Luke 8:4-15
While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”
When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
“‘though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.’
though hearing, they may not understand.’
11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
When I took genetics many years ago, we learned a mendelien box that explained transmission of genes to progeny. That's a fancy way of saying, how do parents pass their genes to their children. This passage makes me think of that. Lets say there are 2 genes we are looking at - J is fully committed to Jesus and j is not interested in Jesus.
The parable starts out with a person who you present the gospel to or bring to church and they aren't interested. They reject it because Satan has blinded their hearts and minds to the truth. We will call them jj - they are homozygous for rejecting Christ.
Next you have the people that believe the gospel and pray the prayer to receive Christ but they are uncommitted. The typical story goes like this - "I grew up in a Christian home, got saved in Vacation Bible School and went to church and youth group whenever my parents took me. When I turned 16, I got a car and I started working for some spending money and college and missed Church a lot but came whenever I could. Then I went to college and all my friends were partying and having sex and I joined in because it was fun and the Bible really isn't relevant today anyway. I met a girl my senior year at a party and we started 'dating' and when we graduated, decided to get married. We had a child and felt like she should be raised in Church like we were because we turned out well, so now we have our children in Sunday School and we are in church and occasionally Sunday School when we aren't out camping, at soccer tournaments, or at the lake." I call this person a Jj - they are heterozygous for Christ. They have one foot into Christ and one foot out. They are lukewarm as Revelation says and John says that those will be "spewed out by Jesus". During their college years you would have said they were burned out like the rocky soil but not as adults they look like the thorny soil. Either way, partial commitment to Christ is unacceptable to Him because that means that you are still calling the shots - you are still Lord of your life not Him. Repentance means a "180", a turn from running your own life, living for yourself, and following Jesus. Jj's have not repented.
Lastly you have the JJ, the homozygous for Christ. Those that are surrendered to Jesus and He is in control of their lives. The degree to which they are filled with the Holy Spirit probably determines the amount of fruit produced.
When I took genetics many years ago, we learned a mendelien box that explained transmission of genes to progeny. That's a fancy way of saying, how do parents pass their genes to their children. This passage makes me think of that. Lets say there are 2 genes we are looking at - J is fully committed to Jesus and j is not interested in Jesus.
The parable starts out with a person who you present the gospel to or bring to church and they aren't interested. They reject it because Satan has blinded their hearts and minds to the truth. We will call them jj - they are homozygous for rejecting Christ.
Next you have the people that believe the gospel and pray the prayer to receive Christ but they are uncommitted. The typical story goes like this - "I grew up in a Christian home, got saved in Vacation Bible School and went to church and youth group whenever my parents took me. When I turned 16, I got a car and I started working for some spending money and college and missed Church a lot but came whenever I could. Then I went to college and all my friends were partying and having sex and I joined in because it was fun and the Bible really isn't relevant today anyway. I met a girl my senior year at a party and we started 'dating' and when we graduated, decided to get married. We had a child and felt like she should be raised in Church like we were because we turned out well, so now we have our children in Sunday School and we are in church and occasionally Sunday School when we aren't out camping, at soccer tournaments, or at the lake." I call this person a Jj - they are heterozygous for Christ. They have one foot into Christ and one foot out. They are lukewarm as Revelation says and John says that those will be "spewed out by Jesus". During their college years you would have said they were burned out like the rocky soil but not as adults they look like the thorny soil. Either way, partial commitment to Christ is unacceptable to Him because that means that you are still calling the shots - you are still Lord of your life not Him. Repentance means a "180", a turn from running your own life, living for yourself, and following Jesus. Jj's have not repented.
Lastly you have the JJ, the homozygous for Christ. Those that are surrendered to Jesus and He is in control of their lives. The degree to which they are filled with the Holy Spirit probably determines the amount of fruit produced.
Back to the Mendelien box. Lets say these two thorny or rocky soil people get married and have 4 kids. The box would explain what these kids, on average, should look like.
Jj x Jj
J j
________________________ So here is the interpretation. The double-minded,
half hearted, lukewarm "Christian" has part Jesus
J JJ Jj and part non-Jesus and passes that to their kids.
_________________________If both parent is like that, they will have one JJ fully
committed follower, two Jj half-hearted followers,
j Jj jj and one jj unbeliever.
__________________________
You can change the combinations. If a fully committed follower JJ marries an unbeliever jj you will get all double-minded children Jj. That only makes sense because if mom really is in love with Jesus, what did she see in a guy who doesn't even believe in Jesus. It confuses them so out of respect for their parents they ride the fence. If one parent is fully committed JJ and the other is half hearted Jj, half the kids will be fully committed and half lukewarm.
After saying all this, it probably doesn't work this way because salvation is more than genetics, but after observing Christians and Christian families for the last 50 years, I believe there is some truth to this. Oh well, I bet you never have heard this passage explained in Mendelien principles before, but that's why this is Thoughts from the right brain.
You can change the combinations. If a fully committed follower JJ marries an unbeliever jj you will get all double-minded children Jj. That only makes sense because if mom really is in love with Jesus, what did she see in a guy who doesn't even believe in Jesus. It confuses them so out of respect for their parents they ride the fence. If one parent is fully committed JJ and the other is half hearted Jj, half the kids will be fully committed and half lukewarm.
After saying all this, it probably doesn't work this way because salvation is more than genetics, but after observing Christians and Christian families for the last 50 years, I believe there is some truth to this. Oh well, I bet you never have heard this passage explained in Mendelien principles before, but that's why this is Thoughts from the right brain.
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