Be Fruitful and Multiply
The Rt. Rev. Brian W. Keith
Lessons: Genesis 1:26-31; Matthew 13:31, 32; Arcana Coelestia 1941
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the
earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air,
and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1:28)
A
fter God made mankind the first thing He told them to do was to be
fruitful and multiply. Be fruitful and multiply – how vital that is! Like
the first people we all have a tremendous desire to be fruitful, to increase.
We are builders by nature. Everyone wants to be useful, productive in their
jobs. Married couples desire children, then grandchildren. A challenge of
retirement for some people is where they then derive their sense of usefulness.
We all want to have a sense that our life here has made a difference – that the
world is at least a little bit better off because of us.
Spiritually we also feel this drive to be fruitful and multiply. Regeneration
implies improvement and the development of spiritual life. We want to build a
spiritual home in heaven.
And what happens to us when we feel that we have not been productive?
When we have not been fruitful and multiplied? What if we feel that our work
is relatively meaningless? That the labor of our hands has been trivial and of no
lasting value? Do we then feel like investing anything in our jobs? Or how do
we feel when our children do not seem to care for the things that we do? When
they rebel or just seem to drift aimlessly? Do we not feel like we’ve failed, that
all our efforts were in vain? And in our spiritual lives, what if we feel that we
are not making progress? What if we feel that we are no more regenerate today
than we were five or ten years ago? Does it not give us a sense of failure, a sense
of hopelessness?
Have we then been fruitful and multiplied? Perhaps that is the wrong
question to ask. Here is a different question to pose: should we expect to see
the fruit of our work, the harvest, in this world or not?
In one sense, yes, we should. The Lord wants us to experience success. He
330