Matthew 13:22

_HEAR YE THEREFORE THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

22._And he who received the seed among thorns. _He places in the third class, 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...

1-23 Jesus entered into a boat that he might be the less pressed, and be the better heard by the people. By this he teaches us in the outward circumstances of worship not to covet that which is stately, but to make the best of the conveniences God in his providence allots to us. Christ taught in parables. Thereby the things of God were made more plain and easy to those willing to be taught, and at the same time more difficult and obscure to those who were willingly ignorant. The parable of the sower is plain. The seed sown is the word of God. The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself, or by his ministers. Preaching to a multitude is sowing the corn; we know not where it will light. Some sort of ground, though we take ever so much pains with it, brings forth no fruit to purpose, while the good soil brings forth plentifully. So it is with the hearts of men, whose different characters...

Verse Matthew 13:22. _HE ALSO THAT RECEIVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS_] In land _ploughed_, but not properly _cleared_ and _seeded_. _Is he _- represents that person _who heareth the word, but the cares_, rather _the anxiety_, η μεριμνα, the whole system of anxious carking cares. Lexicographers derive the word μεριμνα from μεριζειν τον νουν, _dividing_, or _distracting the mind_. Thus a poet, _Tot me impediunt curae quae meum animum diverse_ _trahunt_. "So many cares hinder me which draw my mind _different_ ways." _Terence_. _THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES_] Which promi

See also Mark 4:13; Luke 8:11. “Hear ye, therefore, the parable of the sower.” That is, hear the “explanation” or the “spiritual meaning” of the narrative given before. Mark adds Mark 4:13, “Know ye not this parable? And how, then, shall ye know all parables?” By which it seems that the Saviour regarded this as one of the simplest and plainest of the parables, and gave an explanation of it that they might understand the general principles of interpreting others. Matthew 13:19 WHEN ANY ONE HEARETH ... - The seed represents the word of God communicated in any manner to the minds o

EXPOSITION A few remarks by way of introduction to the characteristic portion of this chapter (Matthew 13:1). (1) We have here a collection of the Lord's parables, all spoken, as it would appear, at an early period in his ministry, descriptive of the principles of the kingdom of heaven as they make themselves felt in history, and of the way in which those who are brought into contact with the kingdom ought to act. As the chapter stands, it consists of three chief parts, which probably roughly correspond to three stages of development in its composition. (A) Matthew 13:1, also in Mark and Luke, except some characteristic enlargements in verses 10-17. The section contains the parable of the sower and its interpretation, together with a statemen

HE ALSO THAT RECEIVETH SEED AMONG THE THORNS,.... The hearer that is like to the thorny ground, on which the seed fell, IS HE THAT HEARETH THE WORD; not a profane sinner, nor a reviler of religion, or a persecutor of the saints; but one that not only shows a love to the word, but who seems to have his heart broken under it, and by it, his conscience tender, and his life outwardly reformed; one, who besides his being a settled, diligent, understanding, and affectionate hearer of the word, and a believing receiver and professor of it, seems to have a thorough work of grace upon him, to have the fallow ground of his heart ploughed up, and to be truly contrite; the thorns being under ground, and not yet to be seen, but afterwards appear: AND THE CARE OF THIS WORLD; not the care of another world, nor a care about spiritual things in this world, nor even a proper, laudable care of the things...

Matthew 13:1. _The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore._ I think I can see the little ship at a convenient distance from the shore so as to keep off the multitudes of people, in order that the Saviour might speak the more freely, there he sits with a boat for a pulpit. There were no conventionalities about the Lord Jesus when he was upon the earth, he was willing to speak to the people anywhere from any pulpit whatsoever Matthew 13:3. _And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;_ It was probably at that season of the year when the sowers were going forth to so

II. THE REJECTED KINGDOM AND THE REJECTED KING. CHAPTER S 13-28. 1. The King at the Seaside. The Mysteries of the Kingdom. CHAPTER 13 1. The King at the Seaside. (Matthew 13:1 .) 2. The Parable of the Sower. (Matthew 13:3 .) 3. The Question of the Disciples and His Answer. (Matthew 13:10 .) 4. The Parable of the Sower Explained. (Matthew 13:18 .) 5. The Parable of the Good Seed and the Tares. (Matthew 13:24 .) 6. The Parable of the Mustard Seed....

EXPLANATION OF THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER (Mark 4:13 *, Luke 8:11). Little need be added to what is said on p. 686. The parable no doubt reflects the experience of Jesus. Like the sower He, in His work of preparing the people for the Kingdom, encounters difficulties of different kinds and partial failure. Much of His preaching has been thrown away. Yet He is not daunted; the reward is sure. When the Kingdom comes, the work will be justified and its disappointments forgotten. These ideas are further illustrated by the other parables of the chapter. Note that Mt. somewhat modifies the hard saying of Mark 4:11 f. Jesus uses parables not to blind the Jews, but, since they have no capacity for Divine truth, to leave them in the dark