⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.

³ This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:

¹⁴ The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches^(A) and pleasures, and they do not mature.

On Not Loving the World

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world.^(A) If anyone loves the world, love for the Father^[a] is not in them.^{(B) 16} For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh,^(C) the lust of the eyes,^(D) and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’^(A)

⁹ Those who want to get rich^(A) fall into temptation and a trap^(B) and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money^(C) is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith^(D) and pierced themselves with many griefs.^(E)

³⁴ “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life,^(A) and that day will close on you suddenly^(B) like a trap.

¹⁵ Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”^(A)

⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants.