The Four Soils: The good stuff.

Mark 4:1-9

And now we’re reached the end of our little journey through the parable of the sower, and although it was looking a little scary there in the middle, we can finally see some good ground. I don’t have much to say on this soil because I feel that I would just be repeating what I said in the previous posts, but there are a few things that I think could be helpful.

The final soil mentioned by Jesus is the good soil. Of it he says in verse 8, “And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” This seed produces fruit. It is deep and free of thorns. This is what we should long to be, and the power to be good soil is not of ourselves. If we want to live lives that produce fruit for the Kingdom of God we must rely on him to give us new hearts and to keep us from fulfilling the desires of our flesh. David says it best in Psalm 19 when he says, “Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.” James says that we are dragged away and enticed because of our own wicked desires. And to put the cherry on top, Paul says that we are altogether of ourselves unrighteous. If we want to bear fruit we must rely on the Holy Spirit and his regenerative work to make our hearts into the deep, briar free soil that we need it to be.

I also would like to bring attention to that fact that the seed is bearing the fruit. In all that God does, he is working to bring praise and honor to himself. Even in the redemption of his people. He is the one sowing the seed, and the seed is what is bearing fruit. Good soil without any seed does nothing. So when God uses us and we begin to see the fruit being produced in our life, we need to remember that it is only because of the grace of God that it is happening. We have to be mindful of this, so that we do not become prideful, and thus rendering ourselves ineffective in his kingdom.

The last thing to look at is verse 20. In it Jesus says that the ones who produce fruit are the ones that “hear the word and accept it and bear fruit.” We first have to hear the word. And once we have heard it, we must accept it. Jesus says some pretty harsh things in the Gospels. He isn’t always a people pleaser. He may tell us something we don’t want to hear. But regardless, we have to submit to his words of rebuke and command just a willingly as we do to his words of encouragement. If we hear it and accept it, the word of God will produce fruit, if our soil is good. And it is the branches that produce fruit that are truly members of the True Vine.

-Mitchell