Volume 48 Number 1 January 2006
If ever there was a time in the history of the world that the parable of the sower was descriptive of a society, surely it is applicable to our generation. Without question, there have always been souls with hearts as hardened as a trodden pathway, who intentionally close their minds to the message of the gospel and do not allow it to penetrate their thinking lest it should interfere with the life pattern that they have chosen for themselves. Likewise there have been those, who like the seed that fell on stony ground, seemed to accept the truth, but soon departed from it because they did not have the determination and will to make whatever sacrifices were necessary to live a Christian life. There have also been those who begin the Christian life, but whose lives become so cluttered and busy with other things that just as thorns can choke out a farm crop, their devotion to God was smothered out by worldly affairs. Thank God for the good souls illustrated by the good soil, those who have faithfully served the Lord through good times and bad.
In our culture today it is quite obvious that the hearts of many are as hard as a pathway. Like the corrupted minds described in
Romans 1:28 they do not like to retain God in their knowledge. They publicly oppose reading the Bible, prayer and the public display of Bible quotations. They would like to have “in God we trust” removed from our currency and “one nation under God” taken out of the pledge of allegiance. They scorn government officials who speak respectfully of God or who encourage our people to pray.They want recognition and respect for homosexuals and lesbians, and other forms of immorality and perversion. Premarital sex and consensual sex are commonly accepted. It seems that in general their main objective is to turn people away from the standards that God has ordained for our lives. The pitiable fact is that as the Bible is trampled underfoot more and more of our society becomes as a hardened pathway.
Concerning the stony ground and those who fail because of lack of depth, it really isn’t too difficult to live a Christian life in America today. We are not persecuted, imprisoned and put to death for being Christians as were many early saints. We must crucify the old man and give up all ungodliness, profanity, drinking, smoking, gambling and every vice and sin. We become social misfits in the world but in reality, our sacrifices seem insignificant. In view of what the Lord sacrificed for us and the reward offered to us if we wholeheartedly follow Him.
I am deeply concerned, even to the point of alarm, concerning the likeness of our society today with the thorny ground. I fear that there may be many unaware that their souls are starving with malnutrition while the busy affairs of life are strangling their spirits. Though we are baptized believers and members of the church, there is danger in the desire for money, and bigger houses, and fancier cars, and clothes, and recreation, and pleasure. If these things are the focus of our time and attention, our souls are in jeopardy.
When Jesus said,
“Seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33) that is exactly what He meant! We are instructed to love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind (Matthew 22:37) and warned, “Do not love the world or the things in the world (I John 2:15), and again, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). Is there any part of these commands we cannot understand? Or is it simply that we tend to ignore that in reality the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the love of pleasures are like thorns choking out our spiritual life. Will we stand before God in judgment like Laodicea, rich and having need of nothing, but in truth being wretched, poor and naked, because we adorned ourselves here below with perishable things but neglected robes of righteousness?May God help us all to be aware of all the strategies of Satan, and strive to be good productive soil in the Master’s cropland.