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FOUR SOILS

Christian Life, ,

FOUR SOILS

“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering his seed, some fell along the path… Some fell on rocky soil…other seed fell among thorns…still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.” Mark 4:3-8 (NIV).

Although this is a long passage, this parable and its interpretation need to be read and understood together as one. This is a well-known story, but we can easily miss its meaning and importance. In the Hebrew way of thinking, stories were read for identification. Who am I in the story? According to Jesus, the Word of God is the seed. The soil is the attitude with which the seed is received.

Hard ground implies that beliefs and attitudes are so fixed that new ideas have no place in the mind of that person. He refuses to believe that he may be wrong and needs to change what he thinks and believes. He is not open to truth and continues to live by the lies he believes. The Word of God has no impact on his thinking, and he just keeps living the old way with his unsolved hang-ups and issues.

Shallow soil represents hearts that willingly receive the Word which begins to grow. However, the tender young roots soon meet with the resistance of a hard layer under the shallow topsoil. There is an expectation based on a belief system that this new life does not meet – and the heart begins to resist the tests that are part of the character-building God is busy with. The new life eventually withers and dies.

The third soil already has stuff growing in it. The new plants of Christian character germinate among the weeds but, since there is no room for both, and since troubles and trinkets have a powerful hold, the delicate plants of character lose their foothold and die.

The fourth ground is fertile and free of other things. The heart is open and willing to receive the truth and patiently applies it, learning to submit to discipline and receive the grace that transforms the life through a mind that is being renewed day after day. The fruit of the Spirit is being formed in the life; the character of Jesus slowly becomes real and there is eventually a full harvest of righteousness that imitates God’s character.

When we read stories like this, it makes us realise that becoming a believer in Jesus is not easy. The gospel message meets with all kinds of resistance, from what we believe already, what we expect God to be like and to do for us, our troubles and problems and even what family and friends may think of us.

To be a genuine and faithful follower of Jesus, we must deal with all these things and decide whether following Jesus is what we really want to do, because turning back from following Him is a serious decision to make.

YOU CHOOSE

Christian Life, ,

YOU CHOOSE

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path…some fell on rock…other seed fell among thorns…still other seed fell on good soil.” Luke 8:5-8.

The story of the seed and the soil tells us as much about the storyteller as it does about the story. To relate something like this meant that Jesus understood people and He knew how to understand them.

Not everyone’s response to the Word of God is the same. People’s ways of thinking are molded by many different experiences – who our parents were, how we were brought up, the influence of our family and friends, where we live, our cultural and religious backgrounds, what we experienced as children and how we interpreted our experiences as we grew up.

God’s Word is a seed, and it has the power within itself to germinate and grow, but the soil it falls into will determine whether it grows to maturity or withers and dies without producing fruit. 

This story also reveals how Jesus accepted what happened to the seed when it was planted. He placed no unfair expectations on any person’s response to His message. How they accepted and responded to His teaching was how it was. He did not bully people or try to persuade them to believe Him against their will. He allowed the truth of what He did and said to speak for itself.

He worked with those who believed Him, but He also respected the choices of those who were not persuaded. Jesus was never afraid to expose wrong thinking, false beliefs, and hypocritical behaviour but He always left people to make their own choices. He confronted people with the truth, and He confirmed the truth by what He was and did and allowed people to decide for themselves whether He was who He said He was.

The choice belongs to each person who hears Him. God’s final judgment will rest on the choices we made in this life. Jesus never forced anyone to believe in Him, but He also made it clear that our choices always take us somewhere. It is the fool who thinks that he can make the same choices that got him into trouble and have a different outcome.

Jesus IS the truth and He SPOKE the truth and He told us what the outcome would be if we choose not to believe Him. “As for the person who hears my word but does not keep them, I do not judge him…There is a judge for the one who rejects me…that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.” John 12:47,48.

Wherever we go and whatever we do after we die will depend on the choices we make now. That is how fair God’s judgment is. If we follow Jesus now, we will be with Him forever. If we choose a life of sin now, we will be forced to live in sin forever with all its terrible consequences.