Everyone who is of the truth

Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." – John 18.37

So how do the subjects of Jesus’ non-earthly kingdom act? Jesus tells us here as He is describing His kingdom. ‘I was born to be a king,’ He said, ‘I came to bear witness of the truth.’ And then He talks about us – ‘Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.’

Jesus uses a similar illustration when He talks about being a shepherd and that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.

The truth is the same in both cases. There is a challenge for all of us here. King Jesus’ true subjects are the ones who hear His voice.

What this means is that those of us who are truly His, those who know Him as the truth, are the ones who hear His instruction. It is kind of like our King has a special message for His subjects while we are here. Others may know of Him and gain some profit, only His subjects really hear His voice and are able to apply it to our lives here.

The problem is what we do with His voice when we hear it. He says all true believers hear it, so that can’t be the problem.

The problem is mentioned above. When Jesus talked about us as His sheep He added something else – ‘my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.’

The true test of what we do when we hear something is how we follow up. We often talk about ‘selective hearing’ with kids when they seem to hear what they want to hear. Sadly we too can be guilty of selective hearing. Sometimes we too can hear only what we want to hear when it comes to following Christ.

Everyone who is of the truth hears His voice. What do we do after that?