But there is one word said concerning this fourth class which we wish to particularly observe: they are the ones who receive the Word “In an honest and good heart.” This is the only time in the parable that our Lord defines the kind of heart which received the Word. It is here we have disclosed the decisive factor, that which fundamentally distinguishes those belonging to the fourth class from all the others. Thus it is of prime importance we should seek to ascertain exactly what is connoted by “an honest and good heart” (Luke 8:15), and diligently search ourselves whether or not we possess such. Clearly the terms used here by Christ are in designed contrast from Jeremiah 17:9 — “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” which describes that which every descendant of Adam is born with. “An honest and good heart” then is not the natural heart, but one which Divine grace has imparted.
A.W. Pink, Studies in the Scriptures, March 1943, (Vol. XXII, No. 3), The Arthur W. Pink Archive
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