The Word of God is likened to seed. It is sown into our hearts through the message of God to His people. Like natural seed it produces a crop.
That harvest, if the true Seed is sown, will always produce good fruit. Our life is the garden, but we need to make sure that the seed sown in that garden is good seed.
Jesus let us know that the adversary can also sow seed. There is good seed and there is bad seed. We need to be in control of what is being sown into our lives and who is doing the sowing.
Good seed
The good seed is the Word of God, so we have to be well positioned for it to ‘take,’ to germinate, develop, and produce fruit.
“Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Matthew 13:18-23
The seed is the Word of God in this parable. Jesus speaks of several environments in which the seed is received. To grow properly the seed needs to be planted in good soil. The poorer soil is on the fringes of the field, on stony ground, or where weeds can choke and overwhelm the seed’s progress, or in hard ground where the roots can have no depth and be easily pulled up.
The good soil is where the Word of God is is received and understood, and where we give it enough time to be nurtured and cared for, and where it can produce fruit.
Bad seed
Jesus also spoke about bad seed. He reminded us that the devil will sow what Jesus called tares amongst the good seed. Those tares are the devil’s own crop. It may, for a while, even look like the good seed, but it is not. It cannot produce the good fruit that God’s Word produces.
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then doesit have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Matthew 13:24-30
We need to know what kind of seed is being sown into our lives. The Word of God, we know, is good seed. It is the will of God being sown into our hearts, by teaching, by preaching, by reading, by study, by acting on the Word and by being disciples of the Word.
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Matthew 12:33-37
You can see here that Jesus is speaking of the words that enter our heart. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” “A tree is known by its fruit.” If we have good words embedded in our hearts we will speak good, and we will produce good fruit, but if we have bad seed sown in there we will speak evil.
That is how we can tell what has been sown. If our words are not lined up with the Word of God we will need to repent, that is, have a change of mind, will and direction spiritually.
We will need to uproot and reseed our patch. We will need to abandon the things of the world, from whence comes the bad seed, and allow the Word of God to take its place in our field, replanting our garden.
Responsibility
There are many ways in which words are sown into our heart. We have to be aware of what is going in so that we have power over what comes out. If we allow bad words to be sown into our lives we will be slaves to them. If we allow the Word of God to be sown we will see the good fruit Jesus speaks about.
Better to be a servant of truth than a slave of sin.
We have control over our destiny in this regard. God won’t force us to put good or evil words into our lives. He won’t manipulate us into allowing good or bad seed to be sown. He has put the Word before us which is good seed and we are responsible for taking it in.
We have to be aware of our surroundings and make sure we are not letting the poor seed, the tares, the non-producing seed into our lives.
We need to be conscious of allowing the Word of God to be in the assentive in our lives so that we can be confident that good seed is being sown at all times.
God is offering us a beautiful, fruitful garden. Being good soil is the starting point, right in the heart of the field where the ground is prepared, fertile and soft to receive the seed.
Photo by Alexandre Perroto for Pexels
