Daily Bible Reading 7th July 2026 // Luke 8:4-15
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand’. 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
The seed falling on good ground is the word received 'in an honest and good heart'. This does not mean that anyone's heart is naturally 'good', or ever can be, without the grace of God. Bishop Ryle says in a note, 'The fairest sense of the words is, “an unprejudiced heart, willing to be taught”', such as was peculiarly lacking in the Jews in our Lord's time. The Bereans are an illustration of this expression (Acts 17:11). The hearing of the word is followed by a keeping of it. The word 'keep' has the force of 'hold fast' (cf Hebrews 3:6; 10:23), and this is what the New Testament elsewhere calls 'the obedience of faith'. It is this and nothing less than this - that brings forth fruit in men's lives. Ryle makes this final comment: 'For ever let us bear in mind that this is the only religion that saves souls. Outward profession of Christianity, and the formal use of Church ordinances and sacraments, never yet gave man a good hope in life, or peace in death, or rest in the world beyond the grave. There must be fruit of the Spirit in our hearts and lives, or else the gospel is preached to us in vain. Those only who bear such fruits shall be found at Christ's right hand in the day of His appearing. Let us leave the parable with a deep sense of the danger and responsibility of all hearers of the gospel. There are four ways in which we may hear, and only one is right. There are three kinds of hearers whose souls are in imminent peril. How many of these three kinds are to be found in every congregation! There is only one class of hearers which is right in the sight of God. And what are we? Do we belong to that one?'