was surprised, but I have to agree. There was no gospel there, and I suspect that is because Carl Lentz has never truly appropriated the real gospel. Both false disciples and false teachers will be judged by God, and we will leave it at that.

On the other hand, real believers will find their joy in sharing the real gospel with others with the heavenly knowledge that obedience in these things will bring heavenly blessings both here in this world and in the heavenly world to come.

It is not my point to tell people they are going to hell, but the reality is that we are in that position by default. It says in John 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” The word “judged” there means condemned in the sense that sentence has already been passed.

I can hear the objections, but that is the facts of the case. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and that’s it. That word all? It means “all.” The complete set. All of us, including you and me.

However, our Lord Jesus was God and man at the same time. He came from heaven to become human for the express purpose of dying to pay the price for the sins of everyone, and all those who will accept that reality and turn to Him in obedient repentance and faith will be mercifully granted eternal life with Him. That’s what happened, and He extends that grace to you. All you have to do is obediently ask forgiveness for your sins and forsake them (the bible word for that is repentance), and then believe that Jesus paid for YOUR sins by His death on the cross (that’s called faith and is the same thing as belief). This will make you want to tell others about what He has done for you, but that’s okay. If that’s something you’d like to do, we can help. Drop us an email at Pa*******@**********on.com. We’d love to help.

That’s what I saw in the text this time!

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