Bad land is a farmers nightmare! The only thing to be done with it is fertilize it, cultivate and pray that God will do something with it. The same with a person who can sit in church, Sunday after Sunday, teach Sunday School, sing in the choir, lead bible studies, be faithful attendees and givers while at the same time, being soil that will never produce any fruit.

I do disagree with your latter statement however. When you say he “thorns are our self-obsession”. If you are referring to the Christian. I don’t think you get a Christian until you get to one that bears fruit. A Christian that never bears any fruit is the one that Jesus says “will be cut down and thrown into the fire”. Jesus didn’t only purchase our redemption He also purchased the power for our sanctification. Sanctification is a promise just as the future redemption of our bodies. The Matthew 13 parable is one about the Gospel (the seed) and the what the seed was sown into (wayside, shallow soil, amongst soil infested with weeds and thorns, or fertile fruit bearing soil). Thus the soil is the subject the seed remains the same.

The Hebrew passage I think has to do with bearing fruit. This is evident in the first 3 verses of Hebrews 6. I see people, and I’ve been guilty of it myself, who are so burdened with sin that they have trouble getting past the forgiveness part such that they remain focused on their own inadequacy and never realize the power of the Holy Spirit within them toward greater effectiveness in the ministry of Christ. How many of us continue to sin from time to time? Paul did and said as much. But he didn’t let it hold him back from loving the lost enough to continue preaching the gospel and loving the elect enough to continue to exhort them to greater things. In this light, the thorns are our self-obsession with our sins and the good soil is our understanding of our position in grace. We have been contrite, but have been lifted up. It’s like getting stuck on Friday and never quite making it to Sunday.