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. (Matthew 13:22)
Christ speaks here of those who would have been disposed to
receive the seed within, if they had not permitted other things to
corrupt and render it degenerate.
Christ compares to thorns the pleasures of this life,
or wicked desires, and covetousness, and the other anxieties of the flesh.
Matthew mentions only the care of this life, along with covetousness,
but the meaning is the same; for under that term he includes the allurements of
pleasures, which Luke mentions, and every kind of desire. As corn, which
otherwise might have been productive, no sooner rises into the stalk than it is
choked by thorns and other matters injurious to its growth; so the sinful
affections of the flesh prevail over the hearts of men, and overcome faith, and
thus destroy the force of the heavenly doctrine, before it has reached
maturity.
Now though sinful desires exert their power on the hearts of
men, before the word of the Lord springs up into the blade, yet, at first,
their influence is not perceived, and it is only when the corn has grown up,
and given promise of fruit, that they gradually make their appearance.
Each of us ought to endeavor to tear the thorns out
of his heart, if we do not choose that the word of God should be choked; for
there is not one of us whose heart is not filled with a vast quantity, and, as
I may say, a thick forest, of thorns. And, indeed, we perceive how few
there are that reach maturity; for there is scarcely one individual out of ten
that labors, I do not say to root out, but even to cut down the thorns. Nay
more, the very number of the thorns, which is so prodigious that it
ought to shake off our sloth, is the reason why most people give themselves no
trouble about them. (Commentaries)
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