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Teaching In Parables - Mark 4
Teaching in Parables - Mark 4
In Mark 4 Jesus tells the parable of the sower. This is one of the few parables that Jesus then explains (vs. 14-20, 23). The seed ‘is’ the word of God, the soils are the hearers. The word doesn’t change but the soils are different.
The ones ‘along the path’ never produce fruit for the Devil takes away the word. How? First by simple distraction whereby people are so intent on ‘living’ that they have no interest in spiritual things. Secondly by false teaching about God and the Bible. God doesn’t exist? The bible is just a book written by men? There is no real spiritual existence? So these people never give an ear to the word of God.
The ones on the rocky ground do hear the word and receive it with joy. They even endure for awhile but give up and lose their faithfulness when they must endure hardship and persecution for being Christians.
The ones among the thorns also give hearing to the word. They too are too busy with the world and its ‘riches’ to seek eternal life. They hear for awhile but then the voice of the word gets choked by worldliness.
The ones on the good soil hear, believe, endure, and produce fruit unto godliness. They don’t all produce the same amount and to the same extent for they are all different. Faith produces ‘babes in Christ’ and then it (and they) grow in their faith. They too are faced with living in the world but they realize there is more to life than materialism. They too are faced with the misleadings of the Devil but they trust God and His word. They too are persecuted for their faith but remain faithful to Him who called them by the gospel.
Jesus then ends this by warning: "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” And ... “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (vs. 23-25).
You are responsible for the kind of soil you are. You prove what kind of soil your are by your response to the hearing of the word. Be not forgetful hearers but doers of the word (James 2:21-25). Hugh DeLong
