Weeding The Garden, or
Always Killing Sin Lest It Be Killing You
From John Calvin's commentary on the parable of the seed and the Sower:
...just as the corn might have grown well but no sooner gets some stalk than it is choked by thorns and other noxious weeds, so the vicious affections of the flesh flourish in men's hearts and outgrow faith and overwhelm the immature power of heavenly doctrine. But although evil desires rule a man's heart before the Word of the Lord shows green, they are not seen to dominate in the early stages, but then they gradually overtake the corn when it has come up and promises to be fruitful. Therefore everyone must take care to weed the thorns out of their hearts if they do not want God's Word to be choked. There is no-one who has not a huge crop, a veritable forest, of thorns. And indeed we see how few reach maturity. Hardly one in ten will take the trouble to cut back the thorns, let alone root them out. It is precisely their manifold abundance (which should shake us out of our torpor) that is the cause why so many give up exhausted.
From John Calvin's commentary on the parable of the seed and the Sower:
...just as the corn might have grown well but no sooner gets some stalk than it is choked by thorns and other noxious weeds, so the vicious affections of the flesh flourish in men's hearts and outgrow faith and overwhelm the immature power of heavenly doctrine. But although evil desires rule a man's heart before the Word of the Lord shows green, they are not seen to dominate in the early stages, but then they gradually overtake the corn when it has come up and promises to be fruitful. Therefore everyone must take care to weed the thorns out of their hearts if they do not want God's Word to be choked. There is no-one who has not a huge crop, a veritable forest, of thorns. And indeed we see how few reach maturity. Hardly one in ten will take the trouble to cut back the thorns, let alone root them out. It is precisely their manifold abundance (which should shake us out of our torpor) that is the cause why so many give up exhausted.
posted by Compleat Mom at 9:38 AM
1 Comments:
No kidding. Calvin has helped me as much as anybody to see that to take sin seriously is not to despise grace, but is simply part of loving our Redeemer with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourself.
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