Break up your fallow ground and sow not thorns (4:3)

‎A man would be accounted a fool who expected seed to take root and flourish in hard-trodden earth, and quite as much so if he expected a delicate and tender plant to thrive side by side with a noxious weed. This is a thought suggested by the exhortation of God to the men of Judah and Jerusalem—“Break up your fallow ground and sow not among thorns” (Jer. 4:3). Let us learn the lesson; it is just as applicable now as in the days of Jeremiah. Good seed, if it is to prosper, must have satisfactory soil and no hurtful companions—all weeds must be uprooted. To speak literally, if God’s word is to profit us, we must see to it that our minds are impressionable, and that we are ready to accept, wholly and unreservedly, all that He has said. Naturally, we love to pick and choose—to throw aside some things and to fight like Trojans for others. The only remedy for this weakness is courage and honesty of purpose, remembering that to discard one false doctrine will profit us little if we willingly cling to another. Similarly, it will avail us nothing to give up swearing, gambling, and intemperance if we hold on to other vices which God has condemned. As we gather from God’s figure of the husbandman, much care and labour must be bestowed if good results are to be achieved. Without this, our mental soil will soon harden, and weeds (false doctrines and bad habits) will quickly multiply. Our duty is to watch, and when the latter appear to “go for them.”
. Vol. 52: The Christadelphian: Volume 52. 1915 (electronic ed.) (108–109