WHAT ABOUT THE WEEDS?
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
It's hard for us to really speak clearly about trying to grow good seed in the soil of Christian lives without also talking about the weeds that are bound to grow right along with the good grain. In the last blog I mentioned the parable of the four soils that Jesus taught about in the book of
Matthew 13:10-23. I now want to qualify some of what Jesus had said to his disciples about the real meaning of that parable from Christ himself. When Jesus spoke in parables like this one he was not trying to hide the truth from those who were sincere in their hearts because those people who were really looking for truth in a spiritual way were understanding the illustrations that he was giving. To the majority of people however, these were only stories without any real meaning to them. This allowed Jesus to give spiritual food to people who were hungry for it while at the same time preventing his enemies from trapping him sooner than they might otherwise have trapped him.
This makes us even more responsible to use the word of God correctly. When people reject Jesus, their hardness of heart gives away and renders itself useless to any kind of understanding that it may have had to the real message that the son of God was sent here to deliver to us. That is the reason that I made the statement in the last blog about how easy it is to agree with Christ when we have absolutely no intention of obeying what he teaches. In many ways we tend to allow the difficulties of this world to win over the true message that Christ is giving when we denounce the worries of this life or the deceitfulness of the attitudes of those who throw sin and our face with no seeming consequence in this world. There is however, a judgment day, and time when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. If you had everything you could want in this life but forfeited eternal life with God, with those things be so desirable?
Those four types of soil represented different responses to God's message. People responded differently because they are in different states of readiness. Some are hardened, others are shallow, others are contaminated by distracting worries, and some are receptive. The question in my mind is how has God's word taken root in your own life? What kind of soil are you? Jesus gives the meaning of this parable in verses 36 through 43, but the parable that I am talking about is the parable of the weeds. In Matthew 13: 24- 30 Jesus told them another parable; "the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted informed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner servants came to him and said, sir didn't you so good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from? An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, do you want us to go and pull them up? No, he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds you may route up the weed with some. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, then give the weed and bring it into the barn." All of parables in this chapter teach us about God and his kingdom. They explain what the kingdom is really like is supposed to our expectations of. The kingdom of heaven is not a geographic location, but the spiritual realm where God rules and where we share in his eternal life. Our part in joining the kingdom is when we trust in Christ as our Savior.
The young weeds and the young blades of wheat look very much the same and you cannot distinguish between them until they are grown and ready for harvest. It is the same with the hearts of men and women who lay claim to be Christ, because at first we cannot tell the difference in new Christians. We have to wait until we can see the fruit of their spirit, and how that fruit is affected by their relationship with Christ. We have weeds who are living and growing right beside good grain. These weeds will end up showing who they are by the fruit they bear. The same is true with those who are genuine in seeking after God. God allows unbelievers to remain for a while, just as a farmer allows weeds to remain in his field so the surrounding weed isn't uprooted with them. At the harvest, however the weeds will be uprooted and thrown away. Guns harvest, or his judgment, of all people is coming. We are to make ourselves ready by making sure that our faith is sincere. I want for each one of you to know how important it is for us to both be sincere in seeking after God, and to bear the good fruit brought about by our individual relationships through God's Holy Spirit. It really is not a matter of salvation, but it is time for us to use discernment as we deal with one another in the church so that we can begin to understand where the weeds are, and work even harder to develop the good grain from Jesus Christ. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
It's hard for us to really speak clearly about trying to grow good seed in the soil of Christian lives without also talking about the weeds that are bound to grow right along with the good grain. In the last blog I mentioned the parable of the four soils that Jesus taught about in the book of
Matthew 13:10-23. I now want to qualify some of what Jesus had said to his disciples about the real meaning of that parable from Christ himself. When Jesus spoke in parables like this one he was not trying to hide the truth from those who were sincere in their hearts because those people who were really looking for truth in a spiritual way were understanding the illustrations that he was giving. To the majority of people however, these were only stories without any real meaning to them. This allowed Jesus to give spiritual food to people who were hungry for it while at the same time preventing his enemies from trapping him sooner than they might otherwise have trapped him.
This makes us even more responsible to use the word of God correctly. When people reject Jesus, their hardness of heart gives away and renders itself useless to any kind of understanding that it may have had to the real message that the son of God was sent here to deliver to us. That is the reason that I made the statement in the last blog about how easy it is to agree with Christ when we have absolutely no intention of obeying what he teaches. In many ways we tend to allow the difficulties of this world to win over the true message that Christ is giving when we denounce the worries of this life or the deceitfulness of the attitudes of those who throw sin and our face with no seeming consequence in this world. There is however, a judgment day, and time when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. If you had everything you could want in this life but forfeited eternal life with God, with those things be so desirable?
Those four types of soil represented different responses to God's message. People responded differently because they are in different states of readiness. Some are hardened, others are shallow, others are contaminated by distracting worries, and some are receptive. The question in my mind is how has God's word taken root in your own life? What kind of soil are you? Jesus gives the meaning of this parable in verses 36 through 43, but the parable that I am talking about is the parable of the weeds. In Matthew 13: 24- 30 Jesus told them another parable; "the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted informed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner servants came to him and said, sir didn't you so good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from? An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, do you want us to go and pull them up? No, he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds you may route up the weed with some. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, then give the weed and bring it into the barn." All of parables in this chapter teach us about God and his kingdom. They explain what the kingdom is really like is supposed to our expectations of. The kingdom of heaven is not a geographic location, but the spiritual realm where God rules and where we share in his eternal life. Our part in joining the kingdom is when we trust in Christ as our Savior.
The young weeds and the young blades of wheat look very much the same and you cannot distinguish between them until they are grown and ready for harvest. It is the same with the hearts of men and women who lay claim to be Christ, because at first we cannot tell the difference in new Christians. We have to wait until we can see the fruit of their spirit, and how that fruit is affected by their relationship with Christ. We have weeds who are living and growing right beside good grain. These weeds will end up showing who they are by the fruit they bear. The same is true with those who are genuine in seeking after God. God allows unbelievers to remain for a while, just as a farmer allows weeds to remain in his field so the surrounding weed isn't uprooted with them. At the harvest, however the weeds will be uprooted and thrown away. Guns harvest, or his judgment, of all people is coming. We are to make ourselves ready by making sure that our faith is sincere. I want for each one of you to know how important it is for us to both be sincere in seeking after God, and to bear the good fruit brought about by our individual relationships through God's Holy Spirit. It really is not a matter of salvation, but it is time for us to use discernment as we deal with one another in the church so that we can begin to understand where the weeds are, and work even harder to develop the good grain from Jesus Christ. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Comments
Post a Comment