INCORRUPTIBLE SEED

By Charles N. Spence, Jr.

"Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever" (1 Pet. 1:23)

Peter refers to the word of God as "incorruptible seed." This reference would be in keeping with what Jesus taught concerning the word in Luke 8:11. "The seed is the word of God." Most people know, farmers especially, that when a particular kind of seed is sown, it will produce the kind of fruit that is expected. Paul said in Galatians 6:7, "For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." No one plants corn expecting tomatoes. If someone sows wheat he will not get Lima beans. This is also true in the animal kingdom. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so" (Gen. 1:24). Dogs do not produce cats, sheep do not produce goats, fish do not produce chickens, etc. This is also true of the word of God. Once sown, it does not produce a variety of species. It produces Christians. Notice the preaching of Paul as recorded in Acts 26. Paul was sowing the seed. King Agrippa realized what kind of produce is expected to come as a result of preaching the word. Agrippa stated, "Almost thou persuadest me to become a Christian" (Acts 26:28). One becomes a Christian after having the seed sown in a fertile heart and allowing it to germinate and grow.

Today one can walk through his or her neighborhood and see the different variations of what many in the religious world would call "Christians." As one studies the word of God he will not only notice that such was not the case back in Bible times, but he will also notice that Christians were not called by some of the names that people would use today. To be anything other than a Christian is to have had sown in your heart something other than the incorruptible word of God.

There is no such thing as a hybrid-Christian in the word of God. When something other than the doctrine of Christ is sown in the hearts of men, some other kind of fruit other than what Christ expected will be produce. The incorruptible word of God is all we need to make us what we ought to be in Christ. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). "All Scripture is God breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Do not settle for anything more or anything less that God's incorruptible word.