I. With the class of hearers mentioned in this verse all is favourable, and all goes well at first. Hearers of this kind present not to the Word of God the inattentive ear, nor the hardened heart; they rejoice not with easy and shallow susceptibility over that which they have heard. They are, at the sowing-time, such soil as the sower loves. They hear and weigh and understand. And having heard, they go forth into the world again, thoroughly determined to practise that which they have heard. But, alas! they are not men living in habits of diligent self-culture and discipline. The heart which ought to have long ere this cleared for God's Word to grow in, to assimilate, to take up into itself, is filled with rank growths of worldliness, and possessed by the tangled roots of the weeds of passion; and as soon as they have gone forth, these spring up with the Word, and ultimately choke its progress.
II. "The cares of life" "the deceitfulness of riches." It has been commonly supposed that these two embrace the two conditions of life the poor and the rich; those who have to care for every day's supply of want, and those who are deceived and forget God, in consequence of its ample supply. But for this there seems no necessity. The two may co-exist in the heart of the same hearer, be he rich or poor. As riches increase cares increase; and, in the very poorest, the deceitfulness of worldly substance, and the love of amassing it, and the danger of trusting to it, may be active or imminent. And as every portion of the parable points to a whole department of Christian duty, to be earnestly taken in hand and attended to, so in this case it is self-discipline which is mainly pointed at discipline of thought, discipline of affection, discipline of pursuit. Let this be our discipline against the deceitfulness of riches to think more of Christ's character and of that great work which He has done for us. Let our discipline for care be faith, and for worldliness, obedience; the one teaching us to trust Christ, the other to imitate Him.
H. Alford, Sermons at Cambridge,p. 47.