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About-Him Devotional 10-18-03
The life of Christ, from His baptism to His ascension, following the Harmony of the Gospels.
103: Parable of the Wheat and Tares - Mt. 13:24-30,36-43
Matthew 13:24 ¶ Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of
heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. After giving the Parable of the Sower, Jesus continued with the Parable of the Tares and
Wheat which is the story of a man who sowed good seed in a field. His enemy then appeared and sowed tares over the whole field also. In the early stages, tares (Darnel) could not be distinguished from wheat. The appearance was the same, but the roots were different. When no fruit appeared, it was obvious that the plant was not genuine.
The servants enquired if they should pluck these offending weeds out. The master said that if they did so, they would damage or destroy the good seed in the process. It would be better to just let them grow together and let them be separated at the final harvest.
Jesus later explained (Matthew 13:36-43) that the good seed were the children of the kingdom, planted by Christ Himself. The bad seed are the children of the wicked one, sown by the devil. At the final harvest the angels of God will separate the wheat from the tares, the good from the bad. The bad seed will be cast into a furnace of fire while the good seed will blossom and flourish in God's eternal kingdom.
Conclusion and Application:
The primary application of this parable is that evil will coexist with good in the world as a whole until His coming. It is not the church’s job to try and change the hearts of men by regulation and and legislation. Our job is to preach the word! World history is repleat with examples of forcing Christian conversion upon people at the point of a sword. It hasn’t worked yet and it never will.
The secondary application is to the church. All is not as it appears. In the world we say that “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.” Not so in the church, If it talks like a Christian, sings like a Christian, etc. doesn’t necessarily mean one is a Christian. While we do our best to exercise righteous judgment as to what is or isn’t correct (John 13:35; I John 2:5, 3:10 ), the final determination will be made at the end. All that offends will be destroyed.
If we are hasty in making these determinations ourselves, we’ll do much damage to the
kingdom of God. We must be extremely careful in trying to right perceived wrongs within the church (James 5:7). We must stick closely to scriptural guildlines (I Timothy 5:19; Matthew 18:15-17).
Even if we are correct in our judgment that a person is not genuine, we must remember that this person still has influence over others around him. If we pluck him up, we may pluck up some good wheat also.
Most of all, let us be generous in our judgment of others and hard on ourselves (I Corinthians
11:28)
Next Week: Parable of the Mustard Seed
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Humor
The world is divided into two groups. There are those who know, and those who don't know. Those who know are no problem.
Those who don't know are also in two groups. One is those who don't know and know they don't know. Well, they can learn! But then, there are those who don't know, and don't know they don't know. And they become unit managers!
Quote
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. - John F. Kennedy
Keep Looking Up!
Don & Marie Spooner
About Him! Ministries
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