<p>13:12&nbsp;<em>For whoever has, to him shall be given and he shall have abundance- </em>The faithful do not get the blessing solely by their own effort, but through the gift of God. The context requires we understand this as 'having' the ability to hear the Lord's words and practically 'understand' them (:9). Mt. 13:12 speaks of what a man has, whereas Lk. 8:18 AV mg. more precisely speaks of what a man&nbsp;<em>thinks</em>&nbsp;he has. Matthew&rsquo;s record adopts a more human perspective. This Greek word for &quot;abundance&quot; is used about the 'abundance' which characterizes the life of the believer. But the 'abundance' is not of material things, but of understanding of and thereby relationship with the Lord.</p>
<p><em>But whoever has not, from him shall be taken away even what he has-&nbsp;</em>The language is difficult, but makes good sense if we understand &lsquo;what a man has&rsquo; as referring to what that generation had due to responding to John&rsquo;s preaching; but because they had not followed where it led, they were left with nothing. The ideas are similar to the parable the Lord had just given of the demon being thrown out of the house of Israel by John the Baptist, but then returning. The language is arrestingly and purposefully strange. How can a man who has nothing have what he has taken away from him? All is clearer once we accept the initial context as being the Lord's commentary upon Israel's initial response to John the Baptist, and subsequent rejection of his ministry insofar as they rejected Jesus as Messiah. What they had once had- an initial response to the word sown- was now being taken away from them. This likewise explains the language of the next verse- that it was by the process of seeing and hearing that they became blind and deaf. It was their initial seeing and hearing of John's message which had made them now totally blind and deaf- because they had not responded to it.</p>