Mar 7:16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
Mar 7:16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
Christ repeats this phrase about eight times in Gospels. Most recently in Mar 4:9.
As we say in the earlier posts referenced above, Christ uses this phrase to tell people that his meaning isn't obvious and that people must hear the words, understand them intellectually, and connect them emotionally with their lives.
Here, this phrase becomes a deeper play on words because it is self-referencing. The immediate context is the previous verse. In that verse, Christ says that nothing that comes from the outside can communicate what a person is (or "defile him" in the KJV). This includes the words that people hear. So what a person hears does not define them, including simply hearing the word of Christ or the religious leaders that Christ is condemning in the larger context of this lesson.
Christ wants us to hear and understand his words, but he is also saying that hearing words alone does not communicate what we are. It is just a starting place. If may change our understanding, but only God can see that unless we act on that understanding. It is what we do that communicates who we are and what we believe to other people. It is what comes out of us, not what goes in.
"Ears" is from ous (ous), which means "ear" and things that resemble an ear, such as a handle on pitchers, cups, etc.
"Hear" is from akouô (akouo), which means "hear of," "hear tell of," "what one actually hears," "know by hearsay," "listen to," "give ear to," "hear and understand," and "understand."
