The Implanted Word — Growing and Producing

The Implanted Word — Growing and Producing

James 1:21

“Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the Word implanted, which is able to save your souls.”

The Word must be received by those who follow Jesus. That means welcoming it into your heart. Once it is there, it can begin to take root and grow.

Jesus talked about that very idea in the Parable of the Sower. The sower was planting God’s Word, and the soils in that story describe the hearts and minds of the people who heard the Word. Not everyone received it.

The heart must be prepared for the Word. If the heart is hard, the seed will never penetrate. If the heart is distracted by the world and drawn away by its lures and temptations, the Word will never take root and grow. The soil must be ready and willing.

Peter tells us to “long for the pure milk of the Word like a newborn baby,” so that we can grow.

1 Peter 1:23

Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring Word of God.”

It is that implanted Word that Peter is talking about — the Word deep inside our hearts. When it is growing, nourishing us, and creating something new within us, it makes the Christian different from the world around us.

The Christian possesses the greatest treasure the world has ever known: the Word of God. It is the answer to all the world’s needs, the solution to its problems, and the gift of God that can truly change everything.

Believer, you possess the Gospel — the Seed implanted by God within you to become who He wants you to be. Nothing can stop you when you let that Seed grow and produce fruit in your life.

Psalms 1:2-3

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.”

That Word saves souls. More on that next time.