But the parable is this The seed is the word of God.
The disciples had just asked what the parable of the sower meant. His one-line answer moves every question about the harvest off the seed and onto two things: the soil, and the One who came sowing.
Sowing is what you do in an empty field. Commentators see His choice of picture as a statement about where Israel now stood with God.
The very fact that Christ came as the sower proved that Israel was set aside. If Israel were still His vineyard, He would have come looking for fruit from the vine He planted long ago. He had come to Israel previously, seeking fruit and finding none. He now comes in the new character of the sower, which is quite another thing. He comes into a waste world, where there was nothing, and He begins a fresh work... He is not now looking for man to produce anything... Therefore the Lord now comes as sower — not looking for fruit, but doing that which will produce it.
Each Gospel names the seed a little differently. Luke's wording points to where it came from.
Mark simply calls the seed the word, with nothing added. Luke puts it more exactly: "The seed is the word of God." That phrase declares the divine origin of the word. It is of God... The word of God has the germ of life within itself. It is living and operative. It is incorruptible and eternal. It has life, and it gives life... But in Matthew the seed is described as the "word of the kingdom." That phrase covered the subject of the word, while Luke's looked to its Author.
Because the seed comes from Him, its quality matches the One who scattered it:
It is the Word of God, and it comes from God. The perfect One proclaimed it perfectly, and in itself it is as perfect as the One who proclaimed it. The word He spoke was the exact expression of what He was.
Three of the four sowings in this parable come to nothing. The definition in this verse rules out one explanation for that.
The seed was pure; it was the word of God. Of its germinating power there could be no doubt... So wherever it fell, the only thing that could hold back a full crop was the state of the ground — that is, the heart of the person it came to. Men might think of blaming the Word for the apparent failure of the work. Against such thoughts the Lord would warn us... We do well to remember this. Then all who preach or teach can make sure they are using the word of God. They can count on it being enough, as the Holy Spirit applies it, to do a divine work in the hearts and consciences of men.
If this is the seed, then nothing else planted in a person will grow into fruit for God.
What is needed at the start is the seed, and it must come from outside. The seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11). Nothing short of that will do. Civilization, training, education, example — all useful in their way — cannot take the place of the seed, one by one or all together. God's voice must be heard in the soul.
That shapes how we sow today:
If that was the only seed our Lord Himself used, we do well to limit ourselves to it today. Entertainments and things like them cannot put into anyone's heart the spiritual condition needed to enter the kingdom of God.
Some argue that Scripture is only "word of God" where it takes real effect. The parable answers that.
Some have suggested that only what takes real effect in our hearts is the Word of God. These parables will not support that thought. If the Word of God were only what takes real effect in people's hearts, how could the devil ever take it out?
Commentators differ over how far this seed reaches. One writer links it with new birth: "God's word has always been the Divine seed, and through it souls have been born again" (The Bible Treasury). Another holds that here "it is the seed of the kingdom that is in question, not the seed of God in the new birth" (Various).
- Sower — Christ came not to collect fruit from an old planting but to start a fresh work in an empty world.
- Seed — Luke names its Author. The word is of God: living, incorruptible, as perfect as the One who spoke it.
- Soil — the seed always has power to grow. So a failed harvest points to the heart it lands in, never to the word.
- Substitute — education, example and entertainment plant nothing. Only the seed the Lord Himself used will do.
- Standing — the word is still the word of God when no fruit comes. The enemy can only take away what was truly sown.
But those by the wayside are those who hear; then comes the devil and takes away the word from their heart that they may not believe and be saved.
Jesus is explaining His own parable, and the first ground He describes is the footpath, where the seed never gets below the surface. Why does the same word take root in one person and vanish from another?
The picture is a road, hardened by constant traffic. One writer shows what wears a heart down to that state.
The trodden pathway across the Galilean hillside is a fitting picture of great numbers of people, then and now. Out of the heart of man flow "the springs of life." The heart is the road into his whole being. Duty and enterprise, as well as pleasure and pain, all crowd in daily along the highway of the heart. One earthly object follows another without a break. Each demands attention, if not the full focus of the mind. So they wear the heart down into the ruts of a dull routine. When truth from above falls in such a street, it lies unheeded, and is "trodden under foot," as Luke says in the parable.
The devil takes the word out of their hearts, so the word did reach them. The hearer stays answerable, and the enemy cannot seal anyone off against their will.
Scripture says, "the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers." But do not suppose that he can build a wall around them that light cannot pass through, unless they consent. The apostle in this very place says, "We commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God." Even "in the heart" of the hearer by the path, the seed of the gospel was "sown." But the heart was not changed by it. It gave the seed up to one who knows its value, sadly, better than they did.
Another writer turns this into a direct charge to the hearer.
If you have been under the sound of the gospel and are not saved, it means that the devil has taken the word out of your heart. The extraordinary thing is that you were glad to have it so. You are in fellowship with the devil in this matter and not with God. You are a hearer by the path. You have given the devil the right of way in your heart and he has hardened it against the Word.
The verse names the target — their believing.
In the parable of the sower the devil is mentioned. Jesus says, "then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved" (Luke 8:12). The aim of the devil here is to prevent faith in God's word. Again, Peter was in great danger from Satan's schemes. The Lord told him, "Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail" (Luke 22:31-32). The real object of attack was Peter's faith.
Notice also how fast he moves — they hear, and then he comes. One writer draws a startling conclusion from that speed.
The most firm and thorough believer in sudden conversions is the devil! ... The moment you hear the word of God, you are on this platform — the ones along the path. Then — then what? Mark this. Then comes the devil, the moment they hear, so that they may not believe and be saved. ... Satan knows well what the effect of the Gospel is — hear, believe, be saved, and how quickly? Quicker than the time it takes you to read the words.
Luke's wording differs from Matthew's account of the same parable. That difference fits the purpose of each Gospel.
Matthew speaks of understanding — that is the great point for the one who speaks of the Word of the kingdom. Luke speaks of the Word of God... "the seed is the Word of God," that they who believe (not they who understand) should be saved. Matthew speaks of hearing and understanding, Luke of believing and being saved. This suits the different purposes of the Gospels admirably... Luke shows us the Word of God scattered abroad... It is for man as such.
Luke calls this enemy "the devil." One writer gives his other names, and his place among the parable's three hindrances.
This enemy is named Satan in Mark, the devil in Luke, and the evil or wicked one in Matthew. It is worth noticing that Satan comes first among the three powers that hinder the growth and fruit of the seed. The Lord shows this by the three classes. The power of the devil removes the seed — the birds. The power of the flesh prevents the seed rooting — the rocks. The power of the world prevents the seed fruiting — the thorns.
- Hearing — The path is a heart worn hard by daily traffic; the word lands but never sinks in.
- Sown — The seed did reach the heart. So the hearer stays answerable, and the enemy builds no wall without consent.
- Snatched — He comes the moment they hear, because he knows how fast the gospel works.
- Believing — Luke's aim is not understanding but faith; the seed is the word of God, offered to man as such.
- Saved — That one word names what Satan works to prevent, and what the hearer loses by letting the word go.
But those upon the rock, those who when they hear receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a time, and in time of trial fall away.
This is the most hopeful-looking failure in the parable: a hearer takes the message with joy, then quits. The Lord says why — there was no root — and that raises a hard question: can real joy in the word leave a heart untouched?
Luke's picture is a thin layer of soil over stone. The problem is not what happened to this ground. It is what the ground is.
Here it is the nature of the ground that is at fault. With the hearer by the path, you could argue that circumstances had made him what he was. The traffic over that ground had made it hard. Here it was the nature of the ground itself. The prophet — or rather, God through him — speaks of a "heart of stone" (Ezekiel 36:26). Without question, that is exactly what is pictured here. Yet there is soil too. It responds on the surface, and it promises a great deal at the start: "this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy." As the parable says, this shows a lack of depth. There has been no deep conviction and no true repentance. The word touches the feelings, but not the conscience.
This ground looked better than the hard path. The rock underneath was just as fatal.
On the surface this soil actually looked more promising, but the rocky layer underneath blocked the growth of the seed just as effectively. Normally the sun should have made the seed root more firmly and deeply as it pushed down in search of moisture. Here the heat withered it instead, and hastened the total destruction of the growth.
The welcome is real as far as it goes. But joy comes without repentance, and nothing holds the plant.
These are the people who hear the word and receive it with joy, but have no root. That is a very serious description: there is a show of receiving, but no root. They receive the Word with joy — not with repentance, but only joy. Now, there may be joy; but where there is no spiritual work in the conscience there is no root. This is very serious, especially where people are taught the basics of Christian truth. The truth may then be taken on trust from a parent — not on God's Word, but on a father, mother, teacher, brother, sister or anyone else. All these things may be at work, but it is mere nature. It is the seed sown on rock: there is no real root, for conscience is the real door. Without conscience the Word of God has no lasting effect.
Because of this verse, some writers treat instant delight as a symptom to watch rather than a result to celebrate.
These people are marked by shallowness. When they hear the word, immediately (Matthew, Mark) they receive it with joy (Matthew, Mark, Luke). The conscience, that fierce self-accuser inside the heart, is clearly not awake. Repentance does not rejoice, as these are said to do; it sits in sackcloth and ashes. Confession of sins is made in tears, not with joy. Peter's hearers, when they heard the word on the day of Pentecost, were "cut to the heart." These in the parable are different. They receive the word for the pleasure it gives — its novelty, its beauty, or something like that.
So is this hearer a pretender? The answer here is no.
Such a man believes. He is not insincere, not a hypocrite. But the Word, like seed in stony ground, has no root in him. His heart was never broken up by conviction of sin, so it stays just as hard as before. The joy in him was too "immediate"; he never found out what he really was, and never took the place of the lost so that Christ might save him. He believed a doctrine; he never came to Jesus. He had joy, not peace. There was no change in the man himself, and no root. Notice, it was not what had root that withered; it withered because it had no root. It would not have withered if it had had root.
The falling away is not the cause of the failure but its exposure. Trouble does not destroy the plant; it reveals that there was never a root.
In whatever form it comes, trial does one of two things. It either proves that faith is real and strengthens the faith that is there, or it exposes an empty profession. That is what happens to the stony-ground hearer: "when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away."
Set against the rock is the fourth soil, where the same seed lasts — and the difference is not in the sower or the seed.
Along with the Word of God, there is the work of the Spirit. It is these that produce this honest and good heart. So the heart is purified by faith, and that works through the sense and confession of our sinfulness. Luke, as always, brings out the moral roots, both of what hinders and of what receives the Word.
- Rock — Under a thin layer of soil lies unbroken stone. The fault is in the ground, not in the seed or the sower.
- Joy — This hearer takes the word with gladness but never with repentance. The feelings wake up; the conscience sleeps.
- Root — Conscience is the door. Where God does no work there, nothing takes hold: the plant withered because it had no root, not because a root failed.
- A while — Such a person is not a pretender: he believed a doctrine but never came to Jesus, and had joy without peace.
- Testing — Trouble does not cause the collapse. It shows what was missing all along, and it strengthens faith that is real.
But that that fell where the thorns were, these are they who having heard go away and are choked under cares and riches and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
Jesus is explaining His own parable to the disciples. In this third case nothing looks wrong at first. The hearer takes in the word, growth starts, and then thorns choke it. The question the verse forces is not whether a person listens, but what else is already growing in the same soil.
The thorns are not sown; they are there first. Commentators note that the arrival of the word is what brings the hidden roots to the surface.
Before the good seed fell into the hearts of these thorny ground hearers, the ground was already full of thorn roots. Those roots are the desires for the things of this life, for riches and pleasures. They sprang up and choked the word. Although the roots were already in the heart, they did not spring up until the good seed was sown there. You may not see or feel how tightly present things grip the heart until the word of God puts it to the test.
Of the three thorns, "cares" is the hardest to spot, because it wears the face of responsibility.
These "cares" are very subtle things. They come in as necessary duties, and there is no sin in doing your duty. No — it is right that a man should do his duty in his daily work. But if these duties choke the word, and a man loses his soul through it, what then? … this covetous care about earthly things is so subtle that you cannot lay a hand on anything wrong, and yet the practical power of Christian life in the soul is gone — though of course, I hardly need to say, eternal life can never be lost in those who once had it.
Luke's list ends with pleasures, and one writer calls that thorn the deadliest of the three.
The last of the three is the most deadly of all at the present. The pleasures of this life are abundant. There has never been such variety, and crowds are intoxicated by them. Long queues outside the cinemas, and huge crowds cheering at football matches, are proof enough of how deeply pleasure has eaten into people's hearts. They think of little else; by these things they live.
The previous soil failed under heat and pressure. This one fails without any attack at all.
It is a more solemn warning, perhaps, than either of the others. Here the Word seems to have a deeper hold. What overthrows this faith is not the violent attack of persecution. It is the quiet influence of the ordinary things around us all. Every one of us proves, more or less, how being taken up with needful and lawful things tends to become a "care." That care drains the life out of all that is of God within us. Soul-care is not despised, but just crowded out.
The failure is not a rejection of the word. It is the wish to keep the word and hold on to everything else, and the verse says such a life never ripens into fruit.
The thorns stand for the cares, riches and pleasures of this life. Many people let these things rule their whole existence. They would like the Word too, and they accept it in a general way, but it does not mean as much to them as the material vanities — things that are only thorns and bring trouble in the end. There is no real room for both, and one who wants both will find that it is the Word that is choked out. In this case, though the seed of the Word is good, no mature fruit comes from it.
Set the three accounts of this parable side by side and the positive picture fills out.
In Matthew the fruitful ones hear and understand. In Mark they hear and receive. In Luke they hear and keep. To understand, to receive, and to keep are all needed if you are to be a fruit-bearing hearer of the Word of God.
One writer names which of the three thorns weighs heaviest, then points to the cure.
And it is likely that the cares of this life, more than its riches and pleasures, are what burden the people we were asked about. Is there a remedy? We believe there is. It is a fuller knowledge of the Father and His care for them. If they want to know Him, they must look closely at His beloved Son.
- Room — The heart has only so much room, and the thorn roots were there before the seed. What already grows in you decides what the word can become.
- Cares — The first thorn hides inside legitimate duty. It never announces itself as sin, which is exactly why it wins.
- Riches and pleasures — The other two thorns promise fullness now. Multitudes live for them and think of little else.
- Choked — This soil is not attacked; it is crowded. The concern for the soul is never denied, only squeezed out until nothing ripens.
- Cure — Hear, understand, receive, keep — and learn the Father's care through His Son. Knowing the Father's care is what clears the ground.
But that in the good ground, these are they who in an honest and good heart, having heard the word keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
The parable's final soil is the only one that produces a crop. Luke describes it by the state of the heart, not by the size of the harvest. Two questions follow: where does such a heart come from, and why does the fruit need patience?
The seed was the same in every case. The difference lay in the ground. One writer traces that difference to its source:
The seed is the word of God, and is the same in each of the cases before us. There was nothing defective in the seed. The results have to do with the soil or ground. Luke speaks of an honest and good heart; that is never found in man naturally, but only as produced by the grace of God.
What makes such a heart honest? Not the absence of sin:
This does not mean the heart was without sin. It means the heart realised and owned its sin, like the tax collector: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." No one is honest in the sight of God who does not feel and own his sin. Owning our sin breaks up the hard ground. The heart then receives the word of salvation, holds it fast, and bears fruit with patience.
Luke traces both the failures and the success back to what is going on inside a person. One commentator sets the two agents side by side:
Where the Word is received, Luke describes people who hear it, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. Along with the Word of God there is the working of the Spirit. Together they produce this honest and good heart. So faith purifies the heart, and it does so through feeling and confessing our sinfulness. Luke, as always, brings out the moral roots, both of what hinders and of what receives the Word.
The phrase joins two Greek words with different shades of meaning. One writer gives an example of each:
"Honest and good" was the Greek ideal, kalos kagathos. The word agathos is like the Hebrew tou, "good" in the sense of doing good; compare Matthew 7:17; Matthew 20:15; Matthew 25:21 onwards. Mary of Bethany illustrates kalos, "excellent," and Joseph of Arimathea illustrates agathos.
"Honest" here is wider than the English word today. It is not only about telling the truth. One reference work says it covers "any honourable conduct," and lists this verse with Romans 12:17 and Philippians 4:8 (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
Luke's word for the fruitful hearer is that he holds fast. Reading the three accounts together fills out the picture:
All of them heard the word, but not all were fruitful. To get the full instruction of this parable, we must keep in view what each of the three Gospel writers who recorded it tells us. In Matthew the fruitful ones hear and understand. In Mark they hear and receive. In Luke they hear and keep. To understand, to receive, and to keep are all necessary to be a fruit-bearing hearer of the Word of God.
Luke ends with "patience." One writer explains it as "a patient endurance that does not give way under trial and suffering" (J. A. Trench). What keeps such people going is not the fruit itself but Christ:
They may seem to the world to be bright and blessed fruits, but if people do not have Christ they grow tired. There will be no enduring unless Christ has possession of the soul. But if He has, there will be a lasting motive, and people will go on and "bear fruit with patience." Those who hear and keep it go steadily on. Their motive for action is in the Lord. Trouble may come into the church. Disappointment may arise, even from fellow believers. But they go on just the same, because they have Christ before them. The word they have heard and keep connects them with Christ, and He is more than anything else.
Luke also leaves out the smaller yields. He names only the full harvest: "one measure, and that is perfect — one hundredfold." It shows "the work of God in the soul by the Word of God" (J T Mawson).
- Ground, not seed. The seed never fails. Every difference in the harvest traces back to the soil. That is why the Lord explains the outcome by describing a heart.
- Ploughed first. An honest heart is one that owns its sin rather than one free of it — broken-up ground, not naturally good ground.
- Given, not grown. Grace produces that heart, through the Word and the Spirit working together.
- Held fast. Matthew's hearer understands, Mark's receives, Luke's keeps. Fruitful hearing does all three.
- Proved by time. Fruit comes with endurance. Only a soul that has Christ keeps going when trouble and disappointment come.