Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

In the next two types of soils there is an initial response, though it is superficial. For some, “in the time of testing” they “fall away” (GK 923; a word related to “apostasy”), for they cannot endure adversity.

The third soil has to do, not with adversity, but with distractions of this world, like those Jesus warned against in 11:34–36; 12:22–32; 16:13. These distractions prohibit a person’s faith from maturing. (That this matter of being fruitful is not simply a matter of the quality of one’s Christian life but of whether one has life at all is suggested by Jesus’ parallel teaching on wealth in Mt 6:19–34.) The unresponsive people described in this part of the parable apparently

lack the necessary essentials to true saving faith.