Boldly Planting Seeds of Truth

By:  Dale Weckbacher

Ephesians 4:15

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

(ESV)

How a message is presented is as much, or often more important than the message.  This was evident in the recent election in the United States with many supporting the campaign promises of the eventual winner Donald Trump but having reservations about voting for him due to the way he often portrayed his message.  Despite this however, Donald Trump did garner enough electoral votes to become the 45^th President of the United States. 

I remember as a child going to the theater with my parents and a group from our church to see the movie “The Greatest Story Ever Told.”  This is a great movie telling the story of the life and ministry of Jesus when he was here on earth.  It is indeed a telling of the greatest story ever told and in my opinion is told in love, encouraging viewers to follow Jesus. 

Unfortunately, just because a message of truth is delivered in love does not guarantee it will be positively received.  However, this does not mean we do not deliver the message in a loving manner for when we have a powerful message of truth, like the Gospel to deliver, we should and are commanded by Scripture to deliver it (Mark 16:15).

Messages of truth lovingly delivered can be,

1)      Eagerly accepted and shared – John 4:1-45 gives us the account of Jesus discussion with a Samaritan woman.  What makes this discussion unique is that Jewish people would usually go around Samaria and Jewish rabbis were forbidden from talking with women who were not their wives.  By even having this conversation, Jesus was violating Jewish tradition so it is safe to assume his intention was to lovingly deliver a message of truth to this woman despite her sin.  After a lengthy discourse where Jesus revealed the woman’s sin, she left her water jar, ran into town, and told everyone about her encounter. 

2)      Thoughtfully considered and accepted over time – John 3:1-21 gives us the account of Jesus discourse with Nicodemus.  Nicodemus, a Pharisee, and ruler of the Jews came to Jesus in the night so that his fellow Pharisees would not know what he was doing.  He believed Jesus to be a teacher from God due to the many miracles He had performed (John 3:2).  After this declaration of belief, Jesus challenges Nicodemus, an educated religious leader by telling him a person must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).  This opens the door to a discussion about the need for a person to experience a second birth of the Spirit concluding with the most popular verse in the Bible, John 3:16.  The discourse in John, unlike Jesus’ discourse with the Samaritan woman, does not conclude with Nicodemus accepting the message.  However, we later see Nicodemus bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes to prepare Jesus’ body for burial after His crucifixion (John 19:39).  We also see Nicodemus coming to Jesus defense in John 7:50-51.  Jesus message of love delivered in John 3:1-21 was a seed planted that later grew into Nicodemus’ acceptance of the message.

3)      Rejected – In Acts 19:1-10 we have the account of Paul’s encounter in Ephesus.  As was his usual custom when coming to a new city, Paul would enter the synagogue and share the message of the Gospel with his fellow Jews.  Being a Pharisee, the Jewish leaders would openly welcome Paul and he would lovingly share the message that Messiah, Jesus Christ had already come and through His sacrifice provided complete salvation from sins.  In Ephesus, Paul had spent three months reasoning and persuading some of his fellow Jews about the message of truth but there were some who became stubborn and rejected the message.  However, this rejection by some of the message lovingly delivered did not stop the establishment of a strong church in Ephesus.  Even if our message, lovingly delivered is rejected, we must not allow this to discourage us for even in the seeds of rejection, a seed of truth is planted that may result in some believing the message. 

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus taught his followers that we must be like farmers planting seeds.  Some of those seeds will immediately spring up and die when exposed to the heat of the sun.  Some of the seeds will fall among thorns and be choked off but some seeds will fall on good soil and grow into a productive crop (Matthew 13:1-9).  The message of the Gospel is our seed and we must plant this seed in a loving manner through our words and how we live our lives and leave the reception of the message up to God.