[3] The Four Soils
The Fours Soils is an interpretation of Jesus parable of the same name using the [3] David’s Bow form of [3] The Trinity, the third systems shape of the Semantic Ontology Framework (SOF). It adapts the idea of the soils to systems dynamics in the area of personal development, spiritual growth, Discipleship, and Disciple-Making — all areas where the revelation of God in all its forms attempts to produce change and growth in human lives. When the effects of these “soils” are in aggregate, the resulting dynamics can manifest on a organizational or movement level: see [3] The Four Soils for Organizations.
According to the Frame, the different soils stand for people in the following conditions:
[low prime]
Road-Compacted Soil
Repeated trauma has created a defensive
reflex in the person so they identify all
change as risk or threat and preventing it
from entering.
[too alpha]
Rocky-Shallow Soil
Focused on the immediate and short-term
win. Moves from strategy or trend to trend seeking
the easy path but lacks substance to see growth through
and/or has hidden obstacles to letting change penetrate deeply.
[too beta]
Weedy-Entangled Soil
Focuses on opportunities and challenges presented
by the environment and therefore in line with the status
quo. Replicates the existing system and jettisons change
as irrelevant or a failure since it was drowned by distraction.
[synthesizing]
Good-Open Soil
Open (lacking obstacles) to allowing change to
take root and maintaining space for it to grow.
Embodies the growth and change necessary to
meet the situation while achieving a real and
reproducing aspirational identity.
According to the Mark version of the parable, its understanding is foundational to understanding all the parables:
He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables?
Mark 4:13 WEB
Presumably, this is because one’s understanding of the parable reveals one’s receptivity to the revelation encoded in all parables. Therefore, if one cannot understand this parable, it is likely that they are currently spiritually one of the “bad soils”.
Original Text
Jesus gives the parable of the four soils in all of the synoptic Gospels: Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15.
On that day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside. 2 Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat and sat; and all the multitude stood on the beach. 3 He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn’t have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth. 6 When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away. 7 Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Others fell on good soil and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10 The disciples came, and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
11 He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them. 12 For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever doesn’t have, from him will be taken away even that which he has. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don’t see, and hearing, they don’t hear, neither do they understand. 14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says,
‘By hearing you will hear,
and will in no way understand;
Seeing you will see,
and will in no way perceive;
15 for this people’s heart has grown callous,
their ears are dull of hearing,
and they have closed their eyes;
or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their heart,
and would turn again,
and I would heal them.’116 “But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. 17 For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them.
18 “Hear, then, the parable of the farmer. 19 When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside. 20 What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word and immediately with joy receives it; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 What was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word and understands it, who most certainly bears fruit and produces, some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.”
— Matthew 13:1-23 WEB
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