WHEAT AND TARES.—A QUERY ANSWERED.
By C. W. Stone
“EDITOR OF THE REVIEW: Please explain Matt. 13:36-43. Who are the tares, and when were they sown? It seems that they were tares when they were sown, and they grew up tares, and were tares at the harvest. Are the tares evil angels? or are they a class of people that Satan has created? or does it teach predestination? Yours respectfully, “J. N. BUNCH.” Ans. “The tares are the children of the wicked one.” Matt. 13:38. This seed was sown by the devil. Verse 39. We do not understand by this that the devil is the natural father of such, nor that he created them. It does not refer to the creation, generation or birth of men. God created all things. Gen. 2:11. Notice the good seed. This sprung up, a blade. Verse 26. It was wheat. Verses 29, 30. Now what is represented by the good seed? The word of God. Luke 8:11. Where is it sown? In the understanding. Matt. 13:23. In the heart. Luke 8:15. What is represented by the wheat that is raised? “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” Luke 8:15. Paul tells us what this fruit is. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” Gal. 5:22. Well, when we come to the “harvest” at the “end of the world,” what do the reapers gather? “And then shall he send his angels, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth.” Matt. 13:27. Therefore, to carry out the parable, the Saviour takes the fruit that is harvested, the wheat, to represent the children of the kingdom. So with the tares. Primarily in the parable the tares represent bad seed sown just where the wheat is sown, in the heart. Some of its fruits are named in Gal. 5:19-21. Those whose lives bring forth such fruit compare with the righteous as worthless weeds compare with good wheat. To carry out the figure, these individuals are, in the growing time and harvest in the parable, represented by the fruit they have borne, and are then called tares themselves. Having yielded themselves to obey Satan, they have become his servants, his children. Rom. 6:16. The tares, then, are not evil angels; but wicked men who are made such by the bad seed. Matt. 13:25, 39. The parable does not teach predestination; for the tares represent a class who have left their hearts open to the devil, who has improved the opportunity to sow seeds of the “care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches,” and other weeds, which have choked the good seed. No man is born a tare, nor need he become one if he will “keep the heart with all diligence,” cultivating the good seed with faith; and even if tares get a start in the heart (and they most always do), they may be eradicated. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Isa. 1:18. C. W. STONE.