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Luke 8:4–15
“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” (v. 15).
Jesus frequently taught in parables, using the realities of everyday life to communicate spiritual truths. In today’s passage we find one of our Lord’s best-known parables—the parable of the sower.
The parable of the sower is perhaps better titled the parable of the soils because it actually uses the quality of different kinds of soil to explain why people respond to the Word of God differently. Our Savior’s parable is grounded in typical agricultural practices of the ancient Near East, where farmers scattered seed indiscriminately throughout their fields, which were a mixture of hardened walking paths, places with shallow soil, spots where weeds and thorns were prone to grow, and areas of rich, deep soil that provided a sound environment for crops to grow and produce an abundant harvest.
In the Greco-Roman world, sowers of seed often symbolized teachers, but Jesus’ parable more likely draws also from Jeremiah 31:27–28, which speaks of God’s sowing the houses of Israel and Judah. Departing from His usual practice, Jesus provides an extensive interpretation of this parable. The seed represents the Word of God, especially the gospel, and the four different soils represent four different kinds of people. Just as soil on a walking path is packed too hard for seed to penetrate and so birds eat it up, some hearts are too hardened against the gospel for it to enter at all and Satan snatches it away before they can hear and believe (Luke 8:5, 11–12). Some soil exists just as a very thin layer over rocky ground. Seed can develop shallow roots here, but because there is no depth, the plant will not live very long. Similarly, some people profess faith joyfully but then quickly fall away because their hearing and believing did not go deep and their hearts were not truly renewed by the gospel. Testing under external pressure proved that their faith was incomplete and inauthentic (Luke 8:6, 13). As for the seed whose growth was choked out by thorns, the spiritual parallel is those who hear and profess belief in the gospel but then are overwhelmed by worldly cares and an inordinate affection for the things of this life (Luke 8:7, 14). Finally, some seed falls on good soil and bears much fruit. This depicts what happens when the gospel takes full root in regenerate hearts. A full harvest of faith and obedience that endures to the end results, producing abundant spiritual fruit (Luke 8:8, 15). Jesus’ point is that people respond differently based on the receptiveness of their hearts, and only God can make our hearts good soil for the gospel (John 3:1–8).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Today’s passage reminds us that the state of the heart determines whether the Word will be received. Only God can make the hearts of sinners into good soil, so let us pray that He will do that in those with whom we share the gospel. Remember also that the Word cannot take root if we do not expose ourselves to it. So let us attend regularly to the reading and preaching of the Scriptures.
for further study
- Deuteronomy 30:1–10
- Ezekiel 11:14–21
- Mark 4:1–20
- John 6:44
the bible in a year
- 1 Samuel 30–31
- Luke 17:20–37