📖 Biblical Definition
Christ's seed-and-soil parable in Matthew 13:1-23 is the only parable He explicitly interprets at length. The seed is the Word of the kingdom. Four soils represent four hearers: (1) the wayside — the Word is heard but not understood; the wicked one snatches it. (2) Stony ground — the Word is received with joy but has no root; tribulation brings withering. (3) Thorny ground — the Word is choked by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. (4) Good ground — the Word is heard, understood, and bears fruit thirty-, sixty-, or hundredfold.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
SOWER, n.
expand to see more
A scriptural parable of Christ; the sower and the seed.
📖 Key Scripture
Matthew 13:3 — "Behold, a sower went forth to sow."
Matthew 13:18 — "Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower."
Matthew 13:22 — "The care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful."
Matthew 13:23 — "But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity counts decisions; Christ counted by soil.
expand to see more
The sower's parable rebukes any conversion-counting metric. Three of the four soils receive the seed and produce no fruit; only the fourth bears fruit. The Word does not return void (Isa 55:11), but the fruit it produces is in the good-soil hearer. Modern altar-call counts often include all four soils equally; the Lord's harvest counts only the fourth.
Examine your heart soil. Are you a wayside hearer (the Word never lands)? Stony (received with joy and quickly abandoned)? Thorny (choked by the cares of this world)? The cure is not effort to be good soil but the Lord's plowing. Ask Him to break up the fallow ground. The same seed produces hundredfold harvests in the soil He has prepared.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek roots below.
expand to see more
G4687 — speiro — to sow
G4690 — sperma — seed
Usage
"Modern Christianity counts decisions; Christ counted by soil."
"Three of four soils receive the seed and produce no fruit; only the fourth bears."
"The cure is not effort to be good soil but the Lord's plowing."