"These [in Berea] were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." - Acts 17:11
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(4) As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. (5) Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn't deep. (6) But when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up. (7) Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants. (8) But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants bore grain: some had one hundred grains, others sixty, and others thirty." (9) And Jesus concluded, "Listen, then, if you have ears!"

Good News Bible copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society.

Jesus describes quite a number of variables here, and we could add such things as weather, insects, viruses, molds, parasites, soil quality, and seed quality.

What happens when we plant an apple seed? In due time, the seed grows into a mature tree, which produces far more than just one apple. In all likelihood, it will produce many bushels of apples for many years. The apples fall to the ground or are carried away from their point of origin—sometimes very far away in the stomach of a bird or a horse. New seeds are then deposited on the ground, and the "spreading" cycle begins anew to be repeated almost endlessly. Of course, there are some impediments to this process, but where the factors are right, both apple trees and their fruit can increase greatly.

Suppose someone plants a choice morsel of gossip into another's ear. If that sin falls on fertile "ground" (a person with all the "right" proclivities for carrying it to others without regard to consequences), who knows how much destruction can be caused! If that person tells ten others, and these in turn tell ten more, in three cycles one thousand people are involved in this sin! It is entirely possible that not even one person in that thousand would see himself as a cog in the process of spreading potential destruction!

Paul confirms this in II Timothy 2:16-17. "But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer." The New English Bible translates that last sentence as, "The infection of their teaching will spread like a gangrene." Conduct like this will bear bad fruit because human nature provides very few impediments to sin. Human nature can produce nothing else, as Paul writes in Romans 8:6, "For to be carnally minded is death." To add to the tragedy, human nature almost always drags others into its curse along the way to death.

— John W. Ritenbaugh

To learn more, see:
Little Things Count!



 

Topics:

Bad Fruit

Bearing Fruit

Fruit, Bad

Fruit, Bearing

Gossip

Increase, Principle of

Infection Metaphor

Principle of Increase

Reaping and Sowing Principle

Seed




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