Luke 8:14

HALF-HEARTED CHRISTIANS

‘And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.’

Luke 8:14

Our Lord would have us understand that besides those hearers of the Gospel who are simply hard-hearted, and those others who are shallow, there is yet a third class, who come next to those who are true and devout followers of Him, but are still a long way behind them, and it consists of those who have sufficiently good ground to grow a crop of good works for the glory of God and the benefit of men, but who are so taken up with other things than God’s works that they bring forth no fruit to perfection.

I. Half-hearted Christians.—I am not speaking of those who reject the Word, and think it too hard, and put it away from them as a task they are unwilling to undertake. I am speaking now of half-hearted Christians, those who would serve God if they could serve the world at the same time, those who will not seek the Kingdom of God first, in the hope that all other things will be added to them. Against this temper it is that our Lord warns us; and therefore we have to think, each one of us, what are our thorns and briars, what are the things which prevent us from bringing forth fruit to perfection—why there is so much straw and so little ear.

II. Causes of half-heartedness.—And, if we think, we shall find that our Lord, when He names the causes which hinder the soul’s growth, puts under these heads nearly all the things which interfere with us when we try to bring forth fruit to God. For, observe, what we have to do in order to do anything well is to give our whole mind to it. If we are distracted by anything else, if we find our thoughts wandering when we ought to give our undivided and fixed attention to the work in hand, we do that thing badly, and nothing so badly as a thing which concerns our salvation.

Take, for example, what our Lord puts as the first thing which draws people away from religious duties. See, He puts first of all ‘cares.’ Then in the middle He places ‘riches,’ and at the end He puts ‘pleasures.’

(a) Thus people who are very poor, and who have to work very hard for their living, must consider how to get their bread; they often spend the principal part of their time not only in labouring for their bread, but in thinking how they may labour effectually for it. They are in this way choked with the cares of this life, and so bring forth no fruit to perfection.

(b) Then again, when we have riches, sufficient at least, if not in abundance, then comes in the thought how to increase these riches, how to lay them out to the greatest worldly advantage; and so our thoughts are taken up with these things to the neglect of more important duties.

(c) And then, the very deceitfulness of riches is a fresh trouble, a fresh thorn. They will not do for us what we thought and wanted. Riches will not give us health, riches will not make us learned, riches will not give us cleverness, and therefore the very fact of these riches disappointing us, the fact that we do not get from them what we want, is another thorn.

(d) And then, the rich are tempted to put aside God by thinking how they can spend their money so as to enable them to enjoy life selfishly, instead of using it to the glory of God and the good of their fellow-men.

—Rev. Dr. Littledale.

Illustrations

(1) ‘In the African bush there is a kind of thorn well known to the colonists which the Dutch, with grim humour, call “Wait-a-bit.” It is barbed in such a manner that if you are once entangled in it you cannot free yourself by any sudden wrench, but you must cut your way out carefully with your knife, taking time over it, if you wish to get away. That is the history of our own thorns in our daily life.’

(2) ‘In Eastern lands they use thorns as fuel. If we use our thorns, our daily worries, as fuel to make our devotion boil all the warmer, we shall use them all the more wisely. But we must cut them down before we can do so. To this end we need, on the one hand, a resolute determination not to be worried with our daily cares, and, on the other, a perfect trust in God.’

(3) The little griefs, the petty wounds,

The stabs of daily care,

Crackling of thorns beneath the pot,

As life’s fire burns, now cold, now hot,

How hard they are to bear!

But on the fire burns, clear and still,

The cankering sorrow dies;

The small wounds heal, the clouds are rent,

And through this shattered mortal tent

Shine down the eternal skies.