According to the parable of the sower recorded in Mark chapter 4, there are four different types of people in the world:
- Roads, from whom Satan takes away the word as soon as it is scattered on them;
- Rocky ground, who hear the word and receive it with joy but don’t let it grow roots in their lives, so that they stumble as soon as oppression or persecution arises;
- Thorny ground, who hear hear the word, but let it get choked out by the worries of the world and the false promises of riches and desire for other things, so that they become unfruitful; and
- Good ground, who hear the word and accept it, so that they produce grain.
In today’s world there seem to be plenty of people who are “roads”, who are resistant to the gospel so that the good news just seems to bounce off them. There are also some people – not too many – in whom the gospel has obviously taken root and they are producing fruit in abundance. Then there are many many people who are rocky ground or thorny ground, including many people who call themselves Christians. Either they get sidetracked from following Jesus as soon as the going gets tough, or they get sidetracked by the pursuit of money or the good life or something else.
This leads to an interesting question: Do people who are “rocky ground” or “thorny ground” get into heaven, or is it just those who are “good ground”? Are people who are lukewarm acceptable to God, or will he vomit them out of his mouth?