The people who put this title in missed it. The titles are not inspired but were added for clarity but this one they didn’t quite get right. It calls this section “The Parable of the Sower.” But it’s not about the sower, it’s about the soil. What kind of soil are we?
And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
Wow, isn’t this the truth? We don’t have to look far to see how this is exactly how some receive the message. For some it’s taken away from lack of understanding. For others as soon as hard times come they turn away from God and get angry, believing he should protect his followers. And then there are those who do not mature because of the concerns and/or pleasures of this life. But then there are those who produce fruit and I love the word here. My translation says it this way:
“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”
By persevering.
By patience.
By bearing fruit.
What is that fruit? That fruit is two fold.
First it’s a multiplication of itself. When a kernel of wheat goes into the ground, it produces many more grains like itself. Those grains are then consumed and also can be replanted. A good crop will reproduce greatly.
In Christ in the kingdom, our job is multiplication. This happens through evangelism, teaching and making disciples.
But there’s a second component to fruit. And that is its life giving qualities.
And then there’s something like an apple or an orange or a pomegranate. It produces life through its flesh in addition to having seeds for reproduction.
That flesh is the fruit of the Spirit that gives life to those around it.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (Gal 5:22-23).
This is the fruit that we grow. We grow life in the Spirit and we also grow reproductive capacities through the seeds.
The question is what kind of soil are we? Are we the kind that falls away when hardship comes? Or gets distracted and choked out by the things of this world? Or turn away because we do not commit to understanding? Or are we the righteous fruit that is mature and has great yield?