Mark 4:17

17 soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, they immedi ately fall away.

Mark 4:17 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 4:17

And have no root in themselves
The word has no root in their hearts, only in their natural affections: nor is the root of grace in them; there is no heart work, only speculative notions, and flashy affections:

and so endure but for a time:
they continue hearers and professors of the Gospel but for a small season; like the Jews, who rejoiced in the ministry of John the Baptist for a while, and then left him:

afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's
sake, immediately they are offended.
As soon as any small degree of trouble comes upon them, and especially when there is a hot persecution of the professors of religion, because of the Gospel they have embraced; such hearers are stumbled at these things, and cannot bear the loss of any thing, or endure any thing severe for the sake of the word they have professed a pleasure in; and therefore, rather than suffer, they relinquish at once their profession of it.

Mark 4:17 In-Context

15 Those alongside the path where the message is sown are people who no sooner hear it than the Adversary comes and takes away the message sown in them.

16 Likewise, those receiving seed on rocky patches are people who hear the message and joyfully accept it at once; but they have no root in themselves. So they hold out for a while, but as

17 soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, they immedi ately fall away.

18 Others are those sown among thorns -- they hear the message;

19 but the worries of the world, the deceitful glamor of wealth and all the other kinds of desires push in and choke the message; so that it produces nothing.