Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Good Soil

To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
- Matthew 13:12
This verse comes after the parable about the sower, which is one of my favorites. The image of the Word of God as seeds falling on various types of soil is easy to understand, and each of us can see ourselves in there somewhere, hopefully as the 'good soil'! But the people to whom Jesus originally told this parable did not understand it, leading His disciples to ask Him why He taught in parables. His response includes the verse above.

As first I did not understand Jesus' response. It seems rather harsh and unfair. So I checked my bible's notes, and discovered that Jesus is not talking about physical possessions and money, but about faith and understanding. To anyone who accepts the revealed mystery - Jesus - God will grant more understanding. Those who reject Jesus will lose what little wisdom they had in the matter.

So to understand God's Word, we must first accept Jesus, and have faith in Him. We must believe that He is the Son of God, that He died for our sins, that He rose from the dead and that He will come again. Once we have that faith, then wisdom and understanding will follow, because God will grant it to us.

Let the seed of God's Word fall on good soil in you. Then it will grow and bear much fruit.



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4 comments:

  1. I never fully understood the meaning of that either. Thanks for the explanation.

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  2. Just the other day I was thinking about how easy it would be to think Christianity doesn't make sense if one hasn't accepted the love of Christ.

    This is the first post of yours I've read, I'll defiantly be sifting through your past entries.

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  3. Lucia - this is why I believe bible study is so important. So much of what is written in the bible needs to be taken in context - if we don't understand the context in which it was written, we don't get the full meaning.

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  4. Nathan - thanks for your comment! I truly hope you enjoy some of my other posts, and that you get something out of this blog :)

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