--WHEAT OR TARES?
-[Please Read/ Matthew 13:24-43]

--"The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one."
---[Matthew 13:38] --

--Jesus told the parable of the wheat and the tares to show what the kingdom of God is like. As in a previous parable, a man sowed seed in his field. However, the seed represented not the Word of God but "the children of the kingdom." Then an enemy came by at night and sowed tares, representing "the children of the wicked one." Tares (today called darnel) look much like wheat until it is time for heads to form. Then the tares produce worthless black grains instead of good wheat.

The owner said that the two should grow together until harvest, when the wheat would be separated from the tares. This does not mean that both saints and sinners should be part of the Christian church. Jesus said that the filed is the world, not the church. While the church needs to deal with members who fall into sin, she is not responsible to discipline sinners in the surrounding world.

The tares depict evil people as well as religious pretenders and false teachers. Those in the latter group might look and talk like Christians, but they do not produce good fruit. Remember what Jesus said: "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20). Let's never give any room to the devil or his servants. They are deceivers from day one.

The parable ends with a solemn lesson. Jesus will come to earth someday, and He will send His holy angels to separate the true Christians from all who are evil or hypocritical. The sinners will be cast into "a furnace of fire" where there will be "waiting and gnashing of teeth." Then the righteous will "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." What a contrast! Will we be among the wheat or tares?

--BSW/CM~