I. As the Lord is evermore speaking to us, and we evermore hearing Him, so must the receiving the Word with joy be extended in its meaning to include all possible receptions of that which He says. And, thus extended, we may interpret the characteristic to mean, as applied to the class before us, that they are such as do not present to the suggestions of Christ's spirit a hard, impenetrable heart; whose surface is not trodden down like the wayside, so that the seed lies on it exposed to the passing depredator, but soft and genial, so that it sinks in at once; whose soil is not the cold unkindly clay, which would keep back the seed, but warm and open, so that it swells and springs up without delay. It is good, doubtless, in a certain sense, to receive the Word with joy; it cannot be for a moment doubted, that among those who receive it with joy are some of the best and the noblest of us, some of the very flower and choice of our society.
II. "These," it is added, "have no root." The seed within them, so quick to germinate, found no depth of soil wherein to strike its roots. Above, all was genial and inviting growth; but beneath, all was hard and impenetrable. (1) Impressibility is liable to be joined with want of depth of character; it is no criterion of genuine religion, no guarantee for endurance; in other words, what are called religious impressions are very far from being religion, and must not be mistaken for it. (2) There is another perilous consideration for the susceptible. Men are not strongly impressed on one subject only. They hear the Word with joy; but it is not the only thing which they thus hear. The world, too, has a voice, the tempter has a voice; all these, it is to be feared, they hear with joy likewise such, at least, is their tendency. They have no root; nothing with them strikes deep into the individual character. Their joy in the Word is evanescent, their impression fleeting. That love to Christ which sprung up in their hearts, that holy obedience which seemed to be the rule of their lives, having no root, never having come from firm conviction or thorough persuasion, shall pass away, and be as though they had never been.
H. Alford, Sermons at Cambridge,p. 25.
References: Luke 8:13. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 11; J. Vaughan, Sermons,11th series, p. 45.