And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,
This verse is part of Jesus explaining his parable of the sower — a story about a farmer scattering seed on four different types of ground. The seed that falls "among thorns" represents a specific type of person. Jesus sets up verse 18 as the starting point: these people genuinely do hear the word. They are not the ones who never listened or who rejected the message outright. The hearing happened. This verse functions almost like a pause — a moment of recognition before the difficult reality arrives in the next verse. It establishes that hearing is real and meaningful, but also that hearing alone is not the finish line.
Jesus, I have heard more than I have lived. There are things you've planted in me that I've let get crowded out — not from defiance, just from distraction. Give me ears that don't just receive but actually hold on. Move me from hearing to bearing fruit. Amen.
Here is what is striking about this particular soil: these are not the people who never showed up. They are not hard-hearted or outright hostile. They heard the word. Maybe they sat somewhere and something genuinely resonated. Maybe a conversation about faith landed in a real place. Maybe they read a passage and felt, briefly, like it was written for them. Jesus doesn't dispute any of that — the hearing was genuine. And yet verse 19 is already forming on the horizon, patient and slow. It is worth asking yourself honestly: in what areas of your life have you heard something from God and just... not let it go deeper? You heard the invitation to forgive someone who hurt you. You heard the nudge toward generosity. You heard the word about the habit that is slowly pulling you under. You heard it. But then something else moved in — something urgent, something that felt like necessity. Hearing is good; it is real; it matters. But it is only step one. What would it look like today to move from hearing to actually holding on?
In Jesus's parable, what makes the thorny-ground person different from the person on the hard path or the rocky ground? What does Jesus seem to be zeroing in on with this specific type?
Think about the last time you genuinely heard something from God — in a sermon, a conversation, or a passage of scripture. What actually happened to it over the following days and weeks?
Is it possible to be a committed churchgoer, a regular Bible reader, and still be "thorny-ground soil"? What would that look like from the outside — and from the inside?
Is there someone in your life who seems to be in the "hearing" stage of faith right now? How does knowing what can come next affect how you might walk alongside them?
What is one word or truth you have genuinely heard but haven't fully acted on? What one step could you take this week to let it actually take root in your daily life?
And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,
AMP
And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word,
ESV
'And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,
NASB
Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;
NIV
Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word,
NKJV
The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word,
NLT
"The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news
MSG