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AN HONEST AND GOOD HEART (III)
SATURDAY, MAY 29
Luke 8:4-15

Matthew 6:19-34

 

“… they… are choked
with cares and riches

and pleasures of this life…”

 

AN HONEST AND GOOD HEART (III)
 
In the third place, an “honest and good heart” is not like the thorns. “And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection” (Luke 8:14).
 
An example of such a hearer may be found in Demas. He is mentioned, together with Luke, bringing greetings to the Colossian church (Col 4:14). Paul elsewhere mentions him as a “fellowlabourer” (Philem 24). Yet towards the end of his life Paul had occasion to lament, “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica” (2 Tim 4:10). The love of the world ‒ the “cares and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14) ‒ caused him to become unfruitful. He left Paul, and left the ministry and labour of the gospel.
 
Dear reader, it is not for nothing that we are warned concerning the “deceitfulness of riches” (Matt 13:22)! What a distraction they can be, so much so that the Lord proclaimed, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Luke  18:24-25). Once the love of money enters into the heart, we begin to build our treasures on earth, and then our heart is on earth also (cf.  Matt 6:19-21). Is this not the “temptation” and “snare” of which Scripture warns (1 Tim 6:9)?
 
But even the “pleasures of this life” can be a distraction ‒ yes, even the “cares” of life if not properly viewed and handled. How many, while never really tasting the allure of riches, are ensnared by the lustful entertainment of this world? How many allow cares and anxieties to fill their minds, and forget to seek the kingdom (cf. Matt 6:33)? Lest we should come to that tragic end of having brought “no fruit to perfection” (Luke 8:14), let us heed the exhortation of the Apostle Paul: “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Tim 2:4).
 
THOUGHT: My heart should be filled with God’s Word, not with the “cares and riches and pleasures of this life.”
PRAYER: Father, let not my heart be choked by the world!

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