In Mark 4:24-25 Jesus is still speaking with his disciples in a context of their being alone with him. He couldn’t have been speaking to the multitude, because he had already implied they didn’t have ears to hear spiritual things. Why would Jesus tell the multitude, who didn’t have ears to hear to use their ears? Therefore, what might be called, the Parable of Taking Heed would make no sense, if it were given to those who had already rejected the Gospel.
Jesus’ take heed of what you hear in Mark 4:24 is recorded as take heed of how you hear in Luke (Luke 8:18), but there isn’t a real contradiction between the two, because the what and the how are both answered in the context of Jesus’ warning. The what concerns what Jesus’ disciples heard Jesus say or what they understand the Spirit saying to them about what Jesus said or did (cp. John 14:26; 15:26). They must “take heed” or consider it. The how is answered in that nothing comes from merely listening and understanding. Rather, benefit comes only from putting what they’ve heard to use (2Corinthians 9:6).
Some, and I include myself at this point, have erred in believing Jesus meant for folks to take heed of what he puts into his mind and heart and what value he places upon what he puts there. Although there is some truth to the proverb: “the mind is a plowed garden,” and one must be careful what one believes and does with what is put there, Jesus isn’t speaking in generalities at this point. Rather, he is speaking about what the disciples consider and do about Jesus’ claims. As for myself, I have come to conclude that James 2:14-26 is the best commentary, I have found, on what Jesus told his disciples in Mark 4:21-25. Faith without works profits no one (James 2:14, 17, 20). For example, knowing that the Lord provides for the poor has no value, as far as the believer and his poor brother are concerned, if the one doesn’t permit the Lord to work through him to provide for his brother’s needs (James 2:15-16). Faith is a spiritual matter and cannot be seen with one’s eyes. One’s inner faith simply cannot be understood without the works that manifest that faith to those who watch the believer (James 2:18).
Even the demons (those who slander and persecute others who are not like themselves) believe in God and tremble (James 2:19). Nevertheless, Abraham was called the friend of God, not because he merely believed God or trembled before him, but because he set out to obey what the Lord told him to do. Even when he didn’t see a good outcome, but only hoped for one, he labored to obey the Lord and that work of hope was what was allotted to him for righteousness (James 2:21-24). Even the harlot, Rahab, wasn’t justified by what she believed (Joshua 2:9-11) but, rather, by what she did in an effort to save others in response to what she believed (James 2:25-26; cp. Joshua 2:9-11).
Therefore, as we consider what Jesus had said and done, and measure that out in what we do (Mark 4:24), or put another way, to what degree we apply that in our lives, to that same degree the Lord will measure our reward. However, this isn’t a one for one application. Instead, the measure of the believer’s reward is thirty, sixty and a hundred-fold (cp. Mark 4:8), as his heart is revealed in his obedience to the Lord.
We need to keep in mind at this point, that believers are given a new heart (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:25-27). It is not something they have worked for, but it is a gift from the Lord, and it is his, i.e., the Lord’s workplace, as that pertains to his New Covenant with mankind. The Lord’s work in the believer’s life is a kind of passive creation. We are his workmanship according to Ephesians 2:10, but our being created again (born again) involves us walking in the works, which he has foreordained for us to labor in. The Lord is behind our labor, making us into an image of him (2Corinthians 3:18). While we are involved in the nuts and bolts of our new creation, and feel the pain of rejection, and are tired at the end of the day etc., it is the Lord who brings it all together. He is like the cloud in the wilderness in ancient Israel. When it rested the children of Israel rested. When it moved, the children of Israel took up their stakes and followed. So, there is a place for the follower, but, if one could imagine anyone refusing to follow the cloud, that one would have been left behind and nothing would have come of his life (cp. Mark 4:25). In the same manner, then, Jesus’ disciples are rewarded, if they have the Spirit of Christ in their lives. If not, that one is like the seed cast upon the wayside or on rocky soil or among the thorns, and that which he had been given would be taken away or forgotten, never amounting to anything (Mark 4:25).
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