I found the following thoughts from C.H. Spurgeon on the site Threshold:
“The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.” Matthew 13:22
This is the way in which those thorns served the wheat– they starved it by devouring its food, and they choked it by keeping off the air and sun. The poor thing became shriveled and weak, and quite unable to produce the grain which the sower expected of it.
So it is with many professing Christians. They are at first worldly, but not so very worldly. They are fairly religious, though by no means too zealous. They seek the pleasures of the world, but by no means quite so much as others we could name.
But very soon the thorns grow, and it becomes doubtful which will win– sin or grace, the world or Christ.
Two masters there cannot be…
-C.H. Spurgeon, “Sown Among Thorns”