Other Things

This past week at men’s group, we were looking at Mark 4:1-20. It might be familiar to some of us as Jesus’ parable of the sower. In the passage, Jesus talks about 4 different kinds of soils, yet it really isn’t about soil. He’s talking about people and how we respond to God’s word when it is spoken into our lives. The weedy, thorny soil remains with me. In fact, the issues that I’ll be sharing with you remain with me on many days.

When Jesus explains the parable, He says that some seed is, “sown among thorns. They are those that hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” Mark 4:18-19

Do you ever wonder who this might describe? Do you ever also wonder exactly what parameters would identify a life lived among these kinds of thorns? Do you ever wonder whether or not this person is saved?

What really sticks with me is when Jesus refers to the desire for “other things”.

It’s the kind of statement that really leaves a lot of room for condemnation. What are “other things” anyway? Asked another way, what aren’t “other things”? It would be entirely different if Jesus was referring to sinful things, but He doesn’t. It would be easier if he was merely referring to things that are of the sinful nature wouldn’t it?

After all, that’s clear isn’t it? For the believer, group sex is out. Got it. Partying like a rockstar is out. Got it. Sorcery doesn’t belong. Got that too. Gossip, slander and deceit don’t belong in the life of the redeemed. Easy stuff.

Other things…..

Where does it begin, and where does it end? Could it be chocolate? Lego? Corn? Nintendo? Shoes?

As we live out our calling, I find that there are two twisted reactions to passages such as these. We can take “other things” to be EVERYTHING, or to be NOTHING.

Everything

Jesus is everything. Anything that does have Jesus stamped on it has no place in the life of someone who knows Him. If you go on a holiday, it needs to be a missions trip. If you are shopping for groceries, you had better use it as an opportunity to witness. Unnecessary home renovations are always completely worldly. Any music you listen to needs to literally sing the praises of Jesus. If you’re going to watch fireworks, use it as an opportunity to hand out Gospel tracts. (or Gideon Bibles. My tract of choice.) Any “other things” in our lives are from the Devil and need to be eradicated from our lives if we’re going to properly live out a Biblical faith. Fun is bad. Work for Jesus is good.

Nothing

Gi-Joe is fine. There is nothing wrong with having action figures right? Jesus certainly isn’t referring to sports. Go Leafs go! They are going to win the cup this year. I think I’ll book my room for the playoffs this week. If He had meant something specifically, then He would have said it as it is. Snowmobiling is fine, so I can head out as often as the ground is covered in white. Fishing, golf and video games are good to go. Nothing is bad and off limits, so this passage really doesn’t hold any weight over our lives. It’s just there to allow legalists to try and abuse our conscience. Fun is good. Fundamentalist who are always trying to win souls to Christ are bad.

If you are a fleshly creature, I likely won’t be of much help to you. To be honest, I’m not so sure I have it laid out for myself. The Everything crowd is right. They are also wrong. The Nothing people are right. They also happen to be wrong.

If we’re going to make any sense of this, maybe it’s best to simply think on what Jesus says and what He doesn’t say. This is not a lesson on morality. This particular soil might not even be dealing with the individual’s salvation. The plants that sprung up didn’t die. We’re merely told that “it proves unfruitful”.

I know what some of you are thinking. So. Does it mean that kind of soil isn’t saved? We worry so much about that in Christian circles don’t we? Let’s face it. If the whole thing about hell and fire are true in the literal sense, we want to make sure we end up on the good side of eternity. Whether or not this particular type of soil is ‘saved’ is debatable in my opinion.

What I Know

As much as we wonder about salvation, there is more to a believing life than being saved. Having fun isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but Solomon told us that, “A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time.” Ecclesiastes 7:4 I know it’s foolish to be predominantly concerned about our pleasure, no matter what form it takes on. My personal bent is towards the comic book reading, video game nerd crowd. Maybe you’re the sports fan or the book worm.

I also know that it’s possible, in light of eternity, to waste the days that we are given.

1 Corinthians 3:13-15
New Living Translation (NLT)
13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.


There is a kind of faith to be lived, which escapes the fires of hell, but was a complete waste of time. That type of faith that we read about here in Corinthians isn’t one which is meant to be admired. It’s the kind of faith, that on judgment day will “suffer great loss”. Don’t tell me you want that. Making it through the fires of judgment is a good thing on its own. It’s much better than burning up. However, it isn’t the most desirable condition. Imagine that you make it through, but everything else in your life was burned up. I bet you can handle your workplace being incinerated, and maybe even your life savings. What about your friends? What about your family?

It isn’t that we have the power to control the eternity of those we know. For my part, I can handle my friends and family living apart from Christ for all eternity, so long as I have been faithful in living out my faith among them. If that is what they really want, who am I to stand in their way? I can NOT handle the thought of having my friends and family torched because I was too busy about other things, to be a willing witness for Christ.

What I Do

I’m not your God. So make up your own mind. Here is how I regulate what place “other things” have in my life. Follow this riddle. I don’t buy many other things, but I have other things. Specifically, I have a lot of video games, but I don’t buy video games. How can i have video games if i don't buy video games? The people in my life get those things for me because they know I like them.

Does that mean I’m in the clear? Not exactly. That’s just the way I’ve chosen to manage those “other things”. I’ve told you before. I’m not your God and I stopped trying to be the answer man a long time ago. What if your wife won’t buy you a Wii? What if you never get to have fun ever again? Maybe you will never have fun ever again. Considering a life that suffers great loss on That Day, would it be so bad to miss out on some of the pleasure in this life?

We have fun in our home, but our lives don’t revolve around where we’re going to eat this week, what we’re going to buy on the weekend or planning our getaway. We laugh. We listen to Bill Cosby. We sit down for 15 minutes every evening to look into God’s word and talk about its bearing on our lives. That’s what I do. Is it completely right? :-/

If There Was A Conclusion…

I believe we do a disservice when we gravitate either towards Everything or Nothing. I think specifically of my pastor who has taken up golf in these past few years. He tells me, “Sometimes in ministry, you can get so busy serving that your life and your family fall apart.” There has to be a place for at least some “other things”.

At the same time, I feel strongly that we also do ourselves a disservice in living out a life which thinks, “It’s all good. God is in all things so we don’t have to be concerned with anything that literally carries the name of Jesus.”

Finding the ‘middle road’ isn’t exactly the answer either. It comes down to this; What kind of Jesus have you believed in? Maybe you don’t believe in any kind of Jesus at all. In that case, you might as well eat drink and be merry, because tomorrow you die anyway. We’re here for a good time. Not a long time. Right? If you believe in a Jesus, maybe He’s a fairy tale Jesus, who really hasn’t prepared us for any kind of work in the world. He came, He taught some nice life lessons, but He’s dead and certainly doesn’t have any calling on our lives, let alone the means to communicate His vision to us.

Or perhaps you serve the living Christ. He has both a call over your life, the means to communicate the vision and the strength to empower you to that end. Are you walking in step with Him?

In the end, each of our work will be revealed for what it really is. If we have no care whatsoever for the role that “other things” play in our lives, how serious are we about doing our part in these evil days? I’ve been honest with you…..

What place do you give to those “other things”?

Kevin

PS. If you have it all figured out, you really didn’t like this post. Did you?