Matthew 13:24-30
The Parable
“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?” He said to them, “An enemy has done this.” The servants said to him, “Do you want us then to go and gather them up?” But he said, “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”’”
The Lord’s explanation
(Matthew 13:36-43)
“Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.’
“He answered and said to them: ‘He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’”
Lesson
The tare, likely the bearded darnel, is a plant that is nearly indistinguishable from wheat in the early stages of growth; once the head of the grain appears, the difference is seen. It is not until harvest time (or just before) that they are separated out from the wheat; they are allowed to grow up together.
There has been much dispute from the early days of the church as to what is meant by the kingdom in this parable; whether, as in most cases, it is speaking of the church, or whether of the entirety of mankind. Both interpretations have merit.
Jesus explains that the field of the parable is the world; he sows the good seed, while the devil sows the bad. The interpretations put forth for this are: a) that the wheat are the Christians, while the tares are the remainder of mankind; b) the wheat are the true Christians, while the tares are false Christians. Neither interpretation does violence to the scripture. That might seem a bit wishy-washy, but both views fit the text equally well, and neither is untrue.
In either case, the field is the hearts of men, and the seed is that teaching which takes root in the heart of a man and grows within him. As illustrated in the parable of the sower, the Word of God has a different effect upon each man, depending upon their heart. There are men who receive the Word of Christ and become sons of God, and there are men who prefer to let the ways of Satan grow in their heart, for this is what they desire after. There are men who outright don’t accept the truth and cheerfully go after Satan, and there are those who by appearance are Christians, but who in fact have let Satan grow in their hearts.
There will be those who are among the church, who really aren’t of the church. For, “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness,” 2 Corinthians 11:14-15. The Lord allows them to remain until the end, lest there be genuine Christians who are rooted out with them.
As soon as the gospel was given to men, the antichrist sprung up with it, that is, false christianity. We have examples in the New Testament, of Diotrephes (3 John 9), who selfishly wanted to be preeminent, to be counted as someone, contrary to the humility of the gospel, and Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Timothy 2:17), who taught false doctrine concerning the resurrection. We don’t know whether these men repented or not, but they are held as an example to us of ungodly behavior which was among the church of the faithful.
2 Peter 2:1-2 says, “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways...,” and again, Jude writes, “These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit,” Jude 19. As we are told these things ahead of time, is should be no surprise to us that there are those in the church who don’t humble themselves before Christ and His word, men who teach things according to their own heart, who want to be something. They cause much trouble, and were the cause of the great apostasy of 2 Thessalonians. For many went with error instead of the truth, and the early church was taken over by the false doctrine of men.
In the letters to the seven churches in Revelation, the church of Sardis is told, “I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.”
It was no different with the Restoration. When division sprung up in the post Civil War era, over the innovations of man, namely, the use of instrumental music in worship and the missionary society, the majority of the congregations went with errors, accounting for over 80% of the church.
Error within the church will continue until the end, until the Lord returns and sends out His angels to gather out the ungodly from among His people.
But if the parable is meant to describe the world at large, then the sons of God are still the same, and the remainder of mankind are meant by those who are sown by Satan.
In either case, the tares are allowed to remain until the end, lest there be true Christians who might be uprooted along with the tares. There are men who once were faithful, who fell away. Among these, some will return to the truth, and be saved (see Ezekiel 18). There are also men who do wickedly, but repent later in life; at which stage of life would the true judgment of these men occur? It is the state we are in when we die which determines our fate.