Luke 8:4-15
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. As he said these things, he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
Pleasure can prevent maturity. In explaining the parable of the sower, Jesus makes an interesting statement: "as they go on their way they are
choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature" (verse 14). When we think of pleasure we tend to only think of the immediate gratification, but one of the long-term effects is how it "chokes" or constricts our growth, interfering with our long-term maturity. An example of this is the middle-age man who "has never grown up", but is still trying to live like a teenager obsessed with sex and girls; as he gets older his choice of pleasure over maturity becomes more and more pathetic. But the pleasure "chokes" his growth by focusing his attention on the wrong thing. The imagery of "choke" is that there is no room for anything else to get through, and that is what tends to happen with someone who is obsessed with pleasure: there is no room for God or anything else in the chokehold of their tunnel vision.
Lord, help me to not be choked by the pleasures and distractions of life.
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. As he said these things, he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
Pleasure can prevent maturity. In explaining the parable of the sower, Jesus makes an interesting statement: "as they go on their way they are
choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature" (verse 14). When we think of pleasure we tend to only think of the immediate gratification, but one of the long-term effects is how it "chokes" or constricts our growth, interfering with our long-term maturity. An example of this is the middle-age man who "has never grown up", but is still trying to live like a teenager obsessed with sex and girls; as he gets older his choice of pleasure over maturity becomes more and more pathetic. But the pleasure "chokes" his growth by focusing his attention on the wrong thing. The imagery of "choke" is that there is no room for anything else to get through, and that is what tends to happen with someone who is obsessed with pleasure: there is no room for God or anything else in the chokehold of their tunnel vision.
Lord, help me to not be choked by the pleasures and distractions of life.