And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
In the parable of the sower the sowing of seed pictures the sowing of God's word in the heart, and some seed falls among thorns that grow up with it and choke it so it yields no fruit, unlike seed in good ground that bears fruit. The thorny hearers receive the word with interest and are stirred and moved toward a better life, yet form no changed life or character. The thorns that choke the word are worldly cares, desire for wealth, love of pleasure and honor, evil tendencies and unfavorable surroundings that crowd out its influence. First impressions fade when such hearers mingle again with the world, and they clasp again the sins they had seemed ready to leave. The heart as soil must therefore be prepared and reclaimed so worldly growth does not smother the word, by breaking up the soil in repentance and uprooting hindrances in cooperation with God, while seed long buried under worldly rubbish may yet spring up and bear fruit when grace and affliction soften the heart.
Parable Setting and Imagery
Mark 4:7 belongs to the parable of the sower, in which natural sowing illustrates the sowing of gospel truth and the growth of seed illustrates spiritual growth. The familiar sight of seed sown and choked was meant to remind hearers of its lesson whenever they saw it in nature. The seed is the word of God, also understood as principles sown in the heart whose growth becomes character, with the heart holding good or bad seed as a garden holds natural seed. The verse gives one outcome of that sowing: seed falling among thorns grows up together with thorns that choke it so it yields no fruit, set against seed in good ground that bears fruit and against the turning of attention from an earthly kingdom to God's work of grace in the soul.
Jesus spoke this seed-sowing parable to an eager company gathered to hear Him by the Sea of Galilee. It was given to meet doubt, discontent and disappointment because He did not set up the expected temporal kingdom and because many learned and wealthy people rejected Him. Its illustrations were meant to awaken thought and clarify the kingdom of God, exposing hypocrisy while giving His enemies no grounds to stop His work. The parable shows the different responses of human hearts to Christ's teaching and their tendencies, helping explain why His ministry had limited immediate results. People were free to accept or reject Him and were not compelled to believe or obey.
Hearers were to unite their own efforts with divine power to overcome besetting sins. The parable requires opening the mind to believe and receive instruction, while those who neglect truth or refuse conviction remain in darkness and fail to understand. Within the parable the thorny ground stands as one of the classes taught, one outcome among the different responses, without the thorns themselves being further identified.
How Thorns Choke Word
The thorny ground hears the gospel with interest, stirred and charmed and moved to new purpose and desire for a better life by its ennobling and easily understood teaching, yet it produces no changed life or fruit. First impressions fade when hearers mingle again with the world, and they relapse into indifference. They clasp again to the heart sins they had seemed ready to leave and that had looked heinous under the holy light of Christ's presence, while others keep His teaching in mind and begin living by its principles.
The thorns are worldly cares, temptations, and unfavorable surroundings that crowd out and choke the influence of the word so the seed grows up with them and yields no fruit. They are also evil tendencies and worldly absorption, and the temptations and influences and brambles that overcome those who do not desire the light of truth. Whether the word has taken root is revealed by actions.
When those who accept the truth let worldly cares and desire for wealth dominate, love of the world overgrows the seed so it fails to produce Christian character. They may deceive others for gain, put temporal matters first, and neglect the strengthening fellowship that would strengthen faith. Anxiety about gaining or keeping wealth, along with love of earthly pleasures and honors, chokes the good seed, and as riches increase they become less willing to part with them until they turn fully from the truth.
The seed among thorns is truth received only in part; when truth does not cleanse the heart and is not strengthened by practice, competing influences take root and choke it. Those who turn away when truth calls for self-denial and sacrifice show this outcome. Those who reject Christ's guidance lose self-control and even the little knowledge they have. Teaching that takes root but is choked before bearing good fruit includes books for young minds that conceal skepticism or mix Scripture with fanciful interpretations, and its harvest is infidelity and moral corruption.
Sowing Despite Unfruitful Soil
Seed falling on poor soil that yields no fruit unto eternal life means the worldwide message meets places and hearts where no lasting result for eternal life appears. The failure of some seed to bear fruit does not mean the sower should stop sowing or localize the work. Truth is to be sown everywhere even when its results are not at once seen, in every place, in all cities and villages and in the highways and byways, holding forth the Word wherever access can be gained and sowing beside all waters, speaking the words Christ gives and following His example of going everywhere without discouragement.
Christ placed Himself in the great thoroughfares where the stream of travel came from all parts of the world in order to sow the gospel seed broadcast. Cast on all kinds of soil, some falls by the wayside to be trodden down and devoured, some falls on stony ground to spring up quickly and then be scorched and withered, some falls among thorns to produce nothing, and some falls on good ground to bring forth thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. This mixed response will be the experience of every gospel laborer, who must keep sowing in all places including large cities with changing congregations.
Church members are to be laborers sowing the seeds of truth everywhere, at home, in the workshop, in the market as well as in the meeting-house. To do this they must be earnest Bible students studying to know God's will, reading carefully and prayerfully to become familiar with it, studying to realize the value of the cross of Christ so as to cast themselves and their burden on Christ and learn to bear the cross, and having the fear of God before them so as to live holy lives. Truth preached as mere theory and argument, with evidences but without Christ, is seed that yields no fruit. Only when Christ as Saviour, the cross and His redeeming love are presented in connection with it with practical application to the heart does the seed spring up and bear fruit to God's glory, and without exalting Christ hearers are not won and a golden opportunity that may never return, even the last sermon a soul will ever hear, is lost.
Because the gospel seed is to take root and bear fruit and growth can be choked, preaching must serve that result. Truth being precious, more valuable than gold, it must come to the hearer as the voice of God, with the speaker remembering he is God's messenger with Christ and angels as listeners. The heavenly food must be given in short discourses and in such measure that people can retain, carry away, digest, comprehend, and be impressed in soul, rather than bringing out the whole counsel in one discourse. Much effect is lost by long protracted preaching that brings exhaustion, and by raising the voice to a high key and shouting as through a trumpet by nervous power instead of the calm spirit and power of the Holy Ghost; the speaker must govern the voice, put pathos and melody into it, and speak in the most pleasant manner so people will want to hear again, following Jesus as the greatest teacher who was calm, earnest, and impressive. Sowing is done by placing books containing present light and truth on salvation and the power of Christ's atonement in the homes of all, including businessmen, whether they will purchase them or not, since sown seed springs up to bear fruit.
Preparing Hearts for Fruit
The heart is soil that must be prepared for the Sower to scatter good seed, just as a garden must be prepared for natural seed. Principles sown in the heart grow into character, and the heart holds good seed or bad seed as a garden holds natural seed. That correspondence between natural sowing and spiritual sowing can be made practical to children as they prepare soil, sow seed, and watch the plant grow.
Hearts must be prepared so worldly growth does not smother the word. Believers need instruction and care from the beginning of Christian life to remove these hindrances at their roots.
Like soil overgrown with thorns, the heart must be reclaimed through diligent cultivation, for evil growths and thorny growth of evil tendencies and worldly absorption can choke the good seed of truth and keep it from developing and bearing fruit. Repentance breaks up the soil. People are responsible for resisting the Spirit and neglecting the word, yet can choose to cooperate with God in cultivating the heart, uprooting evil tendencies through deep repentance and earnest effort in Jesus' name and strength to prepare the heart to receive the word.
For young children this preparation is the parents' work. Little ones should not be sent away to school too early nor the molding of the infant mind trusted to other hands, but parents should be their best teachers till eight or ten years of age. Their schoolroom should be the open air amid flowers and birds and their textbook the treasures of nature, with God's great book of nature opened before them as fast as their minds can comprehend, so lessons given in such surroundings will not soon be forgotten. Great pains in cultivating children's minds and forming correct habits, instead of time worse than wasted in following the fashions of the world, keeps the soil of the heart ready for the seed and produces a marked change in families.
In contrast to seed among thorns that is choked and bears no fruit, good seed sown early in the receptive, impressionable minds of children can bear fruit unto eternal life. Careful instruction can plant truth whose good results may not be fully seen until the day of God.
The effect of truth sown in hearts may not appear at once and may lie dormant for a time, yet it is not lost. Seed sown by personal distribution of publications can lie buried for years beneath the rubbish of the world and pleasing fables enjoyed by deceived ones, yielding no fruit for a time. When God's grace convicts the heart and earthly sorrow or affliction softens it, the buried seed is awakened and springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. Truth thus sown can later spring up to save many and be passed on by attentive hearers to future generations. Therefore those who sow must work with care and self-denial, trusting God to give it life.
In the parable of the sower the sowing of seed pictures the sowing of God's word in the heart, and some seed falls among thorns that grow up with it and choke it so it yields no fruit, unlike seed in good ground that bears fruit. The thorny hearers receive the word with interest and are stirred and moved toward a better life, yet form no changed life or character. The thorns that choke the word are worldly cares, desire for wealth, love of pleasure and honor, evil tendencies and unfavorable surroundings that crowd out its influence. First impressions fade when such hearers mingle again with the world, and they clasp again the sins they had seemed ready to leave. The heart as soil must therefore be prepared and reclaimed so worldly growth does not smother the word, by breaking up the soil in repentance and uprooting hindrances in cooperation with God, while seed long buried under worldly rubbish may yet spring up and bear fruit when grace and affliction soften the heart.
Parable Setting and Imagery
Mark 4:7 belongs to the parable of the sower, in which natural sowing illustrates the sowing of gospel truth and the growth of seed illustrates spiritual growth. The familiar sight of seed sown and choked was meant to remind hearers of its lesson whenever they saw it in nature. The seed is the word of God, also understood as principles sown in the heart whose growth becomes character, with the heart holding good or bad seed as a garden holds natural seed. The verse gives one outcome of that sowing: seed falling among thorns grows up together with thorns that choke it so it yields no fruit, set against seed in good ground that bears fruit and against the turning of attention from an earthly kingdom to God's work of grace in the soul.
Jesus spoke this seed-sowing parable to an eager company gathered to hear Him by the Sea of Galilee. It was given to meet doubt, discontent and disappointment because He did not set up the expected temporal kingdom and because many learned and wealthy people rejected Him. Its illustrations were meant to awaken thought and clarify the kingdom of God, exposing hypocrisy while giving His enemies no grounds to stop His work. The parable shows the different responses of human hearts to Christ's teaching and their tendencies, helping explain why His ministry had limited immediate results. People were free to accept or reject Him and were not compelled to believe or obey.
Hearers were to unite their own efforts with divine power to overcome besetting sins. The parable requires opening the mind to believe and receive instruction, while those who neglect truth or refuse conviction remain in darkness and fail to understand. Within the parable the thorny ground stands as one of the classes taught, one outcome among the different responses, without the thorns themselves being further identified.
How Thorns Choke Word
The thorny ground hears the gospel with interest, stirred and charmed and moved to new purpose and desire for a better life by its ennobling and easily understood teaching, yet it produces no changed life or fruit. First impressions fade when hearers mingle again with the world, and they relapse into indifference. They clasp again to the heart sins they had seemed ready to leave and that had looked heinous under the holy light of Christ's presence, while others keep His teaching in mind and begin living by its principles.
The thorns are worldly cares, temptations, and unfavorable surroundings that crowd out and choke the influence of the word so the seed grows up with them and yields no fruit. They are also evil tendencies and worldly absorption, and the temptations and influences and brambles that overcome those who do not desire the light of truth. Whether the word has taken root is revealed by actions.
When those who accept the truth let worldly cares and desire for wealth dominate, love of the world overgrows the seed so it fails to produce Christian character. They may deceive others for gain, put temporal matters first, and neglect the strengthening fellowship that would strengthen faith. Anxiety about gaining or keeping wealth, along with love of earthly pleasures and honors, chokes the good seed, and as riches increase they become less willing to part with them until they turn fully from the truth.
The seed among thorns is truth received only in part; when truth does not cleanse the heart and is not strengthened by practice, competing influences take root and choke it. Those who turn away when truth calls for self-denial and sacrifice show this outcome. Those who reject Christ's guidance lose self-control and even the little knowledge they have. Teaching that takes root but is choked before bearing good fruit includes books for young minds that conceal skepticism or mix Scripture with fanciful interpretations, and its harvest is infidelity and moral corruption.
Sowing Despite Unfruitful Soil
Seed falling on poor soil that yields no fruit unto eternal life means the worldwide message meets places and hearts where no lasting result for eternal life appears. The failure of some seed to bear fruit does not mean the sower should stop sowing or localize the work. Truth is to be sown everywhere even when its results are not at once seen, in every place, in all cities and villages and in the highways and byways, holding forth the Word wherever access can be gained and sowing beside all waters, speaking the words Christ gives and following His example of going everywhere without discouragement.
Christ placed Himself in the great thoroughfares where the stream of travel came from all parts of the world in order to sow the gospel seed broadcast. Cast on all kinds of soil, some falls by the wayside to be trodden down and devoured, some falls on stony ground to spring up quickly and then be scorched and withered, some falls among thorns to produce nothing, and some falls on good ground to bring forth thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. This mixed response will be the experience of every gospel laborer, who must keep sowing in all places including large cities with changing congregations.
Church members are to be laborers sowing the seeds of truth everywhere, at home, in the workshop, in the market as well as in the meeting-house. To do this they must be earnest Bible students studying to know God's will, reading carefully and prayerfully to become familiar with it, studying to realize the value of the cross of Christ so as to cast themselves and their burden on Christ and learn to bear the cross, and having the fear of God before them so as to live holy lives. Truth preached as mere theory and argument, with evidences but without Christ, is seed that yields no fruit. Only when Christ as Saviour, the cross and His redeeming love are presented in connection with it with practical application to the heart does the seed spring up and bear fruit to God's glory, and without exalting Christ hearers are not won and a golden opportunity that may never return, even the last sermon a soul will ever hear, is lost.
Because the gospel seed is to take root and bear fruit and growth can be choked, preaching must serve that result. Truth being precious, more valuable than gold, it must come to the hearer as the voice of God, with the speaker remembering he is God's messenger with Christ and angels as listeners. The heavenly food must be given in short discourses and in such measure that people can retain, carry away, digest, comprehend, and be impressed in soul, rather than bringing out the whole counsel in one discourse. Much effect is lost by long protracted preaching that brings exhaustion, and by raising the voice to a high key and shouting as through a trumpet by nervous power instead of the calm spirit and power of the Holy Ghost; the speaker must govern the voice, put pathos and melody into it, and speak in the most pleasant manner so people will want to hear again, following Jesus as the greatest teacher who was calm, earnest, and impressive. Sowing is done by placing books containing present light and truth on salvation and the power of Christ's atonement in the homes of all, including businessmen, whether they will purchase them or not, since sown seed springs up to bear fruit.
Preparing Hearts for Fruit
The heart is soil that must be prepared for the Sower to scatter good seed, just as a garden must be prepared for natural seed. Principles sown in the heart grow into character, and the heart holds good seed or bad seed as a garden holds natural seed. That correspondence between natural sowing and spiritual sowing can be made practical to children as they prepare soil, sow seed, and watch the plant grow.
Hearts must be prepared so worldly growth does not smother the word. Believers need instruction and care from the beginning of Christian life to remove these hindrances at their roots.
Like soil overgrown with thorns, the heart must be reclaimed through diligent cultivation, for evil growths and thorny growth of evil tendencies and worldly absorption can choke the good seed of truth and keep it from developing and bearing fruit. Repentance breaks up the soil. People are responsible for resisting the Spirit and neglecting the word, yet can choose to cooperate with God in cultivating the heart, uprooting evil tendencies through deep repentance and earnest effort in Jesus' name and strength to prepare the heart to receive the word.
For young children this preparation is the parents' work. Little ones should not be sent away to school too early nor the molding of the infant mind trusted to other hands, but parents should be their best teachers till eight or ten years of age. Their schoolroom should be the open air amid flowers and birds and their textbook the treasures of nature, with God's great book of nature opened before them as fast as their minds can comprehend, so lessons given in such surroundings will not soon be forgotten. Great pains in cultivating children's minds and forming correct habits, instead of time worse than wasted in following the fashions of the world, keeps the soil of the heart ready for the seed and produces a marked change in families.
In contrast to seed among thorns that is choked and bears no fruit, good seed sown early in the receptive, impressionable minds of children can bear fruit unto eternal life. Careful instruction can plant truth whose good results may not be fully seen until the day of God.
The effect of truth sown in hearts may not appear at once and may lie dormant for a time, yet it is not lost. Seed sown by personal distribution of publications can lie buried for years beneath the rubbish of the world and pleasing fables enjoyed by deceived ones, yielding no fruit for a time. When God's grace convicts the heart and earthly sorrow or affliction softens it, the buried seed is awakened and springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. Truth thus sown can later spring up to save many and be passed on by attentive hearers to future generations. Therefore those who sow must work with care and self-denial, trusting God to give it life.