Heart Check: Half-Hearted “Thorns in the Soil”
For the past few weeks, we’ve been taking a closer look at one of Jesus’s most powerful teachings recorded in the Bible. There are three accounts of this lesson: one in Luke 8, another in Matthew 13, and the other in Mark 4. These accounts all tell the same parable that Jesus taught, the Parable of the Sower. In this teaching, Jesus describes four different conditions of soil and how well a planted seed grows within that soil. The point of the parable is that the growth of the seed is dependent on the condition of the soil around it.
The seed in this story represents the Gospel Truth, God’s Word, the invitation to salvation through Jesus Christ. This Truth contains all the power it needs to grow within itself; however, the fruit it comes to produce is dependent on the condition of the soil, or rather the heart and life of the hearer.
Thorns in life will try to choke out God’s Word.
7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Mark 4:7 NIV
18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Mark 4:18-19 NIV
Jesus describes a soil that is filled with weeds and thorn bushes, and as the seed is planted and begins to grow, these thorns choke out the plant so that it bears no fruit. Just like a gardener or farmer must remove weeds for a bountiful harvest, we must remove these “thorns” from our lives to see the fruit of the Gospel.
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 1 Peter 2:11 NIV
There are many things that could be a “thorn” to choke out God’s Word in our lives. I think with how Jesus describes the thorns as growing up with the seed while remaining unfruitful, the best identity I can give to these thorns would be false promises of the world. Things that take up space on our priority lists that can’t keep the promises they make to satisfy our souls. Sin struggles, busyness, finances, relationships, materialism, the list could go on. “Worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth” and other desires choke out God’s Word and the fruit it would otherwise produce in our lives.
Removing weeds and thorns is an ongoing process.
When Adam and Eve fell to sin, God told them about the trials and sufferings in life that mankind would now face and a product of sin in the world.
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food”
Genesis 3:17b-19a NIV
From this moment on, the presence of thorns in our lives was a guarantee. Quite literally, there are weeds and thorns that make growth difficult for the good plants we want to grow in our world. And the same is true in our hearts. Sin is the root of the issue, and it is ultimately what chokes out the growth of God’s Word in our lives. But God tells Adam in Genesis 3 that growth will require difficult labor, and only by “the sweat of your brow” will Adam see the growth he will need.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, Hebrews 12:1 NIV
This same truth applies to the condition of our hearts and the growth of God’s Word within us. It requires consistent, daily work to see the growth that we need to be fruitful. God helps us with this work, and He gives us what we need to be fruitful, we just need to put in the work. The work we put in is how we see the fruit of God’s Word grow in our lives - love, peace, hope, and righteousness in all things.
Putting Jesus first will remove the thorns.
Without Jesus, there wouldn’t even be a way for us to receive God’s Word, let alone be fruitful in our lives. Because of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection, God’s Word is available to all people. To see its growth in our lives, we must continually put Jesus first.
God doesn’t want us to go through life alone. He wants us to live in community with other followers of Jesus so that we can encourage and strengthen each other in order to walk with and invite others to Jesus. When we keep our focus, through all aspects of our lives, firmly on Jesus, the thorns wither away and God’s Word flourishes in our lives.