Reaching the Lost
Many
of us can recall from childhood the first time we planted a seed. Maybe it was in a special place in the
backyard or in a garden. As an innocent
child we carefully dug the hole, placed the seed inside, gently covered it with
dirt, maybe poured a little water over it, then went on our way looking forward
to seeing that seed grow. How many of us
returned 20 minutes, a few hours, even a whole day later, and were disappointed
to find an uneven lump of earth, with not even a hint that there was a plant
sprouting underneath? Every chance we
got we returned to that special place to see if our plant was growing, and very
often we were discouraged in finding nothing there but dirt.
In planting the
seed of Truth in the hearts of the lost, many of us still have the same
attitude. We expect immediate results
from our work, and are disappointed and discouraged if someone doesn’t respond
to the Truth right away. As ministers of
the word of God we must have patience in our work (II Cor. 6:4), with
confidence in the fact that, if sown in an honest and sincere heart, the word
will produce fruit (Luke 8:15). After we
have planted the seed, it is not for us to know or determine when and how a
person should respond. Mark 4 speaks of
a man sowing seed, rising night and day, not knowing when the seed would
produce a harvest, “for the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself.” We can plant, water, and nourish the seed,
but it is God that gives the increase (I Cor. 3:7).
God made man a
rational, thinking being. The apostles
are often described as “reasoning”, that is, making arguments and appealing to
men’s good sense and rationality as they taught the gospel (Acts 17:2, Acts
24:25). No man or woman with full
presence of mind and rationality would make a decision without thinking about
it at least a little. Consider the
important decisions you’ve made in your life such as where to live, your
occupation, who to marry; how many of us make these kinds of important
decisions overnight? Consider your own
decision to be baptized or converted.
Did you make that decision in an instant? How long did it take for you to “come
around”? It probably didn’t happen in a
single instant, but took at least a little thought and consideration before you
made that decision.
One lesson we
probably learned early on as children planting seeds was that the more seeds
you planted, the more likely you would observe growth. Speaking of the selfless giving of the
saints, II Corinthians 9:6 says, “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also
sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” Though the context here is addressing the
collection from prosperity, the principle of sowing and reaping is applicable
to the sharing of the gospel. If we, as
individuals, don’t see any results in our work of planting the seed, then
perhaps we should consider whether or not we are sowing enough seed.
We must also be
careful not to excessively tend to and feed the seeds we plant. As children, many of us poured buckets of
water on that little mound of dirt every day hoping to get a plant out of
it. Sometimes we dug back into the earth
to make sure the seed was still there.
Sometimes we gave it too much fertilizer. But a young, sprouting plant is just like an
infant, requiring gentleness and appropriate amounts of nourishment (I Cor.
3:2, I Pet. 2:2).
What a wonderfully
unique feeling that child has in first seeing a tiny green stalk of life
breaking through the soil. That child
doesn’t know anything about the chemical, biological, or botanical explanations
for how or why that seed is able to grow.
He or she just knows they put a seed in the ground, gave it water and sunlight,
and waited to see what would happen. So
must we learn patience in introducing Truth to others, and allow that Truth to
do its own work.
Jeremy Koontz
