Overcoming the Enemies of a Christian. Enemy #3: The World
Freeimages.com We have been talking about the enemies of a Christian from Matthew 13 and the “Parable of the Sower”. In this parable – the farmer is trying to plant the seed in the ground and there are 3 obstacles to that effort: the hardened soil, the shallow soil, and the crowded soil. Jesus uses this story to illustrate God’s efforts to get His word in our hearts. In verse 19 he relates the seed on the wayside to the “wicked one”, or the attack of the devil. In verse 20, He relates the stony ground to a problem with the hearer “hath not root in himself”. The last enemy is “the seed planted among the weeds/thorn bushes, that choke it out". It is described in verse 22 as the “care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches”. Let’s talk for a few minutes about this last enemy of the world. This last enemy is both an internal and external enemy. I think that the enemy of the world represents a couple of categories. The form that this enemy take