Good Soil Or Worthless Soil?

November 28th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 6:7-8 For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; 8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

In this parable, verses 7-8 illustrate verses 4-6. Ground that utilizes the rain that falls on it by producing a crop useful for those who eat of it is blessed by God (v. 7). This illustrates those who have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, placed their undying faith in Him alone for salvation, and who continually grow in their faith (cf. 2 Peter 1:5-7). These believers are secure in their salvation, and the fruit of their lives is seen by all—just like a field that produces crops after the rains have fallen on it and after it has been tilled by those who benefit from it.

The illustration works both ways according to v. 8. For land that has rain falling on it and which is tilled but which produces no fruit is worthless. It is like a team that invests millions of dollars in an athlete with great promise but who never lives up to expectations. The athlete is later waived from the team to cut financial losses. This illustrates the sinner who hears the gospel message of salvation. He may possibly attend church regularly, listen to the Scriptures preached each Sunday, socialize with true believers, and understand that the gift of Jesus Christ is eternal life. But he rejects Jesus and moves back into his old life because he became disillusioned by Christianity or because he simply decided that committing his life to Christ was not his style.

So v. 8 speaks of ground that receives the same rain as the fruitful ground in v. 7, but it only produces thorns and thistles as opposed to edible fruit. The passage teaches that people like this kind of land are “close to being cursed.” This is pertinent because when man’s sin caused the earth to be cursed God told Adam that the land would produce “thorns and thistles” (Gen 3:18). If this passage is a parallel then it proves that idle “believers” are in sin whether they stand still or blatantly apostatize, and their lives are cursed. Their ultimate destination, like worthless thorns and thistles, is to be “burned.” This proves that Christians are not in view.

There are other passages in the Bible that speak of the same fate for false believers and show that Hebrews 6:4-6 is not unique. Jesus’ Parable of the soils (Matt 13:1-9, 18-23; Mark 4:1-20) and His story about the vine and the branches (John 15:5-6) both show that the one that produces no fruit is one that is not truly saved. Of course Jesus tells a group of people in Matthew 7:21-23 that He never knew them even though they called him “Lord.” His words to them were that they were “doers of wickedness” in spite of the fact that they called Him Lord.

The Apostle John may be speaking of apostates in 1 John 5:16 when he speaks of a “sin leading to death.” He even tells his readers not to pray for them! And the Apostle Peter says as much in 2 Peter 2:20-22: “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘a dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.’”

Food For Thought
Biblically, it is not a question of whether a person can lose his salvation. The question is “who has salvation?” Just because you attend church and know who Jesus is does not make you a Christian. So ask yourself which soil you are. Does your life produce a fruit in keeping with God’s grace? Or do you produce nothing but worldly fruit in keeping with the curse? Are you one who grows in his faith, or is your faith bereft of any worshipful works? (cf. James 2:14-26).