Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 13:22

"And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he that heareth the word; and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful." — Matthew 13:22 (ASV)

He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

This class of hearers we know by personal acquaintance in this busy age. They hear the word, they are affected by the gospel, they take it as seed into their minds, and it grows well for a season. But the heart cannot belong to two absorbing objects at the same time, and therefore these men cannot long yield themselves up to the world and Christ too.

Care to get money, covetousness, trickery, and sins which come from hasting to be rich, or else pride, luxury, oppression, and other sins which come from having obtained wealth, prevent the man from being useful in religious matters, or even sincere to himself: He becomes unfruitful. He keeps his profession; he occupies his place; but his religion does not grow; in fact, it shows sad signs of being choked and checked by worldliness.

The leaf of outward religiousness is there, but there is no dew on it; the ear of promised fruit is there, but there are no kernels in it. The weeds have outgrown the wheat, and smothered it. We cannot grow thorn and corn at the same time: the attempt is fatal to a harvest for Jesus.

See how wealth is here associated with care, deceitfulness, and unfruitfulness. It is a thing to be handled with care. Why are men so eager to make their thorn-brake more dense with briars?

Would not a good farmer root out the thorns and brambles?

Should we not, as much as possible, keep free from the care to get, to preserve, to increase, and to hoard worldly riches? Our heavenly Father will see that we have enough; why do we fret about earthly things? We cannot give our minds to these things and to the kingdom also.

He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

Dear friends, who have to teach the young, you have, in their case, less danger in this respect. They have not yet come to the time when the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches will choke the word. You have some advantage over us, though even the little things of a child's play may make nettles and thorns. Things which we might not consider to be cares that seem too trivial – are cares to them.

It may be that our heavenly Father thinks of our cares very much as we think of our children's cares, and as we might smile to see them distrustful, so it may be that he smiles and grieves whenever he finds us so; for, mark this, even among God's own people, God's Word cannot grow in our hearts at the rate it should, for we have the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.

We must cry to be lifted above these – delivered from the evil influences of the world in which we dwell – or else our good Lord and Master will waste many a handful of good seed upon us, though, I trust, that he will yet get some harvest from us.

We know this class of hearers by personal acquaintance in this busy age. They hear the word, they are affected by the Gospel, they take it as seed into their minds, and it grows well for a time. However, the heart cannot belong to two absorbing objects at the same time, and therefore these individuals cannot long yield themselves to both the world and Christ.

The anxiety to get money, covetousness, trickery, and sins which come from rushing to be rich—or else pride, luxury, oppression, and other sins which come from having obtained wealth—prevent such a person from being useful in religious matters, or even sincere to himself, and becometh unfruitful.

He keeps his profession. He occupies his place, but his religion does not grow; in fact, it shows sad signs of being choked and checked by worldliness. The leaf of outward religiousness is there, but there is no dew on it. The ear of promised fruit is there, but there are no kernels in it. The weeds have outgrown the wheat and smothered it.

We cannot grow thorns and grain at the same time. The attempt is fatal to a harvest for Jesus.

See how wealth is here associated with anxiety, deceitfulness, and unfruitfulness. It is a thing to be handled with care. Why are people so eager to make their thicket of thorns more dense with briers? Would not a good farmer root out the thorns and brambles? Should we not, as much as possible, keep free from the anxiety to get, preserve, increase, and hoard worldly riches?

Our heavenly Father will see that we have enough. Why do we fret about earthly things? We cannot give our minds both to these things and to the kingdom.