The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares
The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, also called The Parable of the Weeds Among Wheat, is found in Matthew 13. This is one of Jesus’s parables of the kingdom of heaven, and this comes after the Parable of the Sower. This is one of the parables for which Jesus provides an explanation. Both sections of scripture are included below:
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…
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Meaning of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares
The main ideas of this parable are straightforward. There are the true children of God through Jesus Christ, symbolized as wheat. Then, there are the children of Satan, who live among the children of God, symbolized as tares. Since they look the same until they are fully grown, it’s impossible to remove the children of Satan without also removing some children of God. However, when both are fully grown, then a distinction between them is made and the angles of God gather the children of Satan together and all that remains are the children of God.
There are a lot of tares in the world that corrupt the gospel of Jesus Christ, but God allows them to grow right alongside those who are truly in the faith.
This is a topic that’s difficult for me to write about, and I don’t know how to approach this without talking about my experience. So, for this article, that will be the focus. Maybe something of value will be gained from sharing.
When I first became serious about the Christian faith as an adult, the biggest challenge was trying to sort through the tares myself. I wanted to know what true Christian teaching was, who Jesus really was, and what it really meant to live a Christian life. As I tried prayerfully to sort it all out, I also did a lot of writing about the things that I believed were true—as well as a lot of things that I believed were false.
The danger of accusing true Christians weighed more heavily on me overtime, and so I understand the importance of the parable. Sometimes I wonder if some of my writings removed wheat along with tares in the sense of removing some good teachings that I thought were false, thereby offending the faith of sincere Christians and children of God. I trust that God will keep all who belong to Him, but He did say, “woe to those by whom offenses come.”
God forgive me for my offenses, and I hope my readers will also if I have given offense. It’s a dangerous thing to teach the things of the Christian faith in any measure. I pray for mercy for all of us who had times of carelessness. May God open our blind eyes, like He did for Paul.
I’m thankful that in the end, it is God and His angels who will do the ultimate sorting. I wonder what truly distinguishes a child of God from a child of Satan. I’ve long believed that God will show a lot of mercy for some of the things that we judge one another for. Specifically for misunderstandings of doctrine that are not matters of salvation. However, it seems to me that if we judge others wrongly because of these disagreements, then we might be in danger of judgment ourselves.
I think it is good for Christians to be careful not to condemn people who fall outside their version of the faith because there could be the risk of falsely accusing our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet, I also think it is good to find out the truth and stand up for it. It is also good to find out the bad and stand against it. However, if we are not being led by the Spirit of God, then we are in dangerous territory.
There is one way that we are always safe, and that is looking to our own salvation. If we are doing this, then we are going to grow in Christ, and it will be more apparent overtime that we are the children of God. While I fully understand the importance of true Christian teaching, it seems to me that what makes a true Christian has more to do with their love toward God and toward other people, as well as having a broken heart over one’s own sin.
Elsewhere, Jesus compares the children of God and the children of Satan to sheep and goats. The children of God (sheep) are those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, minister to the imprisoned, care for the sick, and so on. The children of Satan (goats) are those who do not care for other people. We will get to that parable too, but I wanted to mention it briefly here because it goes along with this idea.
If we want to be good children of God, then we definitely need to know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It also helps tremendously to have true Christian doctrine and to spend time with other Christians. However, we can have true doctrine and even go to a good church regularly and still neglect the inner, Christian life.
Since it is the inner life that really matters, and the inner life that I believe will be judged, it is all the more difficult and even impossible at times to judge other people as being real Christians or not. Jesus did say that we would know false prophets by their fruit, but I think this has more to do with protecting ourselves from following false teachers or prophets than it is about condemning them. Maybe some of them will repent too.
In the end, we know that God will judge all things justly—and more than justly—He will judge things with mercy for those who believe in the Son, Jesus Christ. Since we believe in Him, let’s not get overly distracted by the tares. It seems that the tares are going to be the ones doing the accusing and condemning of others while they neglect their own growth.
If we focus on our own growth, then God will reveal more of Himself to us, and we can share what we receive in love and faith. It seems this will focus mostly on cultivating humility by keeping a heart of repentance for our own sin while showing mercy towards others, serving God and others, and putting our trust in God instead of in man or in ourselves. If we do this, then He will show us how to judge the good from the bad. Then, we are helping the wheat to grow rather than rooting up the tares—and God forbid, also rooting up some wheat.
This is a series of articles focusing on the Parables of Jesus.
PREVIOUS PARABLE POST: The Parable of the Unfruitful Fig Tree
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