004:010 When He was alone, the Twelve and the others who were about Him
requested Him to explain His figurative language.
004:011 "To you," He replied, "has been entrusted the secret truth
concerning the Kingdom of God; but to those others outside
your number all this is spoken in figurative language;
004:012 that "'They may look and look but not see, and listen and
listen but not understand, lest perchance they should return
and be pardoned.'"
004:013 "Do you all miss the meaning of this parable?" He added;
"how then will you understand the rest of my parables?"
004:014 "What the sower sows is the Message.
004:015 Those who receive the seed by the way-side are those in whom
the Message is sown, but, when they have heard it, Satan comes
at once and carries away the Message sown in them.
004:016 In the same way those who receive the seed on the rocky
places are those who, when they have heard the Message,
at once accept it joyfully,
004:017 but they have no root within them. They last for a time;
then, when suffering or persecution comes because of the Message,
they are immediately overthrown.
004:018 Others there are who receive the seed among the thorns:
these are they who have heard the Message,
004:019 but worldly cares and the deceitfulness of wealth and the excessive
pursuit of other objects come in and stifle the Message,
and it becomes unfruitful.
004:020 Those, on the other hand, who have received the seed on
the good ground, are all who hear the Message and welcome it,
and yield a return of thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold."
004:021 He went on to say, "Is the lamp brought in in order to be put
under the bushel or under the bed? Is it not rather in order
that it may be placed on the lampstand?
004:022 Why, there is nothing hidden except with a view to its being
ultimately disclosed, nor has anything been made a secret
but that it may at last come to light.