In today’s world we face many perils—perils of immorality, perils of anxiety, and perils of pleasure. The more you desire to have pleasure, the more anxiety you will have, and the more you will suffer. But if you are willing to have a simple life, you will not have as many pleasures nor as many anxieties.
We should not follow the trend of today’s world. This trend includes worldly traffic, pleasure, and anxiety. Because of this trend, it is difficult for many to live a long life. As the result of following the trend of the world, many are exhausted. They are busy with the worldly traffic and with earning money to have more pleasures. The result is more anxiety, more disease, and more death. We Christians should be delivered from the trend of this age and take another way. If we do not take the way of the world with its traffic, pleasures, and anxiety, our hearts will be released and available for Christ. Then our hearts will be occupied by Christ.
As an elderly person, I can testify that the secret to good health is taking Christ as everything. Because I take Christ as my everything I am released from the trend of this world, and my heart is free for the Lord. This makes it possible for Christ to grow within me.
In 8:16 and 17 we have the parable of the lamp: “Now no one having lit a lamp covers it with a vessel or puts it underneath a couch; but he places it on a lampstand, in order that those who come in may see the light. For nothing is hidden that shall not become manifest, nor concealed that shall not by all means be known and become manifest.” According to the parable of the sower, we need to grow. According to the parable of the lamp, we need to shine. We should shine brightly as a lamp without any covering. We should be lamps in an open place shining so that others may be enlightened. Therefore, we need to grow, and we need to shine.
The lamp which shines light indicates that the Man-Savior’s ministry not only sows life into His people, but also brings light to them. Hence, such a divine ministry issues in the believers as luminaries (Phil. 2:15) and the churches as lampstands (Rev. 1:20), shining in this dark age as His testimony, and consummating in the New Jerusalem with the outstanding characteristics of life and light (Rev. 22:1-2; 21:11, 23-24).
In Luke 8:18 the Lord says, “Take heed therefore how you hear; for whoever has, it shall be given to him; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have shall be taken away from him.” This verse is concerned with how we hear the word of the Lord. Luke 8:18 is similar to Matthew 13:10-13 and Mark 4:25.
Luke 8:19 says, “And His mother and His brothers came up to Him, and they were not able to get to Him because of the crowd.” When it was reported to the Lord Jesus that His mother and brothers were standing outside wanting to see Him. He answered, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it” (vv. 20-21). The Lord’s answer indicates that we can become the real relatives of the Man-Savior. We may become those who are truly related to Him. Through His ministry the Man-Savior was making the believing sinners His spiritual relatives who became His many brothers (Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:11) in the house of God (Heb. 3:5-6) and His many members for the building up of His mystical Body (Eph. 5:30; 1 Cor. 12:12) to do the will of God.
The most important matter in the parable of the sower is the word (Luke 8:11). We need to take care of the Lord’s word in a proper way. If we care for the word, we shall become the real relatives of the Man-Savior, and He will recognize us as such. Because we correspond to His word and make ourselves one with Him, He will identify Himself with us. This is the reason He says in 8:21 that His relatives are those that hear the word of God and do it. The Lord lived a life according to the word of God, and now we also are living a life according to His word. Therefore, we and He correspond, and there is an identification between us.
In 7:36-50 we see that we were sinners who have been forgiven through our faith in the Savior. Because our sins have been forgiven, we love the Lord. The forgiveness of sins through faith and our love for the Lord issue in a life of peace. As we live a life of peace, we follow the Lord and minister to Him. As those who serve Him, we need to grow in life so that the Lord may grow in us. We also need to shine. The result is that we become the Man-Savior’s real relatives. In Paul’s words, we become His members. The Lord’s relatives are His members. He is the Head, and we are His members, the members of His Body. This means that we are the same as He is in life and nature. He lived the life of a God-man, and now we may live the same kind of life today.