<p>4:19 <i>And the cares of the world- </i>In our age as never before, given more possibilities and knowledge of possible futures and what could go wrong, we have as never before the temptation to be full of such care. The same word is used in Lk. 21:34 about the &quot;cares&quot; which will be a feature of the last days- both of AD70 and today. But in the first instance, the 'world' in view was the Jewish world.</p><p><i>And the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things entering in- </i>There are not a few Bible passages which present materialism as&nbsp;<i>the</i>&nbsp;besetting temptation of every human soul, and which confirm that therefore our attitude to materialism,&nbsp;serving God or mammon, is the litmus test of our spirituality. The parable of the sower teaches that for those who begin well in the Truth, who don't fall away immediately or get discouraged by persecution, &quot;the deceitfulness of riches... the cares and pleasures of this life&quot; will be their temptation. I would have expected the Lord to either speak in more general terms about the flesh, or to reel off a list of common vices. But instead He focuses on the desire for wealth as the real problem.&nbsp; The love of wealth is the root of&nbsp;<i>all</i>&nbsp;evil behaviour (1 Tim. 6:10). And I would go further, and suggest that so many of the excuses we hear which relate to &quot;I haven't got time&quot; (for reading, preaching, meeting, writing...) are related to this desire for material improvement. The desire for advancement takes an iron grip on a man's soul. As we move through life, our thinking is concerned with prices, with possibilities, with schemings... what&nbsp;<i>ought</i>&nbsp;to be the surpassingly dominating aspect of our life, the Son of God and His Truth, takes a poor second place. The connection between the desire for riches and the devil (our nature) is powerful. The devil is a deceiver. And 'riches' is also a deceiver (Mt. 13:22). That we know for sure. The desire for material things, for the false security of bank balances, the excuse that we are allowing ourselves to be so preoccupied for the sake of our families, the idea that we are only human beings and so God will let us be dominated by these worries... all this is the deception of the flesh. God&nbsp;<i>does</i>&nbsp;remember that we are dust, and yes, of course we&nbsp;<i>must</i>&nbsp;provide for our own, some thought (but not&nbsp;<i>anxious</i>&nbsp;thought) must be given to tomorrow (Mt. 6:25,31,34). But these facts must never make us push God's Truth into&nbsp;<i>second</i>&nbsp;place. The lilies of the field are fed and dressed by God without anxiously worrying about it. Israel on their wilderness journey were miraculously provided with food&nbsp;<i>and clothing,</i>&nbsp;surely to prefigure God's basic material care of His spiritual Israel of later years. David, all his life long, never saw the seed of the righteous begging bread (Ps. 37:25).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>Choke the word- </i>Paul had thought deeply about the parables. He doesn't just half-quote them in an offhand way. For example, that riches choke a man's response to the word. 1 Tim. 6:9 warns that those who&nbsp;<i>want to be rich</i>&nbsp;are choked by their&nbsp;<i>desire&nbsp;</i>for riches. Likewise Paul saw the rich man of Mt. 19:23 as actually one who&nbsp;<i>wanted</i>&nbsp;to be rich (= 1 Tim. 6:9,10). So Paul had thought through the parable. He saw that possession of riches alone wouldn't choke a man; he saw that the Lord was using &quot;riches&quot; as meaning 'the desire for riches'. And because &quot;riches&quot; are relative and subjective, this must be right. And therefore the Spirit was able to use Paul's deductions. My point is that the Spirit&nbsp;<i>could</i>&nbsp;have used just anyone to write (e.g.) 1 Tim. 6:9. But it was no accident that God chose to use a man with a fine knowledge and appreciation of His Son to be His pen-man.</p><p><i>And it becomes unfruitful</i>- Mt. 13:22 has &quot;he becomes unfruitful&quot;. The types of ground represent the hearts of various categories of people. We expect to read that&nbsp;<i>the seed</i>&nbsp;becomes unfruitful. But the seed never does, it never of itself loses its power and life. The seed of the word, of Jesus who is&nbsp;<i>the</i>&nbsp;seed, becomes the person. The word is to be made flesh in us as it was to perfection in the Lord (Jn. 1:14). See on 13:6&nbsp;<i>withered</i>. The word becoming unfruitful in Mt. 13:22 is matched by it yielding &quot;no fruit&quot; (Mk. 4:7) and no fruit being perfected in Lk. 8:14. The conclusion from this is that spiritual fruit which is developed but does not remain is not really fruit at all. There is the constant temptation for us to recognize just a bit of apparent 'growth' within us, and feel satisfied with it- rather than taking on board the concept of the word having a fullness of effect upon every part of our lives. Given the lesson of the thorns, there is no doubt that one must watch their friends even within the ecclesia. &quot;Thorns and snares are in the way of the forward: he that doth keep (the Hebrew for &quot;keep&quot; is often used in Proverbs about keeping the word) his soul shall be far from them&quot; (Prov. 22:5). The language of thorns must connect with the curse upon Eden; the ecclesia, the paradise of God, must always have its thorns in order to spiritually exercise Adam, the spiritual gardener. As our brother's keeper, we need to be aware that after conversion, a whole gamut of new temptations face the convert.&nbsp;<i>After</i>&nbsp;he has heard the word, he is choked with the cares, riches and pleasures (Lk. 8:14). Yet these things existed before he heard the word; the point is that they became new temptations after his response to the word. A concerted effort to understand, with Biblical guidance, the pressures upon new converts might help save a few more of the many which are being lost.</p>