The Tares

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Graeme Wilson in Freedom Fighters

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“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.'” – Matthew 13:24-25 (NKJV)
I have the weirdest lawn. It’s nothing pretty by any means, and living next to a hay field doesn’t really help matters…unless you’re a horse. In that case, my lawn may seem pretty tasty. I’ve got moss, dandelions, crabgrass, timothy hay, and something that kinda looks like grass but I can’t really be too sure. But I’ll start up my riding lawn mower and slice it all down like it was all the same…and I’ll enjoy every minute of it, unless I cut down the wife’s wild flower patch. In that case I never EVER hear the end of my crass mistake (my wife just said the mistake is more grievous, whatever). What a wretched man I can be!!
Now to be very clear in this, I don’t seed my lawn either. As a matter of fact, I don’t even fertilize it or bother to water it. In my mind, if it doesn’t grow, that’s one less chore I have to do and I escape the stress of trying to miss the wild flower patch. Wretched, lazy man I be indeed. Yes, I know there are ways to make for a better, healthier lawn BUT to me it’s not a salvation issue so MOW IT ALL DOWN.
Now, it’s good thing Jesus didn’t see it like I do when He told the parable of the tares. I’m gonna encourage you to open your Bible and head to Matthew 13:24-30 first.
Basically, what we read in this passage of Scripture is what it looks like when there is corruption among God’s people. Simply put, the wolves among the sheep: the ones who look and sound like us, but they ain’t nowhere close to us in the heart of hearts. Now Jesus says that the seed that brings the tares is sowed while the men are sleeping…guess it is a warning that no matter how diligent we are, corruption is gonna creep in anyway. So both wheat and weed grow together and the workers begin to notice this.
Now, just like us, these workers wanna get to weeding out the bad stuff to preserve the good stuff, but the farmer who owns the field tells them to hold up until harvest time, lest they uproot the good stuff. As a side note, here the weed in the parable could be something called ‘Darnel.’ It looks like wheat while its growing and it is considered to be poisonous, but when it is time to bear fruit (or ears like wheat does), you can immediately tell the difference. It would have been very wise of the farmer to hold off until the harvest to separate the two. I see this as “you’ll know them by their fruits.”
Now there is one thing I can’t help to notice is the field. I believe I can get away with this so here it goes…the field is the world. Now it is plausible to say the good seed/wheat are God’s people and the tares/weeds are of the false believers in this world. And there is something that is being watched a little more and more each day as this present-day tarry’s along and that is how God’s people treat all people.
If we, “God’s true sons,” were to go around and accuse everyone of a false narrative to the Gospel and threw them outta of churches before they showed us their true intentions, we would be no better than the Spanish Inquisition, (I can hear you Monty Python fans now so just be quiet), which survived from 1478 until the time of Napoleon. It had several gasps of air after that, but never really got back on its feet. Plus, we show the world that we are nothing but judges (when we should be encouragers) among those who are looking to rightly divide TRUTH in their everyday lives.
So, what can be taken away today? Well to be honest, we need to be really careful how we are bantering back and forth with each other out in the fields about Kingdom principles. If all you are doing is “copying and pasting” someone else’s commentary and standing on it as your own you had better be ready to defend that position …with Scripture. The next time I am with you, I would like to continue with the next part of this parable on the tares. I think we’ll need to see what Scripture has to say about those whose fruits differ from our own. We need to remember that for every shoot of God’s grace that flourishes, Satan has a shoot of iniquity that seeks to do the same. Amen?
Written by Chris Hughes: Chris, a graduate of The Colony of Mercy (11-2003) is married (Kathy) with two adult children (Kevin and Karen) and has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008.
The Daily Bible Reading: Job 23-24 | You can download our 2017 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here
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Daily Quote: “We need to cultivate a healthy skepticism toward everything that cannot be supported by the plain teaching of the Bible. Belief is faith only when it has God’s revealed truth for its object; beyond that it may be fully as injurious as unbelief itself.” — Aiden Wilson Tozer

This Week’s Verse to Memorize:
When the righteous rejoice, there is great glory; But when the wicked arise, men hide themselves. Proverbs 28:12
 

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