Love for money causes all kinds of evil. By trying to get rich, some people have wandered away from the faith and been hurt by many sad things that have happened to them.
People who want to get rich are tempted, and they fall into a trap. They start to have many foolish and harmful desires that drag them down into ruin and destruction.
Those people need to be stopped. They’re disrupting entire families by teaching things they shouldn’t, and they’re doing it just to try to cheat people.
Woe to them! They’ve followed the way of Cain. Because they love money, they’ve rushed into the same mistake Balaam made. They’ve rebelled just like Korah, and they’re going to be destroyed just as he was.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You don’t enter yourselves, but you won’t let in other people who are trying to enter.
cinnamon, spices, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; cattle, sheep, horses, wagons, and human beings sold as slaves.
The seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear the message but then have it crowded out by the worries of this life and the false promises of wealth, which keep it from producing fruit.
but then the worries of this life, the false promises of wealth, and the desire for other things crowd out the message and keep it from producing fruit.