Charles Spurgeon Commentary Luke 8:13

"And those on the rock [are] they who, when they have heard, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away." — Luke 8:13 (ASV)

And these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

These have no root, and they never had any root. If you give your child a little garden for himself, perhaps he will go and pluck the heads from some of your flowers, put them in the ground, and say, "There, father, see what a nice garden of flowers I have."

But they have no root, and so they very soon wither away. These are like men's converts, of whom we read that so many scores came forward—the whole of the people in the parish were said to be converted—but in six weeks you cannot find one of them. How often this is the case! We begin to be afraid of those statistics because there is so little truth in them; and yet, if only one were saved out of a hundred, how grateful we should be!

They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy;

They are very hasty converts, like men who hurriedly take a bath. They are no sooner in than they are out; it is so speedy that there is more haste than real speed with some of them.