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And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 8:8)
But we need to ask: What does it mean to be productive spiritually? What is Jesus pointing us to in showing this productive soil with its overwhelming level of yield?
In verse 14, we have defined for us the failure of the thorny soil to bear fruit. The term translated mature is actually a fruit bearing term, but it has a negative attached to it. So those distracted by prosperity, passions and worry have fruit that never grows to maturity. Their faith is immature.
I used to wonder why people would shuck their sweet corn at the grocery store. I no longer wondered after I bought a bag of sweet corn one day several years ago. When I sat down on the back step and began shucking the corn, to my surprise, I found that about half of the ears were little more than leaves and silk. Oh, it had kernels on the cob, but few had filled out. The ears had only partially developed. The ears offered plenty of promise, but little fruitful maturity.
In this contrast between the immaturity of the crop in the thorny soil and the productivity of the harvest from the good soil, Jesus is speaking of the fully developed life of a disciple. In the following chapters of Luke, specifically 9, 11, and 14 Jesus will speak extensively about the cost of following him. The kind of person it will take to be his disciples … The self-sacrifice of cross bearing … The willingness of count the cost … The hard moral choices … The enduring commitment to follow Jesus wherever he goes and however hard it gets.
Paul speaks in comparable life changing terms in Colossians 1:
Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, … so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; Colossians 1:5b, 6, 10
The Productive is the person who isn’t willing to settle for a partial following, a marginal discipleship, a divided loyalty.
The Productive is all in … Nothing held back … Nothing in reserve … No holds barred … Never give up.
It is the mature faith that will not be satisfied until it has the character of Christ reproduced, and multiplying within themselves.
— Pastor Steve