Thought from today’s Bible reading from Matthew 13; Luke 8.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus described four types of soils and how the seed responded to each one. The seed represented the word and the soils represented the different types of hearts that would come into contact with the gospel. The good soil – which stood for the good, honest heart – yielded a crop.
“And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty” (Matthew 13:8).
Jesus explained this to His disciples to be sure they understood the meaning.
“And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understand it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty” (Matthew 13:23).
The characteristics of those with good and honest hearts are simple:
- They hear the word.
- They understand the word. (It is implied that they believe the word as well, because they take the next step – obedience.)
- They obey the word. (This is implied by the fact that they bear fruit.)
Bearing fruit required action on the part of those who have heard, understood, and believed the word. But notice that the amount of fruit that the disciples would bear would vary – “some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”
There is a lesson we need to take from the varying levels of fruit being produced. That lesson is simple: not everyone is going to produce the same amount of fruit. We all have different abilities, opportunities, circumstances, etc. We cannot allow ourselves to become discouraged if we see others who seem to be more fruitful than we are. On the other hand, we should not arrogantly look down upon those who seem to not be as fruitful as we are.
We simply need to do whatever we can in our service to God. We must use our unique abilities, opportunities, and circumstances in the best way that we can to serve the Lord and admonish others to do the same.
Tomorrow’s reading: Matthew 8:14-34; Mark 4-5
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
