Pulling The Weeds
How To Abide In The Vine
Jesus told a simple story about a Sower, a Seed, and four kinds of soil (Matthew 13). The Sower is Christ Himself. The Seed is the word of God. The soil is the human heart.
The same Seed is sown everywhere, but the results are very different. The invitation is not to change the Seed, but to tend the soil.
The Four Soils
In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus describes four responses to the word of God:
- The path: Birds eat the Seed and it dies. The word is heard, but never understood.
- The rocky ground: The Seed sprouts quickly, but withers in the heat. There is joy at first, but no root.
- The thorny ground: The Seed survives among weeds, but bears no fruit. The life is there, but it is choked.
- The good soil: The Seed produces an abundant harvest — thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
The Sower is generous. He scatters the Seed on all kinds of ground. Only one in four bears lasting fruit.
The Weeds That Choke
Jesus explains that the weeds are “the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things.” These do not need to be planted; they grow on their own.
Pulling the weeds is the quiet work of the disciple who wants to abide in the Vine:
- Letting go of anxiety and entrusting the day to God.
- Refusing to believe that money is our true security.
- Turning from endless distractions that slowly crowd out Christ.
Abiding is not striving. It is remaining in Jesus, the true Vine, so that His life flows through us and bears fruit.
The Great Commission and the Great Omission
Jesus sends His disciples into all the world to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28). This is the Great Commission — to go, to teach, to baptize, to obey.
But He also speaks of a Great Omission in Matthew 25, where the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner are overlooked. “Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.”
The gospel is both word and deed — Seed and fruit, message and mercy.
Business as Mission
You have the opportunity to be involved in business as mission. It is a chance to rub shoulders with poor Christians, to stand beside them as they share the gospel, and to help them feed the hungry in their own communities.
Through simple microenterprise, believers can:
- Provide for their families with dignity.
- Support their local churches.
- Reach neighbors with both the word of God and the love of God.
When you support this work, you are not only helping a business. You are tending the soil where the Seed is sown, pulling the weeds that choke, and encouraging an abundant harvest.
A Simple Prayer
“Lord Jesus, pull the weeds from my heart. Teach me to abide in You. Make my life good soil for Your word, and let my work, my giving, and my relationships bear fruit that remains.”