Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
Proverbs 4:23 says to keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issuings of life. Jesus, when confronting Peter after His resurrection, after that Peter had denied Him, asked Him three times, “Do you love me?” (John 21:15-17). Three times, He asked Peter if he loved Him the way He himself loved Peter, unconditional, undemanding love.
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.
1 Peter 1:22
But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5). This is what we are aiming for.
We are called to love. The verse at the beginning indicates our problem. We cannot love without God (1 John 4:7). Why? Because our souls are corrupt without Christ.
We are called to love from a pure heart, because it is only out of pure, sincere motives, that we can truly open up and be open to others, without being hurt. It is in the place of His perfect love, with no fear, that we are able to truly be brothers. This is the mark of the authentic gospel.
And, this cannot happen without sincere, gospel faith. It simply can’t. When you walk by the Spirit you do not gratify the desires of the sinful nature (Galatians 5:16). It is by faith that we come to know and believe in God’s great love for us (1 John 4:16). It is in the secret place of Him that we are able to live.
Many in the church would like to go deeper, they honestly would. Despite modern church culture being filled with the seeds of the devil with false wisdom such as “Don’t be so heavenly minded you’re no earthly good”, or “God doesn’t want us to be perfect”, or, even the more scripturally documented lies such as “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and He is pleased with them.” and “God isn’t going to judge.” (Malachi 2:17), despite these, many people would actually like to get free from the sin in their lives. Some people are actually still grieved by the sin that they cannot seem to get free from.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life.
A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.
Luke 6:40
In this life of hungering and thirsting for the Lord, when will it ever be enough? Jesus answers this clear enough:
A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!
Matthew 10:24-25
It is enough to be like him. For the slave to be like the master.
You don’t have to live a life of anger. You don’t have to just accept it. Receive Jesus. Heed His warnings in Matthew 5:21-22. You’re in danger. Only Jesus saves. Live the life of Faith and, by obeying the truth, have your soul purified so you can actually love each other with a real, genuine, and love you can feel the warmth of. That’s what the goal of the gospel is… Faith expressing itself through Real love proceeding from a clean conscience… You can be free.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
John 3:19-21
This is the verdict. Light has come. Men didn’t want it. They wanted something different.
The difference here is important. Jesus contrasts the two walks. One is those who do evil. The other is those who do Truth.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Matthew 7:24
[H]e is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
Luke 6:48
Growing up, spending a lot of time in Matthew, I sort of got the impression from Matthew 7:24, that listening to and following Jesus was kind of like considering real estate on the beach. You have sandy portions and you have rocky portions. In some places, there are only dunes, and in other places, namely, upon Jesus, there is a rock sticking out, and it is at this place that one should build their house, rather than upon the sand. The “choice”, if you will, was simply to follow the instructions or to live a different way, which, of course, would be wrong, and result in failure.
Matthew 13:3-8
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
