Everyone here is like one or another of these types of soil, and sometimes we can see bits of more than one kind in ourselves... (but that doesn't give us a reason to go around treating people like dirt...) We need to ask ourselves what kind(s) of soil we are like, and how we can improve to become like the good soil.
The first kind of soil is the path. It's packed down from years' worth of footsteps, and the seed doesn't even penetrate it. This is like someone who hears God's Word but doesn't believe it, doesn't have faith, there is no acceptance of the truth, it's as if they hadn't heard it at all.
The second kind of soil is the rocky ground. When the seed enters, it doesn't take root deeply, and the few roots that are there are weak and bring little life at best. This represents someone who does accept God's Word, but it's more of a fad than faith. They expect God to make everything easy for them, and when He doesn't, they turn away for something else.
The third soil is full of thorns, that choke the life out of the seed. This person accepts God's Word, but ends up doing nothing with it, because worry, materialism, and greed tie their hands. There's always so much to do/get/buy/consider... we worry instead of trusting God to supply our needs when we live this way.
The fourth soil type is the good soil. This is the person who accepts and has faith in God's Word. No matter what comes up, their faith and trust is in God, not only do they grow, but they do something productive, they multiply, they show the Word to others.
How can we become more like the good soil? Well, we could use a cultivator... that would end up with a bunch of bloody cultivated Christians (literally)... but it would be far more productive not to. We need to have an active faith, think about what and why we believe, focus on God rather than worrying about everything, and DO something about it.
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