Weedy soil can also consist of people
who appear to be very genuine Christians. They can be very
active in church and may have been so for many years. They
may even appear to be more active than some true believers.
However, what these people do, they do not do out of a love
for God. Weedy soil works in the church and in the community
because it is the “socially responsible” thing to do. In
short, they are active in church because ultimately they
feel good from helping others. These people will likewise be
choked away when they no longer get as good of a feeling
from helping at the church. Something more socially
important may arise, or there may be a problem in the church
that negates the good feeling they used to get.
Matthew 6:24 tells us that no one can
serve two masters. Often the best way to deal with weedy
soil is to draw a line in the sand. You either serve God, or
you serve something else – what is the real priority in your
life.
Once again, our lives are an effective
witness to weedy soil. Paul writes in Phil 4:12 that he
found the secret to being content. Weedy soil is not content
because they do not have God. They try filling up the place
God should have. We can show them we are content and we can
explain why we are so.
Finally, Romans 10:9-10 tells us about
confessing with out mouth that Jesus is Lord. Weedy soil may
claim to have done so. I can confess the sky is green, ducks
give milk, and I’d make a good president. That doesn’t make
any of them true. If weedy soil is going to make a
confession, they better be able to back up their talk.
Good soil – There is absolutely
nothing wrong with good soil. A fruit producing Christian
isn’t one that needs to be fixed and they aren’t a bad
Christian if they aren’t producing as much as another one.
Keeping that in mind, we fertilize even good soil at times
to increase the production. We’ll look at discipleship in
the future in much greater depth, but I think this is the
main way that we grow more fruit from Christians.
There are two topics I would suggest
in depth study on for those wishing to grow. The first are
the fruit of the spirit. These are precisely what we want to
see from every believer and what we hope to grow from them.
The second study would be the gifts of
the spirit. No Christian should be idle but too many are
because of a lack of understanding of the way God has gifted
them. When a person better understands how they are to be
working for the kingdom of God, you can expect to see more
accomplished.
