in Jesus' parable of the seed and the soils, i think it can definitely be seen that overall the western church(america, canada, australia, uk, western europe, and the rest) is very easily seen as a mostly being represented in the seed being choked out by the thorns.
Jesus gives us the meaning of this parable by telling us that the seed is the Word of God and the thorns are the cares of this world.
i think we can identify some of the thorns that are choking the church.
here are my thoughts of some of them:
1. “the prosperity gospel”- the prosperity false gospel that says Jesus wants you to be rich and have the best most-expensive everything. It's amazing how many believe this when it’s obviously not how Jesus lived (He didn’t have a place to lay his head.)
and though many christians would say they definitely disagree with this teaching, they’ll use the verses about being a good steward as an excuse for hording and even using dishonest business practices to increase their wealth.
2- “the social gospel”- another one of many problems of the church today and one of the reasons why I think God isn’t moving is that we get so focused on ourselves and our comforts and the temporal needs, we’ve missed the real issue that they are lost and going to hell.
please don’t get me wrong there is a real need people are starving; they are diseased; many don’t have clean water and need an education. And throughout the Bible we see miracles done to meet the physical needs of people.
but meeting these needs without dealing with their spiritual need won’t get them to heaven. why should we make people comfortable as they are on their way to hell?
3 - “the cool gospel”- the church especially our youth groups have fallen for this. they cater to the desires of people and try to make everything fun and exciting.
but there’s a couple of problems with this.
a- your not relying on the Holy Spirit to do the work of winning souls you’re relying on the latest fresh and cool thing.
b- what happens when they get out into the real world and it’s no longer cool to be a Christian?
see you train them to follow after what is cool and not what is of God.
listen it’s okay to have fun, but entertainment at the expense of the gospel is wrong.
4- “the political gospel”- this is probably one of the more un-thought of ones and I may even get some weird looks, but please let me first explain what i mean. i’m not saying there isn’t a need for christians to vote and to know the issues. there is a definite need. there is a definite need to stand up for truth and justice and what’s right. but… Jesus said His kingdom wasn’t of this world. politics will never save people.
yes you have to legislate morality but to a point it won’t matter because people will still break the laws and still be sinners. and even if they do keep all the laws and yet you never tell them about Jesus they will still go to hell. peoples lives won’t be changed until they are converted and convinced of God’s grace.
we must repent, to weed out the thorns.
if you have comments on these things i think are thorns feel free to respond. or if you think there are other thorns feel free to respond.