And the seed on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy. Having no root, these believe for a while and fall away in a time of testing.
What am I going to do with you, Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist and like the early dew that vanishes.
Yes, to them you are like a singer of passionate songs who has a beautiful voice and plays skilfully on an instrument. They hear your words, but they don’t obey them.
These people are dangerous reefs at your love feasts as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn #– #fruitless, twice dead and uprooted.
For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.
They seek me day after day and delight to know my ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not abandon the justice of their God. They ask me for righteous judgements; they delight in the nearness of God.’
For this reason, when I could no longer stand it, I also sent him to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter had tempted you and that our labour might be for nothing.
if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing he was a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard him he would be very perplexed, , and yet he liked to listen to him.
They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.
The seed along the path are those who have heard and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
As for the seed that fell among thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches, and pleasures of life, and produce no mature fruit.