Mark 4:19

And the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

In the analogies, the thorns stand for the cares, riches, and lusts of other things, or, as Luke stated it, "cares, riches, and pleasures of this life" (Luke 8:14). Are not most of earth's pleasures "lusts" of various kinds? Even the pursuit of legitimate pleasure if excessive, may become, in fact, a "lust."

For numberless souls, it is just a case of permitting the word of God to be choked out by other things. Those who correspond to the thorny soil are they who have not ordered life's priorities. No man can do everything that comes into his mind as permissible or desirable; and those who attempt to do so will find their lives so filled up that there is not any time left, not even time to pray. "The more complicated life becomes, the more necessity there is to see that our priorities are right."[15]

The fact of Mark's rendering this explanation as "lusts of other things," contrasted with Luke's "pleasures of this life," is a pseudocon. Pleasures may be either sinful or innocent, Luke having reference to innocent pleasures, and Mark to sinful pleasures. In Jesus' parable, there can be no doubt that both were in view; thus we have another example of the necessity of taking into account all that is written in order to know the whole truth. The Christian is not denied the innocent pleasures of life. As Dorris said:

The phrase "pleasures of this life" does not indicate that the Christian is to have no pleasure ... It is not sin for the Christian to be happy. Such pleasures as destroy spirituality

and wean away from Christ are, of course, forbidden.[16]

The three classes of thorns stand for distractions which pertain to responsibilities and duties (cares), the possession or pursuit of wealth (riches), and the pursuit of pleasure, that is, following any sinful pleasure, or the inordinate pursuit of even innocent pleasure. (See under Mark 4:21).

[15] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 93.

[16] C. E. W. Dorris, The Gospel according to Mark (Nashville: The Gospel Advocate Company, 1970), p. 104.