Chapters 4:10-20.
10AND when he was alone those about him with the twelve asked (of) him the parables. 11And he said to them, To you (it) is given (to know) the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those (that are) without all (these) things are done in parables; 12That seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest perhaps they should be converted and they should be forgiven (their sins). 13And he saith to them, Know ye not this parable? and how (then) will ye be acquainted with all the parables? 14The sower soweth the word. 15And these are they beside the way (side) where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately cometh Satan and taketh away the word that hath been sown in them (their hearts). 16And these are they likewise which are sown on the rocky [places]; who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, 17and have no root in themselves, but are temporary; then tribulation coming or persecution on account of the word, immediately they are stumbled. 18And others are they that are sown among the thorns; these are they that hear the word, 19and the cares of the age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. 20And these are they that were sown on the good ground, such as hear the word and receive [it], and bear fruit, one thirty (fold), one sixty, and one a hundred.
Notes and Suggestions.
Verse 10. — Alone. The sense is that the Lord was not at that moment engaged in public service. So Luke 9:18.
Verse 11. — The mystery of the kingdom of God. A “mystery” in Biblical phraseology is a secret that cannot be discovered unless it be revealed. Many truths concealed through the Old Testament times are revealed in the New (See Romans 16:25; Ephesians 1:9; 3:3, 9; 6:19; Colossians 1:26; and other passages). Here the “mystery” was the special truth regarding the effect of Christ’s teaching. Being delivered in a parabolic form, it could not be understood until the Lord revealed the explanation. Its meaning He proceeded to make known to the disciples, but not to the multitude, because He was still offering Himself to them as their Messiah. Compare the dreams of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, which were unintelligible without the divine interpretation.
Without. Perhaps referring to the outside of the house where He was. But “without” also has the moral significance of being outside the pale of favor (1 Cor. 5:12,13; Col. 4:5; 1 Thess. 4:12; 1 Tim. 3:7; Rev. 22:15).
Verse 12. — See and not perceive; hear and not understand. The reference here is to the prophecy in Isaiah 6. of the judicial blinding of the nation upon the rejection of Christ (That Isaiah then saw the glory of Christ, see John 12:41). The solemn judgment warned of by the prophet and by the Lord Himself did not fall upon Israel until the utmost limit of patient grace was reached (Acts 28:25-28). It may help to observe that the verse applies exclusively to those who reject Christ. Such are “without.” They hear the word in parables. They hear of the sower, of the seed, and of the soils, but they fail to understand because they are not among those who receive the Lord and consequently get His own interpretation.
Lest they should be forgiven. See note on Mark 3:29. “The Lord does not mean to say here that a soul might not believe in Jesus individually, and thus be forgiven; but that the nation, having rejected the testimony of Jesus, was now deserted of God, left outside, and exposed to His judgment.”
Verse 13. — Know ye not this parable? The parable of the sower was an introductory one; and if the disciples were unable to grasp that, how much less would they be able to enter fully into the instruction still to follow in a similar form. Plainly, not at all, save as the Lord might unfold the meaning to them. This He proceeded to do.
Verse 14. — The sower soweth the word. The Lord was the Sower or the Preacher, His word being the word of life, as He says, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). He sowed the incorruptible seed, “the word of God which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23). John the Baptist was not a sower. “He stood in the desert and cried in the desert; for desert the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts had become. But he did not go forth to sow; he came in the way of righteousness, and pointed onward; but sowing is an act of fresh grace, introducing a new seed, by which life not there is to spring up.”
Verse 15. — Wayside hearers. Such are they who hear the word, but have not the slightest interest in what they hear. There is no effort whatever to retain the good seed. Their hearts are but a highway; earnest, loving, life-giving words pass through, but never stay. The solemn discourse goes “in one ear and out of the other.”
Satan. We might have supposed that the birds of the air would have answered to the emissaries of the evil one; but the Lord points us to the prime instigator of these thefts—Satan, or the wicked one (Matt. 13:19). The seed “never entered; it was but on the wayside: civil conversation or speculation on the discourse, perhaps admiring it, was the devil taking the seed away; for He is not speaking of opposition here.”
Verse 16. — Stony-ground hearers. These are the victims of feelings which are easily and quickly swayed. On hearing the word they receive it at once; but on affliction or persecution arising on account of it, they abandon it with the same readiness. They
Immediately receive it with joy (verse 16);
Immediately are stumbled (verse 17).
Their hearts are touched, but not their consciences. “The doctrine is received for the joy that the message brings; and when the word brings sufferings instead of joy the heart wishes no more of it.”
Verse 17. — No root in themselves. Simon Peter had (John 6:68); but there were many who showed on that occasion that they had not (John 6:66). Compare the Lord’s words to the rash scribe who said to the Lord, “I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest” (Matt. 8:19, 20). He had not counted the cost.
Verse 18. — Thorny-ground hearers. These are they who seek to serve God and mammon. They lack the single eye and the undivided heart, being double-minded. The world and its things engross the heart’s attention. Business occupations, not having the “evil look of gross sin” enchain the soul; and, in result, the word is choked and there is no fruit. Such a person, though not dead, sleeps, and “does not understand spiritual things; he does not see or even enjoy them. Unhappy in the presence of spiritual Christians, he enjoys not the things they enjoy, and suffers even from reproofs of his own conscience. And if he goes with the world he suffers also in reflecting on it, his conscience reproaching him for want of faithfulness; like a sick man who suffers, he is not dead; otherwise he would not suffer; but it is a sad means of knowing that life is there.”
Verse 19. — Cares of the age. The anxieties after the necessaries of this life, to which the poor are specially subject, crush the growth and development and fruition of the spiritual life. We are to be anxious for nothing (Phil. 4:6).
The deceitfulness of riches. This is a word for the rich; for riches entwine themselves insensibly around the motives and affections, choking the word. “The more money we get, the more good we can do,” folks say. But Mammon is deceitful.
The lusts of other things. This comprehends every other worldly snare, and applies to poor and rich.
Verse 20. — Good ground. The saints at Thessalonica and Colosse are examples of those in whom the word bore fruit (Col. 1:6; 1 Thess. 1:5-10; 2:13).
THE capacity to love God is that which we get by being partakers of the divine nature.