Sometime in Scripture reading, just one word can clarify the meaning of that Scripture passage, one example is Ezekiel 22:26-31, where because of Israel’s wicked leaders; God, through the Prophet Ezekiel, exposed their wickedness, but rather than destroying them, God diligently searched for just “one” person to partner with Him in prayer, so He could intercede (mediate) through their prayer, and save those people, but God could not find even “one” person to pray, so He had to destroy them. If just “one” person had prayed, God would have spared those people.
There is “one” word difference in Jesus’ parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-23 and Mark 4:1-20, making them opposite instead of identical; thus, I will give you the one-word difference and then explain how that one word makes them opposites, for the one-word is stated in “Jesus’ purpose for each parable”.
Matthew deals only with the kingdom of “heaven” outside Christians, and Mark deals only with the kingdom of “God” inside Christians, and Scripture explains this.
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 is Jesus’ parable and explanation of the wheat and tares growing together in the same field until harvest.
Matthew 25:1-13 is Jesus’ parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins waiting for the bridegroom to come for the bride, but only the five wise virgins were prepared for unforeseen delays, with plenty of extra oil, so they went into the wedding, but the five foolish did not go in.
Thus, Matthew shows “the kingdom of heaven” is outside Christians, for we are the wheat and wise virgins that daily associate with the tares (hypocrites and sinners), the foolish virgins.
Mark shows, according to, Romans 14:14-17 and Luke 17:20-21, “the kingdom of God” is inside Christians.
The one-word in both Matthew and Mark’s account of Jesus’ parable Jesus was talking about is “SOIL” (ground), for in Luke 11:8 of Jesus’ parable of the sower it says, “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God”. Therefore, the type of “soil” (life) in which “the word of God” is planted will determine if there is or is not any fruit, for the “soils” were hard, stony, thorny, and good, but only the seed planted in the good “soil” yielded a harvest.
With all this in mind, the one-word in Luke 13:6-9 telling why the fig tree in Jesus’ parable never produced fruit after three years, and why it was useless to “dig around and fertilize it”. Just one-word in this parable changes the entire story, and that one word is “vineyard”.
Luke 13:6-9—6 He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ 8 But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’”
If you plant a “fruit tree” would you plant it in an “orchard” where the “soil” is right for fruit; would you plant it in “soil” that is right for berries, or in a vineyard where the “soil” is right for grapes? The fault was not the plant or the soil, but the fault of the “keeper of the vineyard”, for the tree tried to produce figs and the soil tried to feed the tree to produce grapes, they each fought against each other, each trying to do what God designed them to do.
When we find the one-word in Mark 11:2-14, 20-26 that changes the story, so we fully understand why Jesus cursed the fig tree that did not have fruit on it, and why Jesus commands us to believe when we pray, forgive people, and claim God’s promises as if we already experience them?
The one word that changes everything is, “response” in Mark 11:14 of the NKJV and the word “answered” in the KJV, both mean “a spoken or written reply, a response to a question or request”, so was Jesus “responding or answering” the fig tree or Satan trying to deceive Jesus because He was hungry?
Satan, the tempter, in Matthew 4:1-4, had already tried to deceive Jesus into turning stones into bread, but Jesus also rejected Satan’s deceptive temptation as well as Satan’s deceptive temptation in Mark 11:12-14, 20-26.
God allows the satanic spirits to “deceitfully tempt us” (Mark 13:22), so we “come close to Him” (James 4:8), where God will no longer need the satanic forces to discipline us.
When we, as Christians, members of Christ’s body, the church, stay close to God, through Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, God is close to us (Hebrews 13:5-6),
without room for the satanic forces, and the one-word “hidden” in Colossians 3:1-4 changes everything, for “hidden” means “conceal, cover, keep in a secret place”, which changes everything about God’s relationship to His devoted children, in Colossians 3:1-4; and the entire third chapter of Colossians is fantastic truth we need to read and embrace as a lifestyle.
Do you enjoy carefully reading and studying God’s word, so you get to know Him better? We could go on with these “one word” quotes that change everything in scripture verses, but we will save others for later.
Jim Nabors
