My Beloved: You learn from this Gospel that there are many kinds of hearers of the pure Word of God, but only a few who retain it and bring forth good fruit. This must be diligently presented to the people, so that all may examine themselves and discover to what class of hearers they belong, and make haste to be numbered among those who are called the good ground, in whom the Word brings forth fruit.
The first class of hearers are those with whom the Word fares as “the seed by the wayside.” It does not yield fruit because it is either trodden down or devoured by the fowls of the air. The second class are they “who hear and receive the Word with joy.” They not only speak of it but believe in it, and it grows finely, as the seed upon a rocky soil, but when the first hot day of summer comes it begins to wither, because it has neither root nor moisture. When persecution and tribulation come, such people fall away before the good fruit of faith with patience follows. The third class are easily discernible. They are Christians who are as seed among thorns; it grows, but brings no fruit and is choked; the thorns grow too densely around it. The fourth class of hearers, finally, are they who faithfully receive and retain the Word in an honest and good heart until it brings forth fruit with patience. They do not endeavor to avoid persecution for the sake of the Word, are ready in faith and love towards God, to endure all that may happen, and bring forth fruit, some an hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, and some thirty-fold. (Luther’s House Postil, Sermon for Sexagesima, Volume 1, p. 218-219)