For ground which drinks the rain which comes often upon it, and produces useful herbs for those for whose sakes also it is tilled, partakes of blessing from God;
After the sharp warning about falling away, the writer turns to farming: two fields under the same sky, drinking the same rain, giving opposite results. So what makes ground good, and what does the crop prove about the soil?
The rain is not the variable in this picture. It falls on both fields alike; what differs is what lies underneath. One writer sets David beside Saul:
The showers that fall on both do not change, but they do show the true nature of the soil. In David, on whom the Spirit of the Lord came, we have an example of fruitful ground; in Saul, an example of a barren waste.
Ground drinks rain only if the plough has broken it up first. Hard, packed earth sheds water. So the difference between the two fields starts before the rain ever falls:
These two kinds of earth differ at the root, and the same line divides the true believer from the person who only claims to believe. To "drink in the rain," the earth must be soft and open. Where the plough has done its work, the seed planted in it will respond to the gentle rains and bear fruit. So the Spirit of God stirs and prepares, through true repentance, what is then called "good ground." The soul then takes in the fresh water of the Word of God, bears fruit, and receives blessing from God.
The verse says the crop is useful "to those for whose sake it is cultivated." So the kind of fruit matches the kind of cultivation. One writer presses this home as a question:
What kind of cultivation is God giving your heart now? It is not law, but grace. Moses was on the principle of law — the Lord Jesus was on the principle of grace; and free, happy, grateful hearts are the crop that suits such cultivation. How is your soul before God? Do you understand Him in judgment or in grace? ... But if I walk in the confidence of a son who has trusted in the salvation of God, that is the ground yielding fruit fit for Him who cultivates it.
The word "often" matters. God does not test a field with a single shower. One writer points to Jehoram, a king of Israel:
God took great pains with this man, yet we have no reason to believe that anything came of it, so hopeless is the flesh. This reminds us of the apostle's warning in Hebrews 6:7-8 ... The "rain" of God's goodness fell "often" upon Jehoram, but no fruit for God can be found in the record of his life as a result of it.
Many read this chapter and ask whether a real Christian can be lost. One writer answers straight from the picture of the ground:
Some have thought this a terrible passage. It is certainly a very solemn one. But what does it teach? That a real Christian may after all fall away and be lost for ever? There is not a thought of that in it. ... The illustration of the ground in verse 7 was plain in its application. The ground enjoyed the rain from heaven, so you could say it shared in a heavenly gift, and if it was fruitful it received blessing from God. But if it produced thorns and thistles after the rain had watered it, it would be rejected and near a curse, and its end was to be burned. It had enjoyed every advantage, but did not respond to them.
One writer lays the same test over the whole professing Christian world:
So it is now in Christendom. What is it, for the most part, but land that has drunk the rain that comes often on it, and yet bears thorns and thistles instead of a useful crop? ... The power displayed has long vanished to zero; but the awful fact is that the classes and the masses are alike departing from the truth of the gospel.
- Rain — the same goodness of God falls on every field. The shower is never what makes one soul differ from another.
- Ploughing — ground drinks only after the plough breaks it open. The Spirit works true repentance, and that is what makes a heart soft enough to take in the Word.
- Tillage — the fruit God looks for matches the way He works the soil. He works it by grace, so the crop is glad, grateful confidence, not fearful effort under law.
- Testing — the rain comes often, so years of privilege with no fruit are themselves the verdict. Jehoram's life shows it.
- Blessing — fruitful ground shares in blessing from God. The crop, not the privilege, is what marks off living faith from empty claims.
but bringing forth thorns and briars, it is found worthless and nigh to a curse, whose end [is] to be burned.
The verse ends a picture drawn from farming. Two fields get the same rain: one grows a useful crop, the other only thorns. Commentators read this as the line between real faith and mere profession. It raises the hardest question in the chapter: can someone with every spiritual advantage still be lost? (Older translations read "thorns and briers" where the ESV has "thorns and thistles".)
The rain is not what changes in the picture. The ground changes, and the harvest shows what that ground always was. One writer illustrates this with two kings of Israel, Saul and David:
We have reason to fear that some people like to carry the Christian name, to share in Christian privileges and even to aim at Christian offices, without true conversion to God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ… The showers that fall on both are the same; they only make clear the true nature of the soil. In David, on whom the Spirit of the Lord came, we have an example of fruitful ground; in Saul, of a barren waste.
The same is true of everyone who sits under the preaching. Only two outcomes follow:
One plot of ground does not repay the labour spent on it. It produces only briers and thorns, and it is found worthless… It is the same with those called Christians. They all enjoy the same outward advantages. Those truly converted are fruitful; the rest, who only profess, are unfruitful.
The word translated "rejected" is a strong one, and it turns up elsewhere in the New Testament describing people God has disapproved:
In the New Testament the word is adokimos, "disapproved." Scripture applies it to the wicked, and also to those who enter the race but fail to reach the goal (Romans 1:28; 2 Corinthians 13:5-7; 2 Timothy 3:8; Titus 1:16). Translators also render the same word "rejected." It marks out those who, despite gracious ministry, produce only what is natural to fallen man (Hebrews 6:8).
Thorns are not a neutral image. They have a history, and even their structure carries a lesson:
Thorns were the sign of the curse at the beginning. They are, in fact, as botanists tell us, abortive leaves, parts of a plant incapable of fulfilling their original purpose. Sinners are thus in this symbol naturally connected with the curse upon sin.
One writer follows the thorn from the teaching of Jesus to its worst end:
You may remember that our Lord says in the parable that some seed fell among thorns. He tells us the thorns can be the cares, the pleasures, the riches, the prosperity of this world. Anything that would take Christ's place can be the thorn. The apostle applies it here to full-fledged apostasy: giving up Christ and so becoming an absolute thorn, whose end is cursing and burning.
Does this verse describe a Christian losing salvation? One writer answers from what the apostle assumes:
All the difficulty leaves the passage once we see clearly what the Apostle assumes. He is not assuming divine life, or a divine work in the soul. He is assuming only a taste of the outward privileges of the Christian circle.
Another writer draws the line plainly:
All the blessings offered on Christian ground come to such outward professing Christians like rain. Instead of bringing useful herbs out of the ground, it brings thorns and briers — worthless, near to cursing, and then the end, to be burned. This can never be said of a true child of God.
The picture is not only about single people. One writer turns it on the whole professing Christian world:
So it is now in Christendom. What is it, for the most part, but land that has drunk the rain that falls on it so often? Yet instead of useful herbs it bears thorns and thistles. By God's word it is therefore rejected and near to a curse. Is not its end to be burned?
One writer saw himself in this verse, as the wild growth it condemns:
I remember the time when I, a wild briar, looked over the fence and across the way. I saw the beauty of the Lord's cultivated garden, and I saw how useless and hopeless my life was. I knew what the end must be for all the wild growth I was part of. I had read in Holy Scripture that ground which bears thorns and thistles "is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned."
- Same rain. The same privileges fall on every hearer. The harvest only shows what the ground always was. The Spirit of the Lord came on Saul as well as on David.
- Rejected. The word means "disapproved." Scripture uses it of the wicked, and of anyone who, after gracious ministry, still grows only what fallen nature grows.
- Thorns. They are the old sign of the curse, and growth that failed its purpose. They stand for anything put in Christ's place, and at the extreme, for giving Christ up.
- Not the believer. The passage never assumes divine life in these people, only a taste of outward privilege. This verdict is never said of a true child of God.
- Still time. The land is near cursing, not yet cursed. One writer read this verdict, saw the wild briar in himself, and can now speak of it in the past tense.