And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
This verse is Jesus explaining his own parable of the sower — a story he told about a farmer scattering seed on four different types of ground. The farming images were immediately familiar to his audience. The "thorns" represent a specific kind of person: someone who hears the message of God's kingdom but whose life is so crowded — with anxiety about the future, the pursuit of money, and craving for more things — that the message never grows and bears real fruit. The word "choke" is deliberately graphic, describing something alive being slowly strangled. Jesus isn't labeling these things as obviously evil in themselves, but warns that left unchecked, they quietly suffocate spiritual life.
Lord, I don't always see the thorns growing until they've already done damage. Show me honestly what is crowding out what you've planted in me. Give me the courage to name it and the willingness to let you do the weeding. I want to be good soil — not perfect soil, but ground that's actually open to you. Amen.
Nobody sits down and decides, "Today I will let worry strangle my faith." It doesn't announce itself. It happens in the slow accumulation of ordinary Tuesdays — the mortgage payment that keeps you awake at 3 AM, the relentless comparison scrolling on your phone, the wanting that never quite resolves into enough. Jesus doesn't call these things sins, exactly. He calls them thorns. And thorns don't show up with a warning label. They grow gradually, right alongside everything good, until one day you look up and realize the good thing has stopped growing. The word "choke" is worth sitting with, because it implies something that was once alive. The word took root in you — you heard it, maybe you felt it, maybe something genuinely stirred. But then the crowding got worse. The worries got louder. The wanting got bigger. And the word got quieter. Here's the honest question: what is actually growing in the same field as your faith right now? Not what should be there — what is. You cannot pull thorns you haven't named. Start there.
Jesus names three specific "thorns" — worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and desires for other things. Which of these do you think is easiest to overlook or rationalize in your own life, and why?
Can you think of a specific season when worry or the pursuit of something genuinely crowded out your spiritual life? What did that feel like from the inside — did you even notice it happening in real time?
Jesus calls wealth specifically "deceitful" — not just risky or dangerous, but deceptive. What are the lies wealth tends to tell us? Where have you found yourself believing them?
How do the thorns in your life affect the people around you — are you more distracted, more anxious, or less present with the people you love because of them?
Name one specific thorn you need to honestly acknowledge right now. What would one practical step toward removing it look like this week?
He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
Matthew 13:22
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Matthew 6:25
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
1 John 2:17
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
Luke 21:34
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
Luke 10:41
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:10
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
1 Timothy 6:9
but the worries and cares of the world [the distractions of this age with its worldly pleasures], and the deceitfulness [and the false security or glamour] of wealth [or fame], and the passionate desires for all the other things creep in and choke out the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
AMP
but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
ESV
but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
NASB
but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
NIV
and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
NKJV
but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.
NLT
but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.
MSG