Our first daughter ate everything we put in her mouth. She would gobble it up and then beg for more. On the other hand, our second child pockets food away like a chipmunk, holding it in her cheek. She will sit in her high chair, toddle around the house, and beg for stories with a large bulge protruding from one side of her face. In these circumstances, she refuses to chew and swallow until we coax her into it.
In a similar manner, all who hear the Word preached have a “bite” put into their mouths. It is then their choice to act on the Word. Will the listener apply the Word to her life, as a child ingests his food? Through repeated, intentional action, the hearer becomes a doer as the “bite” works its way through our whole person and into our daily habits. This is not a clinical, intellectual consideration of the truth, but deep meditation that reaches to and seeks to change the desires of the heart.
A child that merely holds food in her mouth and does not swallow it does not receive any nutritional value from her meal. In the same way, those who hear the Word may think they will profit from it, but they do not receive the blessing that comes from obedience. Unless a listener becomes an effectual doer, she is only a deluded, forgetful hearer.