There is the hard soil the seed does
not penetrate and shows no growth. Second, there is the
shallow soil that shows growth. However, once there is a
drought or a storm the plant is destroyed because the roots
are unable to hold the plant in place and unable to sustain
the life of the plant. Third, there is the weedy soil. The
plant grows but it gets choked out by weeds, never bearing
fruit. Finally there is the good soil that provides a
harvest. This provides 100, 60, or 30 times what was
planted.
Keeping the analogy of soil, there are
things that we can do to soil to help with growth. Hard soil
can be tilled and broken up. Shallow soil can have rocks
removed. Weedy soil can have weeds removed. Even good, fruit
bearing soil can be fertilized to make it more productive.
When we present the gospel and it is
not received in a way that provides growth and produces
fruit, we can’t simply say, “Well, they’re bad soil. They
aren’t meant to become a Christian.” We need to work with
these people so that at some time they may be receptive to
the gospel and produce the fruit that God is looking for.
Sometimes this will work, sometimes it
will not. If every inch of soil was able to be transformed
and cultivated, we would have cities built in the middle of
the Sahara Desert. On the flip side, as an example of how
this can work, the city of Los Angeles is in a desert,
receiving less than ten inches of rain a year. And yet it is
the second most populated city in the United States and one
of the most populated in the world.
I have taken the four types of people
Jesus gives and broken them into five categories. The fifth
category? There are different types of believers – ideally
every Christian would be the soil producing 100x what was
planted rather than just 30x, not that this is a bad return
either.
The following chart lists the five types of people and a
description of each. At the top is the least Christ-like
with the bottom being the most Christ-like.
Next Section -
Types of People
