Third Soil Christians

I’ve spent some time recently studying the “Parable of the Sower,” found in three gospels. I’ve chosen the Mark 4 version for this blog. In it Jesus drives home the idea that our works, how we actually live reveals what and who we really love. He had this to say about the each of the groups of people he categorized and characterized by their fruitfulness- how they lived.

"Then Jesus said to them, Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?

The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word, and at once hear it with joy. But since they have no root they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word making it unfruitful. Others like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop - some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown." Mark 4:13-20

Most theologians agree that the seed of the gospel never took root in the lives of first two kinds of people described in this parable. These people are lost spiritually. Likewise all agree that people who represent the fruitfulness of the fourth soil are true, born-again Christians. But what are we to think about the two kinds of "Christians" Jesus describes in the third category of people? Those who hear the gospel, "but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word making it unfruitful." The Luke 8 version reads, "they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures..."

Are these people spiritually lost because they demonstrated more love for security, wealth, power and the good life than love for God and others? Or do they describe true born-again Christians who simply never matured to their full potential in their faith and got distracted by the pursuit of "stuff"? The vast majority of theologians I researched believe this group are not true Christians at all. Jesus taught "By their fruit you will recognize them." Matthew 7:16. For easy reference throughout this blog I'll refer to these two types of "Christians" as; Third Soil "Christians":

This passage appears to describe two subsets of Third Soil "Christians". (By the way, I intentionally used quotation marks because based on Jesus' teachings, I'm not sure they are true Christians.) The first kind of Third Soil "Christians," are people with more than enough resources, assets, time and abilities to live a God-honoring and spiritually productive life who consider themselves to be true Christians. However they are "choked by life's worries," and fears which cripple their desire to serve others. Their sin may not be materialism, or pleasure seeking. They are simply fearful of not having enough themselves to serve and give generously to others. Security, not generosity and service appears to be their god. They may appear to be virtuous because they are frugal and don't live materialistic lives.

The second type of Third Soil "Christians," are also those with more than enough resources, assets, time and abilities to live a spiritually productive life. However, they get side-tracked with either the pursuit of more wealth, or the pursuit of pleasure. As I like to put it, "The goal of their lives appears to be killing time pleasantly in warm places with people like themselves." This waste of a life isn't limited to people with lots of money. It can include any Christian who wastes their discretionary time- time not needed for work, sleep, or for the normal and required duties we all have, but spend hours every day on FaceBook, Instagram, nursing a drink, watching sports, working on their handicap, or collecting things instead of devoting their lives to doing the will of God. Wealth simply allows third soil "Christians" to waste their life more extravagantly.

Fourth Soil Followers of Jesus

These are true, born-again Christians who love God more than anything on earth who live for God and not their own pleasure, or security, but ironically in doing so find pleasure, contentment and security. They are constantly looking for ways to make God look good, or introduce Jesus to those who don't know him and make life better for others. They go out of their way to be kind, forgiving, thankful and generous to others and do it humbly and anonymously so God gets the credit and not themselves. This group is made up of true followers of Jesus, both rich and poor who passionately desire to live out this truth found in the first answer of the Heidelberg Catechism, "I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ."

Dallas Willard wrote this in “The Divine Conspiracy.” “Some professing Christians today have been led to believe that for some reason God simply wipes out our sin debt upon inspecting our minds and finding we believe a particular theory of the atonement to be true- even if we live like we trust in everything but God in all other matters that concern us. How is it possible that one can rely on Christ for the next life, without doing so in our everyday decisions to be like him in this one. Surely it is not!”

There's a reason Jesus warned, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13,14

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lod, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matt. 7:21

My conclusion: Simply having wealth does not disqualify people from Heaven who profess Christ as their Savior and Lord. It's what they did with their life, wealth and everything else they've been given that tells Jesus just who and what they truly loved most.

I read this once but can't for the life of me find the author. “It's often the rich, the educated and the religious who miss the call to truly follow Jesus because it's an offense to their sensibilities.”