Luke 8:10, commentary and pictures

This saying comes in the parable of the sower, picturing the work of the kingdom as Christ scattering the heavenly grain of truth across hearts like seed on a cultivated hillside field. It draws a plain line between those who believe on Him, to whom knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom is given, and others to whom it comes only in parables. Understanding is given to those who seek and receive His instruction and keep His commandments, while others do not understand because they choose blindness and refuse the truth. The same word is sown upon all, but it takes root and grows according to the condition of the heart, whether wayside, stony, thorny, or good soil. What is given is not to be kept hidden but to be proclaimed to the world, and hard or thorny hearts need not remain so, for people can cooperate with God by repentance and earnest effort to break up the soil and let the seed bear fruit.

Setting and Parable Form

The saying belongs to the parable of the sower told in Luke 8:4-15, parallel to Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 and Mark 4:1-20, picturing the work of the kingdom as seed-sowing by a sower scattering seed across a cultivated hillside field. That parable illustrates the things of the kingdom of heaven and the work of the great Husbandman for His people. Like a sower in the field, Christ came to scatter the heavenly grain of truth, and His parable-teaching itself was the seed with which the most precious truths of His grace were sown. He who gave the parable of the tiny seed is the Sovereign of heaven, and the same laws that govern earthly seed-sowing govern the sowing of the seeds of truth, though its simplicity has kept it from being valued as it should be. Christ desires by it to lead minds from the natural seed cast into the soil to the gospel seed, whose sowing brings man back to loyalty to God.

The teaching was given in the morning by the Sea of Galilee, and by the Lake of Galilee Jesus preached about these mysteries of God's kingdom. The hearers were an eager, expectant throng that included the sick lying on mats waiting to present their cases, where Jesus exercised His God-given right to heal the woes of a sinful race by rebuking disease and diffusing life and health and peace. When the crowd increased until the people pressed close with no room to receive them, Jesus stepped into a fishing boat waiting to take Him across the lake, entered Peter's boat and had His disciples push off and pull out a little from the land so He could be seen and heard. From there He spoke to the multitude upon the shore in simple, earnest language that appealed to their minds with convincing power.

Christ spoke the parables before the multitude and then explained their meaning privately to His disciples in some quiet room or some retired spot in the country. When those in charge have truth abiding in their hearts and walk in the light shining from God's Word, younger workers who hear words in the assembly of God's people will wish to understand them better and will ask for fuller explanations. Then there will be special seasons of seeking the Lord and studying His Word to give them the private instruction Christ gave His disciples. Jesus' parables were meant to stir inquiry and lead to a clearer understanding of truth, and their illustration fixed the teaching in the minds of listeners.

Many listeners received and treasured His teaching as He explained its meaning to His disciples. Even learned and influential hearers were present, and none could refute His words. Jesus used parables in this way to reveal cutting truths and expose hypocrisy to hearers who could recognize their meaning, while avoiding giving His enemies grounds to arrest Him and interrupt His work.

Mysteries Given and Withheld

Christ draws a plain line between those who believe on Him and those who do not, giving to His disciples the knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. That understanding is given to those who keep His commandments and follow what He has taught in His Word. It is given to those who seek and receive His instruction, and those who receive Him are given power to become God's children.

Others remain unable to understand because they choose blindness and refuse the truth. Their failure to perceive is willful and self-imposed, and they will suffer for that ignorance. The parable thus explains the limited immediate results of His ministry, for people were free to accept or reject Him, since belief and obedience are not compelled. They remained responsible to join their efforts with His power to overcome sin.

What is given is not to be kept hidden as a mystery but to be proclaimed to the world, and this proclaiming is the first and great business to be carried on in the world. Nothing in the knowledge of truth and righteousness is to be regarded as a mystery to be kept hidden, and the door is thrown wide open for all who believe. Those given knowledge are to arouse others and bring them to their senses by awakening the understanding of those who do not know the truth. He opens His mouth in parables to utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Soils and Heart Response

The parable shows the different kinds of people taught and the tendencies of the human heart, for the same word is sown but takes root and grows according to the condition and state of the heart, so that pointed and convincing truth affects all classes of hearers differently. It explains the limited immediate results of the ministry, since people were free to accept or reject and belief and obedience were not compelled. Those who preach present truth and scatter the good seed will get the same results, and the lesson is to be studied.

Wayside hearers are affected but have not cultivated moral powers, having followed inclination rather than duty until evil habits hardened their hearts like a hard beaten road. They may profess to believe but have no just sense of its sacredness, and they do not separate from lovers of pleasure and corrupt society. They lie like an unfenced field where they are constantly tempted, invite the enemy's temptations, and lose the regard they once seemed to have when the seed is dropped.

Stony-ground hearers readily receive anything new and exciting with joy, and with ardor and zeal talk of faith and hope and even reprove those of long experience. They are controlled by feeling and have no depth and stability of character, principle does not underlie action, the seed has not rooted below the surface and the heart has not been renewed by the transforming Spirit. When tested by the heat of trial and temptation and by God's pruning-knife to bring forth fruit unto perfection their zeal dies. When plain pointed close truth bears on the heart and reveals deformity of character they close their eyes though conscience tells them the messengers speak truth, they are offended because of the word, will not be sanctified through the truth, and are not doers of the word. They are absent when working men and women and sacrifices are called for, and they fall away under trials and persecution while flattering themselves they may reach heaven an easier way.

The thorny class listen and are convinced and accept without seeing the sinfulness of their hearts, while love of the world holds a large place in their affections. In deal they love the best bargain and by prevarication and deception and fraud gain means that becomes a thorn. Full of anxiety and care fearing loss or lack of gain they make temporal matters primary, do not nourish the seed, neglect meetings where hearts are strengthened, and plead duty to toil and gain to help the cause. Deceitfulness of riches makes them less inclined to part with treasure as riches increase, until love for earthly pleasures and worldly honors and unnecessary cares and needless anxiety choke the good seed and turn the heart from the truth loved.

Hard or thorny soil need not remain so, for people are responsible for resisting God's Spirit and can choose to cooperate with God in preparing their hearts. Repentance breaks up the soil, and evil tendencies that choke the good seed must be uprooted through earnest effort in Jesus' name and strength, joining human effort with Christ's power to overcome sin. Some hearts are as hard as the beaten highway where presenting Christ seems useless, and stony hearts must be softened before the seed of truth about the Saviour and eternal life can take root. Logic and argument cannot move and convince such hearts, but Christlike sympathy and personal heart-to-heart labor that reveals the love of Christ can awaken interest in eternal things and soften the hard heart so the seed takes root. Teaching believers to follow Christ in self-denial and serve the lost helps keep the seed from being choked or lost through shallow soil.

Truth as seed must be planted carefully and selflessly, while its growth is entrusted to God. The seed may remain dormant for a time, and God's grace can awaken it in the heart so that it bears fruit for His glory. It can also be taken away before it leads to eternal life, so hearing must be attentive and joined with faith rather than superficial or divided, lest it be without lasting effect. The illustration fixed its teaching in listeners' minds and stirred many to new purpose, but some soon returned to indifference under worldly cares and temptations while others began a holier life and lived by the teaching. Teaching is seed sown in the heart that grows and produces a harvest, which may be infidelity when the teaching is corrupt.

God's word must be received into good soil to bear fruit, and the mind is especially open to influence early in life so good seed sown then can bear fruit for eternal life. The soil must be prepared by parents themselves, who must not send little ones away to school too early or trust the molding of the infant mind to other hands but must be the best teachers until children reach eight or ten years of age. Their schoolroom is the open air amid flowers and birds and their textbook the treasures of nature, opened as fast as minds can comprehend so lessons will not soon be forgotten. Great pains must be taken in this cultivation of minds and formation of correct habits, giving the time and labor now worse than wasted in following worldly fashions, with a marked change apparent in families. Teaching this lesson through practical work in a garden helps children and youth understand spiritual sowing.