Marcos 4
Kent Hughes · Citado em PreceptAustin
Marcos 4
Hughes - In essence Jesus was enigmatically saying that the condition of one’s heart determines its receptivity to truth. The scribes had originally been given straightforward teaching which they rejected and thus they could ultimately lose the truth—it would be taken away from them. Those who receive truth and act upon it receive more. Those who reject truth will ultimately lose the bit they have. The parables were full of truth, but for truth-rejecting people, they were inscrutable. This principle is paralleled in other areas of life. Physically, if we fail to exercise a muscle, we will one day lose its use. It is the same with our intellectual powers. If we fail to use them, there will come a time when we will not be able to summon their full power. God confronts us with his truth, but if we do not positively respond to it, we will lose it. What a solemn reality for those who sit under the teaching of God’s Word week after week and do not respond to it. The writer to the Hebrews must have had these matters in mind when he said: “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left” (Hebrews 10:26). If we repeatedly hear God’s Word and refuse to respond time and time again, there will come a time when we become so hardened that we not only will not, but cannot respond. If we are believers, we must set ourselves to always respond to God’s truth as we read it or hear it from another believer or from the pulpit. An excellent spiritual discipline is to respond to truth by saying, “God, you have spoken to me, and I will do it.” We must respond to truth!(Preach the Word-Mark) AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND - This passage parallels seeing and not perceiving which also would result in divine "deafness" and inability to understand spiritual truth.
Marcos 4
Hughes notes that "These growth parables...have been subject to over interpretation. This was especially true in the nineteenth century when it was commonly taught that the gospel would keep spreading until the world was Christianized and the kingdom was ushered in. For example, toward the end of that century Sidney Gulick wrote a book entitled The Growth of the Kingdom of God. The book’s argument was that Christianity is inexorably spreading and will ultimately take over the world—so why not convert now?...Those who imagine that the kingdom can be brought in by the preaching of the gospel neglect the teaching of the mystery parables of Matthew 13, such as “the sower” (Mt 13:3–23) and “the weeds” (Mt 13:24–30), which demonstrate that the church and its rule will be neither universal nor perfect. What really put an end to such un-Biblical (though noble) dreams were the great wars—and sins—of the so-called “Christian nations.”...The Biblical realism in these two parables does not teach triumphalism (the view that one religion will displace all others), but rather the effective growth of the church and the authentic transforming power of Christ’s Gospel. (PTW-Lk) The greatest works of God often have exceedingly small beginnings. We must never despise a ministry as being too small, for there is no way to know what God may yet do with it (Haggai 2:1-9). J.C.