This is part of the book: "The Warnings of the New Testament".
The Parable of the Sower
To start let’s go to the well-known parable of the sower, mentioned in three out of the four gospels. We will read here the record of Luke:
Luke 8:5-8, 11-15
"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. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 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. .... Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 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. 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. 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. 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."
We have in this parable all the possible outcomes of the seed of the Word of God. As we see, in the first category the Word did not enter in the hearts of the recipients. They did not believe it. In contrast, the second and third categories received the Word but none of the two brought forth fruit. Why, we will see in the next section. Finally, the fourth category was the only one that heard the Word, received it and bore fruit. Our focus in this chapter will be on the second and third categories of this parable, as these relate more to the topic of this study.
Author: Anastasios Kioulachoglou