Matthew 13:31, commentary and pictures

The kingdom of heaven starts from the smallest of seeds sown in a field and grows in stages until it becomes the greatest of herbs, a tree where birds find shelter. It does not rise by force, human power, or worldly display, but by the divine life and quickening power of God's word and grace working unseen until earthly kingdoms perish and it remains. What looked insignificant in Christ's work with a few poor and unlearned disciples has increased and been sustained through every age until it fills the world and gathers a people from every nation in the final message of warning and mercy. The same law governs the heart, where God's word planted and made fruitful by grace begins as a spoken word or ray of light and grows gradually and continually, taking hold of His help to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Therefore each person is to sow in humble, simple, brief utterances and faithful work suited to God-given ability, trusting Christ to give the increase, knowing that even seeds of criticism sown as small as mustard seed will likewise grow greatly to divide.

Seed Picture and Setting

The kingdom of heaven is set forth through the growth of a grain of mustard seed, illustrating the development of Christ's kingdom. The mustard plant grew abundantly and luxuriantly around the listeners, so its everyday familiarity made the lesson accessible to people from many walks of life. Nature, when comprehended and understood, is among the most instructive teachers of divine knowledge, and Christ drew this likeness of the kingdom from nature. The seed is the least of all seeds, yet when taken and sown in the field it springs up in process of time, first the blade, then the stalk, and then spreading branches, until it becomes the greatest among herbs and a tree where the birds of the air lodge in its branches.

The setting is an answer to those who doubted how a teacher without worldly power could establish a kingdom. It answers also those who doubted that a kingdom could be made up of the poor, sick, uneducated, and socially despised people gathered to hear Him. Unlike earthly kingdoms, the kingdom is not established by force, human power, or worldly display. It advances by the divine life God gives and by the quickening power of His word and grace implanting truth and righteousness, and it remains when earthly kingdoms perish. Christ, who is sovereign over heaven, compares the sowing and growth of the gospel's truth to the planting of a tiny mustard seed, the laws of earthly sowing and reaping govern the work of spreading truth, and its growth depends on God's unseen power.

Kingdom Growth Through History

The kingdom began as an apparently insignificant work, with Jesus' few, poor, unlearned disciples like a little mustard seed carrying a truth whose humble appearance gave no hint of its eventual extent until it filled the world. The church began small during His earthly ministry and has increased until it extends throughout the world, and He has sustained it through every age while calling people to work with Him with their God-given abilities in saving souls.

That small beginning is repeated in the experience of the church in every generation, when God entrusts a special truth and work to a few humble people who are opposed and despised by worldly leaders and a conforming church. Its growth advances through self-sacrifice, conflict, and victories. The same pattern appears when the few Puritans and Pilgrims seemed like a mustard seed yet became powerful and far-reaching in influence. The work of truth, though small in its beginnings, spread and flourished as the work advanced. That spreading is seen in the multiplication of institutions by united effort blessed and directed by God.

The planting is small at first and then becomes larger and stronger by God's blessing in establishing sanitariums in European countries, where perplexing questions arise from circumstances peculiar to the various fields and where interest should be taken in the work. The gospel planted in fields where it has not yet been preached may appear small at first like a mustard seed, though it is the beginning of the work there, and gospel and medical missionary work are to be carried together into unworked cities and places. The growth reaches triumphant fulfillment in the last generation, when the final message of warning and mercy goes to every nation, kindred, and tongue, gathering a people for God, and the earth is lightened with His glory.

Personal Growth and Witness

The seed is God's word planted in the heart and made fruitful by divine grace, and when truth takes root it produces a changed life and character that reveal the nature and measure of what was sown. Christian growth proceeds gradually through stages like a plant, yet it must continue throughout life until the life's work is complete and ready for the harvest, for there is always more to learn and higher attainment to reach, and in grace as in nature growth continues or dies. The same growth pictures grace beginning in the heart, where a spoken word, a ray of light, or an influence may start new life whose results cannot be measured. Like the seed a believer's faith can grow strong despite hardship, because the very small contains a life principle, and faith taking hold of God's word and the help He has provided grows stronger and brings the power of heaven to overcome even seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Christ likened His own utterances of divine truth to the grain of mustard seed, so that simple, brief statements spoken from a heart made soft and sympathetic by His love carry the Spirit's vital energy. He Himself throws that vital energy into the soul to make the seed germinate and bear fruit. Such words make an impression and a sense of need and peril where elaborate reasoning and argumentative demonstrations of doctrine seldom do, and their fruitfulness depends on God's power rather than the speaker's skill or merit.

Each person is called to sow the seed and do the work suited to entrusted, God-given abilities in saving souls, allowing those abilities to grow, and to work with Christ. This includes a worker of limited religious and intellectual training who labors humbly in new fields, meets coarse and rough people where they are, reads and comments on the Bible to children and older people, and presents important points of truth in simple object-lessons and unpretentious prayers and talks, line upon line and precept upon precept. Such sowing is seed that Christ causes to grow to win hearts, draw souls into the fold, and prepare the way for others. By the same law of growth, seeds of criticism sown as small as a mustard seed can grow greatly into a divisive influence that draws people apart.