SEED, SOIL AND FRUIT

Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. – Matthew 13:5.

We’ve seen the strong link between root and fruit. However, the root is meaningless without the soil. In the parable of the sower, the Lord Jesus described what happens when the seed of God’s Word is sown on various kinds of soil: wayside, stony place, among thorns, and good ground. He compared different types of soil to a person’s response to God’s Word. Some seeds were picked by the birds, others started to grow but were choked by weeds, and some grew up instantly but had no soil to further their growth. Seeds that fell on good ground “yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (v.8).

This is the lesson of the parable: It is the state of the soil much more than of the seed that determines the degree of fruitfulness. The Lord interpreted the seed as the Word, and the soil as the human heart. There can be absolutely nothing wrong with the seed of God’s Word, the incorruptible seed “which lives and abides forever” (1Pet.1:23). The seed is the same; the soil makes the difference. The soil must be right for any kind of seed to germinate and grow properly.

According to the parable, seeds that land on rocky, stony soil with “not much earth” grow quickly but die even more quickly under the sun’s intensity (vv.5-6). This depicts a person who has heard and received the gospel, but in whose life the message doesn’t take root. When tribulation comes, such a person quickly falls away. It illustrates the reception of the Word that is devoid of understanding and therefore lacking in obedience.

Praise God for the heart that is like the good ground. The parable concluded on this positive note: “He who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the Word and understands it, who indeed BEARS FRUIT” (Mt.13:23). God’s desire is for your heart to be like this good soil in which He can plant His Word with its promise of fruit; a heart that is open to Him every day and in which the Word He plants takes root downward and bears fruit upward; in which the Word flourishes with fruit!