No weeds? .......... Parables 640

July 27, 1999

Dag Hammarskjold, diplomat and former Secretary General of the UN once said, “You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds.”

A modern Chinese proverb says the same thing using another analogy: “Forbidden fruit creates many jams.”

In a world of continual change, a few things stand firm. One is the truth that folly will impact our lives — just as untended weeds will ruin our rose garden.

Folly can seem harmless at first. An army officer was out hunting with his friends. While pausing for a rest, he thought he would create some excitement so touched a match to some dry grass. Within minutes the entire area was ablaze, and the men were powerless to stop it. Flames, fanned and driven by a strong wind, raged rapidly across the prairie burning thousands of acres of land, homes, buildings and countless head of livestock. But it seemed so harmless.

Folly can seem to be a quick fix for a problem, such as cheating on exams. Students who do it either fear failure or simply want a shortcut to success. They may get away with this folly for their term finals but in the trials of life, the lessons they borrowed without learning for themselves will be repeated. One way or another, life has a way of showing cheaters that dishonest shortcuts produce painful regrets.

Another folly is called “casual love” or what started out in the 60's as “free” sex. In those days, it seemed harmless and without consequence but today, in the United States in one day, over 25,000 people contract a sexually transmitted disease, or about 10 million a year. One state (Illinois) spends over 800 million dollars dealing with the effects of illicit sex. The entire nation spends billions. So much for “free” sex.

If that is not enough jam from that forbidden fruit, one statistician says that more babies are born in one year in the 90's with birth defects because of sexually transmitted disease than all the babies affected by polio during the epidemic of the 50's.

Another related folly is adultery. Marriages, families and the tender hearts of children are torn apart because someone gave in to their hunger. That folly may keep lawyers employed, but no one can claim these are positive results. Our nation’s strong family norm slowly deteriorates, replaced by one-parent homes struggling to survive.

These jams are not the lot of common people either. Royalty can fall into folly too. One evening, when King David of Israel should have been in the fields with his army, he instead gazed out over his city and saw on a nearby rooftop, a beautiful woman enjoying her evening bath. His desire led to adultery then later to murder, as he arranged for the woman’s husband to be killed in battle. From his position of power, he thought no one would know or find out — but he forgot about God.

God revealed David’s plot to a prophet named Nathan. Nathan confronted the king, and just as the Bible says, his sin “found him out.” As another prophet said, “Woe to the wicked. Disaster is upon them. They will be paid back for what their hands have done.”

No forbidden fruit is exempt from disastrous consequences. Hammarskjold stands with Scripture. Both oppose the foolish idea that we can sow wild oats without harvesting an unwanted crop. As the Chinese affirm, no one can taste, eat or even steal forbidden fruit without getting themselves in a sticky and unpalatable jam.

Reaping what you sow ..............................Parables 109

A four‑year‑old friend of mine found some seeds in the basement of his home. Since the ground was still frozen outside, he decided to plant them inside. A few weeks later, much to mother’s surprise, there along with her umbrella plant, was a six‑inch tall crop of oats!

Those oats remind me of a simple fact learned as a child on the farm: whatever you plant, that is what will grow. He planted oats; oats grew. I he planted tulips; tulips would grow, or if turnips, turnips.

I bought some garden seeds last week. Even if the package was somehow mislabeled, the seeds that germinate will be faithful to produce the same plant from which they were harvested. Can you imagine the chaos if this was not true! We might hope for carrots and get pansies, or find onions in the rock garden where the daffodils were supposed to be. Thank God that according to the Genesis account of creation, He made the plants so they would “yield fruit after their kind.” It is by His decree ‑ oats produce oats.

The principle carries beyond the garden patch. We see it in our families. Children pester one another... eventually a fight results. Parents warn them... “you will suffer for this...” hoping to prevent their minor wars; even thwart more serious consequences. But even adults find it difficult to learn that it is almost impossible to avoid consequences.

The New Testament puts it like this: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that she he also reap” (Galatians 6).

God created everything to work according to this cause/effect or reap‑what‑you‑sow principle. He says it is deception and even mockery to think that we can somehow get around it.

But we do try to get around what God says. He says we are like that because of the sin‑marred condition of our hearts. We are creatures bent on our own way, therefore we do not do the things God intended us to do.

In other words, since the seed is sinful, the fruit is also sinful. We cannot do perfect or holy deeds because WE are not perfect or holy. No matter how good our deeds may appear to us, God says they fall short of His standard ‑ they grow out of hearts that “have gone astray, each turned to his own way.” Sinful seed produces a crop of sin ‑ and we reap what we sow

God tells the sinner that it is possible to be changed, to be turned around, to go His way. He said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out... I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes...” (Ezekiel 36).

Jesus called it being “born from above.” Paul used the terms “a new creation” or “regeneration.” This new life comes through faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need His heart, His nature, before we can produce God‑pleasing righteousness.

Galatians 6 goes on to say, “...for he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

Faith may make a person new, but there are still choices to be made so the crop will be the right kind. We can either sow (do) things according to the flesh, which is the sinful human nature; or sow according to the Spirit of God. When He is in our hearts, we can choose to obey Him and to do things that please Him, things that culminate in everlasting life. Again, the crop will depend on the source of the seed.

The little boy’s mother pulled the oats out of her umbrella plant. Like sin, they were producing unwanted growth. Because she took drastic action, those oats will never produce a crop of oats.

But for those who believe in Christ and live by the Spirit, God is able to produce in them a harvest of spiritual fruit. This is a crop that cannot be pulled out, uprooted, or taken away.