One of the first things God told Adam and Eve was to “be fruitful and multiply.” I have always taken that to mean physically produce more children and populate the earth. This morning in my devotional, my eyes were opened to a spiritual meaning, also.

God repeated this command to Noah when he disembarked from the ark and came out on dry land, a totally clean earth with all of the sin wiped out.

Again, this certainly does mean populate the earth. But I think it also means to tell the new people that are born about God.

I wasn’t in the Garden of Eden with Adam, nor was I on the ark with Noah. But because of these ancestors of all of us, we exist. Physically, we have life. What about spiritual life?

In the Great Commission that Jesus gave to His disciples just before He ascended to the Father, he did not say “be fruitful and multiply.” Instead, He applied God’s truth to the spiritual and told the disciples to go and make other disciples. How does one do that? By telling them about Jesus! By giving God the glory for all that He did through Jesus. God has not changed His word because God does not lie or change. He has, however, expanded on it. When we go out and tell others about Jesus, we are being fruitful and we are multiplying. We are adding souls to the Kingdom of God and more people who are ready and willing to give Him the glory. Having three children, I did the physical part of “being fruitful and multiplying.” But how many spiritual sons and daughters have been added to God’s Kingdom because of seeds that I have sown? I don’t really know because I am not always there for the harvest. God didn’t say to make sure you stick around for the harvest, but He did say to make disciples. To me, that means to lead people to the truth of the Gospel and then to establish them in God’s Word.

Thus, once again, God has enlightened me to more truth in His Word than I realized was there. Being fruitful is not just giving birth physically. It can also mean being fruitful and telling others about Jesus. If each one tells one, and they in turn tell others, there is the multiplication factor. God’s plan all along has been for His Kingdom to expand, for all to come to the knowledge of the Lord. We have His command and we are expected to act on it!