Matthew 13:22 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

He also that received seed among the thorns. — See Note on Matthew 13:19. Here there is no over-rapid growth, and there is some depth of earth. The character is not one that wastes its strength in vague emotions, but has the capacity for sustained effort. The evil here is, that while there is strength of purpose, there is not unity of spirit. The man is double-minded, and would fain serve two masters. The “care of this world” (the word is the root of the verb “take no thought” in Matthew 6:25), the deceitfulness of earthly riches — cheating the soul with its counterfeit shows of good — these choke the “word” in its inner life, and it becomes “unfruitful.” There may be some signs of fruitfulness, perhaps the “blade” and the “ear” of partial reformation and strivings after holiness, but there is no “full corn in the ear.” In St. Luke’s words, such men “bring no fruit to perfection” (Luke 8:14). To the simpler root-forms of evil in St. Matthew, St. Mark adds “the lusts (or desires) about other things” — i.e., the things that are other than the true life — and St. Luke, “the pleasures of life” to which wealth ministers, and for the sake of which, therefore, men pursue it.