Good Soil

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

GOOD SOIL

Luke 8:11-15

11 "This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 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.

NIV

What can we add to these words of Jesus? None. His words are self-evident, self-explanatory, therefore there is no reason to try to find the truth here as Jesus himself tells us that truth. What we have to see as our life lesson is that we not only are, but must always remain good soil, with a noble and good heart. We have heard the word and we are retaining his words and therefore we are persevering in the word within our heart and mind, always being aware of the word in every aspect of our daily life. Then and only then by doing this, by being the good soil we will produce a crop. The question is, which Jesus does not explain, is what is the crop we produce? Is it the fruit of the Spirit? Is it more souls for the kingdom? What kind of crop do we produce? It is most likely that as the Spirit dwells within us his fruit would become a part of our life. This fruit is a crop which multiplies greatly as we encounter others who are able to enjoy the fruit we produce. The word however, produces souls for the kingdom of God. It produced us and therefore it will produce more, and as we have this word within our hearts, we can produce more souls for the kingdom. This would mean we grow in our faith, which also implies growing the fruit which represents the kingdom of God as well. The whole point is we need to always remain good soil, allowing the Spirit to plow, till and plant the word deep within, keeping it watered daily from the spring of living water, and growing such a fine looking crop that all will want to be in the field we are growing in. We must be forever good soil.