“For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” (Matthew 13:12 KJV)
What is the meaning of this? Some take this one verse and make a whole theology of prosperity regarding money and riches. How very wrong that is! They ignore the context completely!
Jesus is not talking about money at all. He just told the Parable of the Sower and the seed is the Word of God, and in the context here it is about Jesus’ words during His Earthly ministry which is The Gospel of Salvation and preaching that He is the foretold Messiah and Christ. After telling the Parable of the Sower of Seed, Jesus is talking to the Disciples here as he takes them aside to answer their question. What question? When we look at the context we see that the disciples asked why Jesus was teaching in parables. Jesus’ answer is this,
“And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.” (Matthew 13:10-18 KJV)
In the context of Matthew 13 and the parable given in the Sower Of Seed, verse 12 is all about the knowledge of the parables about the Kingdom and that is which will be given and increased to a true believer in Christ. Where as those who do not believe in this context are the Pharisees Jesus had just spoken to. To those relying on their good works and Law following for righteousness with God will not receive the light of the Gospel. Not only will they not get the light of Salvation, but what knowledge of salvation that they do have will be taken away from them.
Jesus told the disciple believers that ‘…many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.’
The desire to see what? To see the Messiah on Earth! To see all the amazing miracles He performed! The prophets and righteous, before Christ came, all looked forward to a time when the Messiah would come and be the final atonement for sin. Yet, here are these Pharisee leaders during the very time of the coming of the Messiah, not only not believing Jesus is Messiah, but they sought to discredit Him at every opportunity. They failed and then ultimately murdered Christ on the cross. Jesus knew their hearts!
Yet, these Pharisee religious leaders, who were teaching and relying on Law following for righteousness, were so puffed up in self righteousness for justification with God that Jesus describes them as having their hearts ‘waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing’. They are set in their ways and belief. Even when they seen all Jesus did, in fulfillment of the Torah (Old Testament) prophecies fulfilled in Jesus they would not believe. All the countless miracles and such amazing knowledge of the truth of God’s Word that Jesus spoke and Jesus outright told them many times that He was God’s Son; yet, they still would not believe. Jesus knows the hearts of each of them. He knew they would not believe and so, the knowledge of the parables would not be seen by them. But to the believers, the truth of the parables will be known. Their light of this knowledge will increase in their lives because they are born again in The Spirit in true belief. Jesus then explains the parable to the disciples.
So BEWARE the false teaching of the prosperity gospel that is running rampant in these End Times. BEWARE of those teachers trying to take one verse out of context and make it all about money and riches.
