He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'" - Matthew 13: 24-30 (ESV)
I was having a conversation yesterday with someone defending an obvious false teacher. Such is the plight of writing in the area of discernment. Many people would just prefer to not hear the truth. We like it when our itching ears are scratched. We want to believe that this is our best life now. We want to believe that the sins we are considering today do not matter to God. We want to believe that our purpose in this life is to be healthy, wealthy, and happy. Often times we do not want to hear about picking up our cross and sacrificing our lives. We do not want to hear how we are supposed to be persecuted. Crown of righteousness? Send it my way! Crown of thorns? Don't tell me about that you sower of discord! So in this conversation I heard the usual mantra from false teacher defender until he suggested that the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares says that we should not expose false teachers. I had never heard that before so let us take a look at what Jesus is trying to teach us in this parable. To make matters even clearer, Jesus also explains the parable for us:
He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. - Matthew 13: 37-43 (ESV)
The Gospel is the good seed. Jesus Christ is the Sower. Those who are truly called to teach and preach are sowers under Christ. In order to remain pure and undefiled, the seed must remain true. It must remain the actual Gospel of Jesus Christ. That may sound simple enough but one glance around modern Christendom and one is forced to recognize that the majority of those who preach and teach have strayed from the true Gospel and have wandered off into myths.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. - 2Timohty 4: 3-4 (ESV)
The field is not limited to the church, as many falsely exposit this parable. It is the entire world. God seeks that none would perish. There is a battle in this world for the truth. The truth is the Gospel. Yet Satan will employ whatever and whoever he can to counter the truth. The tares are weeds. This imagery is used because the listeners of the day would understand. There was a common weed known as darnel, which when younger looks exactly like wheat. It is not until maturity that a farmer can differentiate between wheat and darnel. Unlike the true seeds which carry eternal life, the seeds of darnel are poisonous. Such is the true state of false teaching, false teachers, and false converts. They are poison to the Body of Christ. There is a harvest coming however. Jesus will return and when He does, He will separate out the darnel from the wheat. He will separate out those who are His from those who only looked like His but were poisoning the people of Christ. Out of the kingdom will be thrown all causes of sin and all lawbreakers. Judgment is final and there are no appeals. This only leaves one aspect unanswered:
He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'" - Matthew 13: 28-30 (ESV)
Understanding the full context of the canon of Scripture is this referring to those that spread false teachings or those that are deceived unbelievers? The answer is yes. These scriptures however, are not dealing with who they are but rather what action the servants of the Master were advocating. We must remember the entire parable. The servants are asking the Master if they should gather the tares from among the wheat. Should they rip up the tares. Should they destroy them to protect the wheat. Let us see what the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary has to say on this matter:
"The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?--Compare with this the question of James and John (Lu 9:54), "Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume" those Samaritans? In this kind of zeal there is usually a large mixture of carnal heat. (See Jas 1:20)."
This is the same comparison that came to my mind. The Samaritans had not accepted Jesus and James and John wanted to pronounce heavenly judgment upon them. Christ rebukes them sternly. So why then does Jesus allow the tares to grow alongside the wheat? I believe there are several considerations. The first is what we always seem to forget so easily. People can always repent! Someone who is sitting under false teaching can be reached with the true Gospel of Jesus Christ! We see people every day delivered from the lies of the prosperity heresy, the word faith nonsense, and even the hyper grace teachings. If I thought there was no hope, I would not do what I do. It seems sometimes people want to just kick to the side of the road anyone who is sitting under deception. They need the real Gospel even more! Jesus warned us how deep their darkness was. How much more bright does our light need to be then? God has not given up on them and neither should we. As for the false teachers; even they can be brought to penitent faith in Christ and made to see the error of their ways. Granted it does not happen often but it has happened. I read recently about a former word faith pastor who God now uses to teach people about that great deception. No one is beyond redemption until the day Christ returns.
Secondly, I think that we are too carnal and fleshly to engage in such behaviors. We are not to be trusted with ripping up the tares. Our hearts are wickedly deceptive beyond all things. We can convince ourselves that anything is "of God." People have used the Bible to defend slavery for example. If you want to see what happens when we think we are in charge of gathering the tares just read your history regarding the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, or the Salem Witch Trials. No beloved, it is God's job to separate the wheat from the tares because He knows which are which and He has no personal bias. We lose sight of the fact that the tares are growing right next to the wheat. In our worldly zeal, we simply would not care of some wheat was pulled up as well.
Which brings us full circle to the point this person was trying to make about this parable. I have never seen anyone in the discernment ministries advocate for the physical action against the tares. I certainly have never seen any advocacy against those who are sitting under deception. That only leaves the teachers. Those that are sowing darnel next to the wheat. We have a huge swath of Scriptures that teach us about exposing false teaching. Titus 1:9 alone commands pastors and teachers to expose those who present a false gospel. That kind of makes sense when you consider the remainder of Scripture. Paul publicly outed many false teachers and did so by name. Is there anything in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares which contradicts this? Absolutely not. Pointing to a tare and warning the wheat that they are next to a sheaf of darnel is not gathering the tares. It is protecting the wheat. Remember the seeds of darnel are poisonous! Does anyone really believe God would not want us to stop His sheep from being poisoned? God will do the gathering and execute His judgment. Until then we have a Scriptural responsibility if called to preach/teach, to expose the tares for what they are, so that some might be saved before the second coming of Christ.
I find it amazing that this is even in question! Pastors/preachers will all say that they must cast the net for the unsaved. They must present the Gospel and invite people to place their faith in the only one who can save their souls. They would all agree it would be spiritually negligent on their part to not try and reach the lost"unless they are lost in a church? That is bizarre to me. That preachers/teachers would be concerned for the eternal souls of men only if they are unchurched? Once churched it seems more become concerned about the delicate sensibilities of the preacher than they are about the people sitting under him. Scripture does not support that. Nothing in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares changes this.
Rev. Anthony.
