Jesus Holds Wheat and Tares in the FieldBible World
13:25Matthew 13:25
But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
While caretakers slept, an enemy secretly scattered harmful weed seed through newly sown wheat and then slipped away. The enemy is Satan, the sleepless adversary of God and humanity, the field is Christ's church in the world and the world itself, the wheat are true children of the kingdom born of truth, and the tares are children of the wicked one embodying error. Sleep is negligence and lack of spiritual vigilance that gives him his opening, so the church on earth remains mixed with counterfeit professors alongside true disciples until the close of time. Both must be left to grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world and of probationary time, because premature uprooting would tear up wheat with tares and no human is authorized to do the separating by condemnation or force. At the harvest the Son of man sends angels as reapers who know by fruits, to bind and burn the tares in fire and gather the wheat into the barn, when the righteous shine in the Father's kingdom and each destiny is fixed forever.
Parable Picture and Symbols
The night sowing pictures an enemy slipping in while men slept, scattering tares among good wheat, then going his way. The enemy is Satan, the devil, the adversary of God and humanity, who himself never sleeps but watches for opportunity to work. His act copies the hostile practice of secretly scattering noxious weed seed in an enemy's newly sown field to harm the crop and bring loss to its owner. God and His angels sow nothing that produces tares, for the good seed is wholly His.
The field is Christ's church in the world, where God's work of saving people is carried out and believers grow and ripen for God's harvest, though the Holy Spirit works on hearts throughout the world. It is also the world itself, the human heart where Christ plants good, and the natural world. The wheat are the true children of the kingdom, born of God's word which is truth, and the tares are the children of the wicked one, embodying error and false principles.
While green the tares closely resemble the wheat and are hard to distinguish, and their roots become closely intertwined with the good grain so that pulling them threatens to damage and uproot the wheat. Sinners making a pretension of piety thus mingle for a time with true followers of Christ, and the semblance of Christianity is calculated to deceive many. When the field is white to the harvest the difference is plain, for the wheat bows under the weight of its full, ripe heads while the worthless weeds bear no likeness to it, and in the harvest of the world there will be no likeness between good and evil.
The parable uses the familiar sight of fields and workers sowing and harvesting to teach a truth that applies to all. It reveals two opposing working forces in direct conflict, divine and satanic, continuing until the end of earth's history. It is given as a warning calling for careful self-examination in view of the future destiny of those for whom Christ died, as the gospel spreads and its fruit ripens toward the final harvest when Christ comes to gather the precious grain.
Mixed Church Until Harvest
Because the enemy sowed while men slept and went away, the church militant on earth is mixed, with wheat and tares growing together in every church, imperfect and not yet the church triumphant. The gospel gathers people out from the world together in church capacity as good seed, yet the devil sows unconverted professors practicing the sins of the world among the true children of the kingdom, faithful and erring members under opposing influences until the harvest. Both are to be left to grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world, when the Son of man sends angels as reapers to bind and burn the tares in fire and gather the wheat into the barn, the righteous then shining in the Father's kingdom. No human is to root them out by condemnation, excommunication, denunciation, or attempts to purify the church, for terrible mistakes would be made and genuine believers might be uprooted with them. Judgment is left to the Son of God alone, who lived the law in humanity and understands temptation, weakness, and striving for perfection, and the Lord alone knows who truly belongs to Him.
The tares are counterfeit Christians among the true children of the kingdom, people who bear Christ's name without joining Christ, hear truth without receiving it into life, and mingle with true disciples and resemble them for a time. They are unconverted professors, mere professors of religion, hypocritical and worldly-minded, false brethren not united in heart with truth and holiness, whose corrupt principles and works eventually reveal character. Outward membership does not prove a person a Christian, and the parable teaches humility and distrust of self rather than judgment and condemnation of others. Their presence among true disciples does not excuse anyone from believing in Christ or obeying God.
Their semblance of Christianity is calculated to deceive many, for as noxious weeds sown in an enemy's newly sown wheat resemble wheat while growing yet harm the crop and bring loss to its owner, so those who bear Christ's name but deny His character dishonor God, misrepresent salvation, and endanger souls. Hypocritical and erring professors bring reproach on Christianity, cause the world to doubt Christ's truths and blame the sower, and make the whole field seem worthless under criticism. Sin among God's people frustrates to a degree Jesus' purpose to save fallen humanity from Satan's power and make human hearts fruitful in good works, while evil seeds of error and sin grow abundantly alongside the good, sometimes crowding out and destroying it and spreading from person to person until hearts that should bear good fruit are wasted. This conflict of opposing workers sowing good and evil at the same time, confusing minds, darkening understanding, and entrapping in snare, continues until the harvest.
The fact that men are in the church does not prove them Christians, yet their presence does not disprove Christianity, does not mean God has no church or has lost His own, and does not excuse unbelief or disobedience. While blades are green the tares closely resemble wheat, but when the field is white to harvest the worthless weeds bear no likeness to wheat bowing under full ripe heads, and in the harvest of the world there will be no likeness between good and evil when those who joined the church but did not join Christ are manifest. The presence of flawed members is no reason for disappointment, for disorganizing or breaking up the church, for disparaging it, or for separating from it, but believers are to remain, serve as a good example, and represent Jesus while angels, not people, separate at harvest. No person is given authority to decide who belongs to either group.
Christ calls for patient bearing with false brethren as He bore with Judas, rather than hastily trying to remove them and risking harm to the faithful. Judas among the disciples illustrates this patience toward profession without inward acceptance of truth, showing the danger of joining without being worked by the Holy Spirit while attended by messengers of darkness amid gatherings also attended by heavenly angels. No human can reliably distinguish tares from wheat because no human can read hearts. Therefore at footwashing and the sacrament all who claim to be Christians must be allowed to take part and none forbidden or excluded even if a Judas may be present, following Jesus who washed Judas's feet and let him partake though He knew him from the beginning, with each person to examine himself.
The wicked will not all turn to God, and true and false followers remain together throughout the world's history and to the close of time, two classes and two parties developing together, the vile alongside the precious, known by fruit. The enemy's sowing of tares among wheat continues in decided opposition and vital conflict before all the world till the close of earth's history. God now tests and proves His people in a shaking in which everything that can be shaken will be shaken so only what cannot be shaken remains, after long bearing with stubborn self-indulgence. Divisions and a shaking and sifting reveal who lived by the light received, as those faithfully serving God ripen as wheat for His garner in thought, sympathy, and purpose divided from the worldly ripening as tares for destruction, with no probation after judgment when the gospel work is completed and each destiny fixed forever. Their presence together is not reason to reject efforts to reach sinners, for the harvest brings separation when tares are gathered and burned and wheat gathered into the barn.
Why Both Are Spared
Both must grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world and the end of probationary time, and no human hand is authorized to root out the tares by condemnation, excommunication, denunciation, force, or civil power. The church on earth is the church militant, imperfect and mixed in every congregation, because while men slept through neglect the enemy, who is the devil, sowed unconverted professors and children of the wicked one among the good seed Christ gathered out of the world as true children of the kingdom. To use civil power to punish those judged evil or heretical follows the enemy's method rather than Christ's and misrepresents God, and there is no probation after the judgment, for when the gospel work is completed each destiny is fixed forever. The instruction must be read carefully with desire for clear perception under the Holy Spirit, keeping the kingdom of God free from the sinful practices of the world while leaving separation to its appointed time.
Premature removal would uproot wheat with the tares because their roots are closely intertwined, harming sincere believers and causing others who would otherwise remain steadfast to stumble. Terrible mistakes would be made by human hands attempting to purify the church by condemning members, since while green the tares closely resemble wheat and their true character is not yet fully revealed. When the field is white to harvest the worthless weeds bear no likeness to the wheat that bows under full ripe heads, but until then sinners with pretension of piety mingle for a time with true followers and their semblance of Christianity is calculated to deceive many. Their presence does not excuse anyone from believing in Christ or obeying God, and difficulties are to be handled with patience, care, prayer, and self-control, with some resolving without forceful intervention.
Judgment is committed not to humans but to the Son of God alone, who lived the law of God in humanity and understands the strength of temptation, human weakness, and striving for Christian perfection. No human has the right to measure the character of fellow believers, and those who oppose truth, though self-deceived and spiritually blind, are to be met without anger and passion while judgment of them is left to God. At the harvest the Lord sends angels as reapers who know by fruits and gather without error, binding the tares for fire and gathering the wheat into the barn and heavenly garner. The Lord alone can discern and separate the righteous from the wicked, giving each their true place, with the tares as those choosing disobedience and aligning with the devil as the root of sin and the wheat as the righteous whose character is known to God. Christ does not forcibly remove those who join the church without joining Christ, who hear truth without receiving it into life until corrupt principles and works reveal character, but patiently allows both to remain until He alone judges each person.
When Satan sinned even the loyal angels did not fully discern his character, so God did not at once destroy him, for had He done so the holy angels would not have perceived the justice and love of God and doubt of God's goodness would have remained as evil seed yielding bitter fruit of sin and woe. Therefore the author of evil was spared to fully develop his character, and through long ages God has borne the anguish of beholding the work of evil and has given the infinite gift of Calvary rather than let any be deceived by misrepresentation, because the tares could not be plucked up without danger of uprooting the precious grain. The same forbearance requires humility and distrust of self instead of condemnation and judgment of others, with outward church membership never proving a person a Christian. Harmful elements growing alongside sincere believers call for careful, prayerful consideration before any separation, lest those who might still be strengthened in truth be damaged.
God permits rebellion for a time to reveal the truehearted, test the faithful, expose the spurious, and let deceivers stand before the heavenly universe and the unfallen and fallen worlds in their true attributes as deceivers, accusers of the brethren, and murderers at heart, within limits Satan cannot exceed. He suffers them for a season while they manifest envy and hatred against God's people, as He allowed Satan to develop his character, even when entire families once rejoicing in truth open their hearts to calamities and falsehoods about those they loved, and new theories accompanied by false zeal harden hearts and spread like a green bay tree while precious truth loses power. The unjust are found among the just, and a sifting will reveal who has lived according to the light received. As the end nears there is a revealing of true character, with God sifting His people, the chaff separated from the wheat and the tares already binding in bundles to burn, contrasting those who merely tack truth onto carnal unsanctified character without weaving it into life with those who live by every word proceeding from the mouth of God.
Harvest Separation and Destiny
At the harvest, which is the end of the world and the end of probationary time, the Son of man sends angels as reapers to bind the tares for burning in fire and to gather the wheat into the barn, when the righteous shine forth in the Father's kingdom. Wheat and tares are left to grow together until that time because premature uprooting would endanger the wheat, and the Lord alone can discern and give each their true place at the judgment. When the gospel's work is completed the good and evil are separated and each destiny is fixed forever, for the wicked will not all turn to God and there is no probation after the judgment. The tares are never changed into wheat but remain tares, and are gathered out for destruction.
Mere professors of religion mingled with true followers will be among the first to feel God's wrath, while Satan binds them closely to himself. Many whose names are entered on the church books are not joined to Christ, not transformed into His likeness, not subjects of His kingdom and not abiding in Him, and though they may practice self-denial and perform good deeds they are not Christians. Under temptation they reveal another spirit than Christ's, and in association and dealings they misrepresent the Saviour, so God does not need their profession or service to promote His glory or establish His kingdom, nor wait for their counsels, acknowledgments or cooperation, and His work and will will not long be hindered by their objections or resistance. In contrast the wheat are God's true people who build on Christ Jesus as foundation, have the mind of Christ, live by every word of God, crucify self, separate from idols and every unclean thing, and worship in spirit and truth and holiness without stumbling. Tares sown as speculative human ideas presented as essential truth cannot be made into wheat by repentance, even though God may forgive those who taught them, and those who received falsehood in place of truth are deprived of the light and experience they could have gained.
Outward profession can deceive for a time because tares appear Christian and mingle with true followers, but at the harvest the difference between good and evil will be clear. Christ will judge each person by words and works, so profession alone does not determine destiny but character does. True and false followers remain together through history, yet their character is recognized by fruit, and the faithful serving God ripen as wheat for His garner while the worldly ripen as tares for destruction, divided in thoughts, sympathies and purposes. People cannot read hearts or safely separate them because the tares so closely resemble the wheat, but angels know the difference and will gather the wheat without error.
The separating work includes the third angel selecting the wheat from the tares, distinguishing the precious from the vile and sealing or binding the wheat for the heavenly garner and heavenly harvest.
All through the history of the third angel's message there are tares among the wheat who do much harm to God's cause, as spots in feasts of charity and wolves among sheep ready to bite and devour, delighting to bear false witness and cruelly injuring the reputation of others. They are left among the wheat until the appointed day when God judges the world and makes the separation between wheat and tares. In that day those who sought to destroy the reputation of God's servants will be revealed as hypocrites, testimony from their own lips will clear those they accused, their evil deeds and false accusations will be exposed, and each will be rewarded according to works. Seeds of doubt and opposition planted by those who counterwork God's messages and unsettle the faith of seekers work deceptively against the truth until exposed in the judgment.
Life is a sowing time in which every person by precept and example sows either wheat or tares and will reap the crop sown, so each must know what kind of crop is being sown. No one can sow tares and reap wheat, for the reaping time will be as the sowing time has been. To sow tares is to pervert the true moral standard of the gospel and pursue a wrong course that harms the flock, bringing decided danger to the soul, while God works with those who use entrusted talents in His strength to produce a precious harvest and increases their usefulness. Devoting thoughts to earthly things gives character a worldly mold, and as character is at death so it will be in the morning of the resurrection, with no conversion or transformation then to change tastes, habits, dress, thoughts and words before the redeemed, holy throng.
Satan Sows Error Everywhere
The enemy sows false doctrine, heresy, speculative human ideas, foolish imaginings and crafty teachings interwoven with Scripture, and these tares confuse minds, darken understanding, entrap souls in his snare, obscure the holy character of truth and, if left unchecked, spoil the wheat by rank growth. The tares are false ideas and theories planted in human minds that lead people to advocate error zealously, and they are not sown by the Master who sowed good seed but by the enemy while people are unaware. Worldly elements entering the church and its institutions can corrupt them and blur the distinction between those who serve God and those who do not, and truth must be clearly presented in contrast with error so people can recognize and discard error. When truth is planted and cherished in the heart it uproots errors held as truth, and the work is to strengthen the wheat and help it flourish so the tares do not gain supremacy.
He works through unsanctified, unbalanced or unconsecrated people, false brethren, and even leaders, ministers, physicians and teachers who join believers yet spread misleading theories, new theories, dissension, jealousy, criticism, accusation and unbelief. Falsehoods and calumnies enter the hearts of people who once rejoiced in the truth, and as the tares grow faith and the truth's power diminish while false zeal hardens people against truth and its advocates. Some within the medical missionary work and the ministry of the Word resemble true workers but are not genuine wheat, being objectionable in morality and piety, and calling for daily purification and following Christ. The danger may go unnoticed for a time and the resulting evils can weaken the church, yet steadfast defenders preserve the truth, which shines brighter through conflict. When servants fail to oppose evils they could check or remain silent toward work God cannot approve, they become implicated in guilt and help Satan's work to loss of souls.
After Paul left Corinth harmful influences and evil practices arose among believers and bore evil fruit as they grew careless, let natural desires control them, and returned to abandoned sins. As priests followed Tyndale with threats and misrepresentations to damage his gospel sowing after he moved on, opponents work against truth after its preacher moves on. As Latimer warned prelates to sow good doctrine instead of corrupt doctrine, Satan's sowing of tares is the spread of corrupt doctrine and religious practices. Solomon's heathen alliances and tolerance of idolatry let pagan beliefs corrupt the religion he had received from God, so tares were sown among the wheat of his religious principles. The Jewish system was corrupted by human maxims and false theories and false interpretations of Scripture that drew people away from true service, and accumulated error came from turning from God and teaching human commandments as doctrine.
At Battle Creek Satan sowed confusion through Living Temple seed-sowing and scientific errors, staining purity of faith in many minds, introducing confused ideas, letting impure thoughts mold faith, and molding students on whom little dependence can be placed. The harsh management there, the ordering and scolding and exertion of kingly authority, is not of God but of the enemy sowing unholy tares in the publishing house, and the time has come for cleansing by removing them. A rival sanitarium planted through Satan's devising close to the Lord's institution drew workers and means away from bringing present truth before men of high standing, seeking to lower the work and mingle the elevated, sanctifying, peculiar holy character of truth witnessed by the Sanitarium with tares until it sinks out of sight. Powerful agencies there stealthily planted seeds of evil as Satan worked in Eden, producing confusion of faith so physicians and ministers cannot discern between him who serves God and him who serves Him not. For years Satan sowed tares among the colored people in the South while missionary work was neglected, making the field harder yet more urgent to work rather than abandon. Men in positions of trust asleep and unwise, leavened with unbelief and doubt, blocked the wheels by misconstruing workers' words and kept the Southern work a year behind, so those who only hinder should clear the King's highway by going elsewhere.
In Oakland believers must guard the good seed of truth already sown against false teachings and movements that hinder reception of truth. In England spiritual sleep and failure to act allow harmful influences to enter, so renewed energy and earnest action are required. Evil seed already sown brings forth tares in division between gospel ministry and medical missionary work, and continued internal warfare pleases the enemy, grieves the Spirit, dishonors God and retards His work, yet repentance, unity, standing firmly on eternal truth and acting in fear of God for love of souls lets the Lord overrule evil for good. While people are spiritually asleep Satan secretly advances the Sunday movement, concealing its real issue so many followers do not know where it leads and arranging denial of mercy and justice. Error is also sown by infidel and objectionable books, novels, cheap fiction and commercial printing mingled with education, corrupting teachers and students, giving distaste for God's word and reaping infidels. Teachers mixing ideas of infidel authors with education plant erroneous beliefs whose seed produces a harvest for which they are accountable, and books presenting errors and enticing fables bring the enemy's designs into schools. Only pure Bible truth, plainly proclaimed without admixture of human conjecture, uproots it, for men taught by the enemy of all truth must not be entrusted with educating the young.
Sleep Means Unwatchfulness
Sleep is negligence, lack of vigilance, and spiritual inattention that gives the enemy his opening to sow tares among the wheat while the householder sleeps. The enemy never sleeps but watches for chances to send agents to spread error, and that error takes root in unsanctified hearts where watchfulness is neglected. While people are spiritually asleep Satan secretly sows harmful influences among God's people, mingling falsehood with truth, and neglected warnings with cherished evils hinder God's work and endanger souls. Constant prayer and watchfulness are therefore needed to resist deceptive devices, for a time is coming when the difference between those who serve God and those who do not will be discerned.
In worship this sleep is irreverence and inattention during preaching, such as talking with one another during the sermon instead of listening attentively. God wants attentive hearers, but while men sleep in this way the enemy plants his evil among them, with angels looking on and marking the irreverence. Inattentiveness causes hearers to miss words they need to keep them from straying, while Satan works to dull their senses so that warnings and reproofs do not reach the heart, change the life, or bear fruit. Distractions and irreverent conversation keep the precious seed from falling into good ground, and undermine faith in the sacredness of Christian worship.
Sleep is also living far from Jesus, neglecting His word, warnings, testimonies, prayer and watchfulness, becoming self-exalted and self-sufficient and feeling in no danger. It is getting into a groove, losing spiritual wakefulness, failing to sound the danger signal and to feel the emergency to push the work forward. While God's people sleep in this way Satan stays wide awake, active to deceive and subvert souls, stealing into the field to sow his tares and his heresies among them through unconsecrated men. His sowing cherishes the evils warned against, hinders God's work, imperils souls, ensnares the unwatchful to carry rebellion to the bitter end, and causes disunion by selfishness, corruption and worldly desire drawing away from eternal truth. When other means fail God will permit heresies to come in to arouse His people and separate chaff from wheat, calling all who believe His Word to awake, study the Scriptures diligently, examine positions critically, keep spiritual wakefulness, watch unto prayer, pray without ceasing, and trust not in finite men nor fleshly power.
That sleep includes guardians, watchmen, leaders and experienced Christians standing as mere spectators in unconsciousness of Satan's work while he earnestly labors. While those responsible for guarding the field are asleep, enemies can enter and harm the flock, wrong associations contaminate the spiritual and physical health of youth away from watchful care, and neglected uncultivated minds become soil where corrupt ideas and habits take root and crowd out good. Satan never slumbers but makes earnest persevering effort to corrupt the mind and debase the character of every youth, gathering an army of youth under his banner to carry on warfare against God and determine the future of society. He watches to take God's standard from the hands of His people and place his own standard in their hands without their discerning it, persuading sleeping men to take his arm, walk with him, and become his agents to advance his plans and increase woe and misery. Those with more experience must therefore not sleep but stand at their post as minutemen watching for souls, awake out of sleep, cast off Satan's arm, break connection with him, call upon God who never slumbers, link with Christ, teach children and guide reading and company, watch and pray, set in order and refuse tares, and uphold discipline by precept and practice through reproving, rebuking and correcting with wholesome words.
When God's servants are unwatchful and fail to oppose evils they could check, they become implicated in guilt with wrongdoers. Remaining silent in support of work God cannot approve helps Satan's work and can result in loss of souls. While watchmen sleep the enemy establishes himself among them, as when medical missionaries' failure to stay alert let worldly methods and lax principles take hold to weaken the church, or when men in trust in the Southern field, asleep and unwise and leavened with unbelief and doubt, blocked the wheels, misconstrued workers' words, and kept the commanded work a year behind. Those who can do nothing but hinder should clear the King's highway by going elsewhere, for Christ's followers have a work to undo secretly planted evil by watching, refusing to tolerate preventable evil, and doing all they can to counteract it.
Satan works while men sleep by operating upon the unfed spiritual mind when spiritual life is not constantly fed by the Spirit of God and men are unconscious of seductive influence of mind upon mind. He does not take possession by force but links the human mind with his own, imbues it with his thoughts and spirit, sows tares, accomplishes iniquity, catches away good, and leads men and women to work his works at his will without their knowing they are led by him. Two watchers work over every heart: Christ watches to draw the person to believe on the Son of God unto eternal life, while Satan watches for every opportunity to sow tares in the soil of the heart with every power against salvation. His sowing succeeds when the heart is not garrisoned with Christ's words but left exposed to suggestions and unholy passion until hard and almost insensible to the Spirit, a condition invited by one's own course, pressed by evil angels with temptation after temptation, evil thoughts, worldly desires and carnal lusts that estrange the heart from God so truth is not brought into the inner sanctuary. Unless the will is wholly submitted to God and the Captain's orders obeyed, soldiers are used by Satan to serve his purposes and bring disorder among God's soldiers, for he controls legions of evil emissaries and has sent many deceivers into the world, so it is not safe to be presumptuous, off guard, or to underestimate the effort needed to escape his subtlety and deceivableness of unrighteousness.
Because Satan comes when people are unaware, the warning must be presented again and again rather than treated as sufficient after one presentation.
Homes Schools and Youth
When parents sleep in godless indifference and neglect and fail to plant truth and godly qualities in the child's heart-field, the enemy preoccupies that field and sows vice, stubbornness, selfishness, love of pleasure, pride and sinfulness unto a harvest of death. Good, sound instruction is the safeguard, for a child's active mind cannot be kept unoccupied and evil cannot be frowned away, but only the inculcation of right principles and ennobling thoughts excludes wrong thoughts and vicious sentiments. Neglect leaves the field open and unguarded, creating an opening for evil seed, evil thoughts, habits and corrupting influences to take root unless the mind is watched over and cultivated with Bible truth. Truth alone protects the soul from endless temptation and from the evil communications that corrupt good manners.
An uncultivated, unguarded mind is soil where corrupt ideas take root, crowd out good, grow faster than good and become hard to remove, so good must be sown early before evil gains foothold lest later labor prove vain. When parents allow youth to follow the natural turn of their own minds and allow wrong habits and principles to grow for years, the enemy sows the garden of the heart and those sown wrong principles grow and strengthen with hidden dangers and a fearful ending on a path that seems the way of happiness. Wild children left to themselves with the expectation that age and reason will correct them receive marks throughout life, and in many cases all labor afterward bestowed upon them will avail nothing. Parents should therefore teach faithfully and sow good seed early rather than let children absorb good and evil indiscriminately and trust that good will eventually prevail, guarding early impressions instead of assuming evil will later lose its influence.
Sleeping is failing to correct faults, perverse tempers and self-will with patient, unremitting, prayerful culture, command, chastening and parental self-control, meekness and lowliness, but giving unlimited indulgence, blind partiality and letting the child have its own will and way until Satan as chosen leader controls and molds character with unrestrained passions and ungoverned tempers into transgression of God's law, ending in prisons or almshouses. A father's neglect at the tender age when children most need love and care is the sleep that opens the door for the enemy diligently to sow tares as an evil growth, which must now be uprooted and replaced by the good seed of the kingdom through determined, persevering effort and longsuffering patience that hirelings cannot bear. That earnest work to save souls puts away harshness and censure for a mother's tender love and Christlove that does not chide for every mistake but shows the same patience toward the lambs that Christ has shown. Only when home responsibilities are faithfully borne will a man's labors for others be accepted and will he be prepared to feed the flock with tender care for lambs, for failing to use available time and opportunities, including to teach one's children, leaves work undone and preoccupies the field. Left unworked, weeds and tares overshadow the precious plants until finally nothing of worth appears, forming habits that deteriorate character, strong inclination to evil, perverse appetite and inclination, and making children wise in disobedience, selfishness and all manner of waywardness.
Parents must therefore teach respect, obedience, self-control, purity and Bible truth from babyhood and earliest years, firmly check passion, begin early to fill minds with what is good and pure, and tend the garden by sowing good seed and removing faults and defects of character as weeds are removed from a field. They must stay watchful, cultivate the soil of the mind with unceasing care, guide reading and company, teach children to reject trashy, exciting tales and turn to sensible reading that leads the mind to Bible story, history and argument, throws light upon Scripture and quickens desire to study it. They must take responsibility for food and habits because these affect health, character and susceptibility to evil, and train at home in the fear of God rather than place children where corrupting companions efface religious impressions for wages or advantages.
In schools, sleeping is failure of instructors and guardians to give marked attention to duty and to watch for souls, and while they sleep the enemy sows tares among the wheat, bringing wrong associations that contaminate the spiritual and physical health of youth away from watchful parental care. Faithful teachers must therefore watch and pray, refuse to allow tares to be sown, set in order any person seen sowing them, and uphold discipline not only by precept but by practice through reproving, rebuking and correcting with wholesome words, never entrusting education of the young to men taught by the enemy of all truth in whom falsehood is mixed among truth. Teachers in common and higher schools become co-workers with Satan when without thinking what seed is planted and what harvest will be reaped they mingle sentiments of infidel authors with education and voice ideas that should never be placed before any mind. Recommending and retaining objectionable, infidel books that discard the Bible as lesson books and authorities is such sowing, corrupting the mind like poison taken into the system, turning inexperienced thought into channels fatal to piety, and reaping a sure harvest of students made infidels. When children and youth are placed under teachers who have no deep, earnest love for God and for souls, who are impatient, irritable, partial, and who love to order and dictate and magnify themselves, their work sows tares with the wheat in an untilled field, giving young minds a wrong mold whose crop of thistles, weeds and briars is defective education creating confusion and insubordination and resulting in loss of precious souls. The same sowing is given place by slack, inefficient training, handling matter of satanic origin that brings continual temptation, management destitute of proper discipline, shameful language, and harsh ordering and masterly authority, giving youth a terrible education displeasing to God.
Worldly display, wealthy patrons, entertainments, dress, pleasure-seeking, favoritism and alluring offers of employment silently plant tares in young helpers, nurses and students, robbing simplicity and leading astray. At the large sanitarium at Battle Creek the display of wealthy, worldly men and women who patronize the institution had already sown tares in the hearts of young men and women employed as helpers and nurses, making favorites of some, offering strong inducements to enter their employ, and surrounding youth with contact with people without the fear of God. That quiet, indirect influence of worldly display and evil associations tempts young people and corrupts their hearts.
While men sleep Satan works unseen to corrupt young people and draw them under his banner to fight against God, and failing to watch and act leaves the way open for this work.
Daily Sowing and Conduct
Life is a sowing time, and the sowing of wheat and tares goes on continually in letters written, in thoughts, words, spirit, associations, and the manner of daily duties, every association leaving its impress on character for a harvest of good or evil. Sowing wheat is being a devoted, consecrated servant abiding in the true vine, partaking of the divine nature, appropriating high and holy influences, growing in piety and grace under daily converting power, using talents in God's strength, drawing continually with Christ and learning line upon line, speaking only words in harmony with His words, and practicing truth with patience, kindness, and friendliness so good fruit results. In school life this means relying on Jesus and doing what is right so influence sows the kingdom's good seed instead of conduct that harms or discourages others. Sowing truth and not falsehood or spiritual harm is the required work for others.
Sowing tares is coming under the leadership of the enemy, imbibing pride and self-indulgence, appropriating low and debasing worldly influences, growing in worldliness and sin, cherishing the evils warned against, hindering God's work, imperiling souls, and ensnaring the unwatchful while Satan stays awake and completes his rebellion. It is hurting and imperiling souls by a wrong course that brings unspeakable loss, done by those who do not abide in Christ and are not led and taught by the Word, who link with men not led and taught of God and deceive themselves and others, steeping in deeper darkness souls God designs to enlighten. In this way a person mingled with worldlings can become worldly in spirit while unwatchful, and tares can be mixed among the wheat without the wheat recognizing the danger, as when secret societies and their vows bind joiners to the tares even while they believe themselves pure grain and fail to see their need to separate and stand in the light.
Ministers, leading men, helpers, and teachers sow tares when they neglect personal religion and their own souls and strive to mold people to their own ideas, inclinations, and practices instead of revealing Christ's love and character. Such sowing presents foolish imaginings, fables, and notions with no foundation in the Word in place of the grand truths centering in the third angel's message, descending from the highest elevation of truth to the lowest level and showing need for thorough conversion and learning anew the principles of faith. It also sows seed that brings forth tares in the form of groundless suspicions when words and actions are not closely guarded and too high an estimate is placed on one's own labors, and the remedy is more time studying the Word to have food that nourishes souls. Tares in preaching include bitter denunciation and theatrical manner that weaken Bible truth and lessen influence for good, and unbelief that grows when messages God has sent are rejected and then is spread by wavering faith to weaken others and hinder God's work.
Criticism that breaks up faith, jealousy, envy, faultfinding, evil-speaking, betraying confidence, repeating words to cut union, and inventing and passing along objections are sowing tares that unsettle minds, poison minds, weaken faith, make God's counsels ineffective, and hinder preparation of His people. The tares are seeds of doubt and unbelief sown by words and actions, openly and secretly, especially by those in responsible positions who criticize God's laborers, reject and work against the messages borne, and counteract what divine agencies work through human agencies, under guidance of evil angels with imagination inspired by satanic agencies and defective, perverted eyesight seeing things in false light. Those who reject messages God sends cause tares to spring up and multiply, and leaders who disregard warnings poison ministers and members through influence and misrepresentation.
Dwelling on the real or supposed faults of defective members, making them meat and drink and the theme of conversation, feeds a contentious experience disobedient to truth and obedient to unrighteousness and ranks the critic among the tares, for Christ alone is the perfect pattern and Sin-bearer to be fed upon for eternal life. Instead the work is to strengthen the wheat and help it flourish so tares do not gain supremacy, to resist the same temptations, turn from defective examples to Christ, build up rather than destroy, and leave judgment to God rather than attempt by human wisdom to uproot supposed tares lest wheat be destroyed. With patience and perseverance the erring who are ready to die are to be helped in humbleness and devotedness, the poor unconverted won to Jesus by restoring not destroying, pressing on to deeper sanctification and holiness rather than tearing the church to pieces or setting up some new contrivance.
Each heart and mind must be guarded as a garden under personal stewardship, watching and praying, taking heed how human teaching and sent messengers are heard, and refusing to let theories from human lips and misleading sentiments lodge among the good seed of truth. Tares sown in the soul — jealous and envious feelings over who shall be greatest, a spirit unlike Christ, resistance to brethren, false ideas of God and Christ that weaken faith and turn from truth — must be removed by ridding the mind of those sentiments, breaking every yoke and fetter, taking a decided stand on the Lord's side with His standard lifted against the enemy. The safeguard is to let God's Word and Christ's words abide within as food and drink, to purify thoughts by bringing them into captivity to Jesus, to speak with careful consideration of where words will lodge and what they will produce instead of scattering them recklessly, and to reject worldly plans, strife, fables, and a self-made false standard that forfeits communion, light, holiness, and fitness for God's work.
Tares are sown by unkind words planting envy and irritation, by skeptical unbelieving questions dropped during Bible study that start hearers in another channel, confuse ideas, cause loss of essential points, spoil the study, rob the class of solid eternal principles, and multiply words without progress in doctrine. They are sown when students act as Satan's agents by tempting others and bringing trouble, discouragement, and stumbling to teachers whom they should encourage and support, and when younger ones take up harmful examples around them. They are sown by publishing and preaching seductive fallacies even to refute them and by sowing groundless suspicions through unguarded words and actions, instead of studying the Word to provide nourishing food for souls. The call in place of this is to sow good seed that nourishes souls and does what is right.
Though tares remain among wheat, overseers must still investigate character, guard children, purify institutions, churches, conferences, and medical missionary work, and promptly recognize and correct objectionable teachings, sentiments, wrongdoing, and vice mixed with virtue so they do not leaven and spoil the work, while each person remains responsible and must examine his own faith. Defects in probationary time should not surprise God's people nor be used to disparage the church or its God-appointed agencies, for good and evil contend among professors while Satan influences minds not guarded by the Holy Spirit. The duty is to press to deeper sanctification, win souls, take up purification so the church becomes a bright light, and trust that the believer who refuses contamination and stands firm as a rock to Thus saith the Lord will have angels help and prepare the way in pure heavenly principles, safe under God's presence and favor even when some turn to their own power and riches and are overthrown.
The curse brought tares, disorder, brier, thorn, and thistle into creation through the enemy's sowing after transgression gave Satan opportunity to sow evil in the human heart and claim dominion, making cultivation harder and requiring continual warfare. Everything God created was useful and stands as a reservoir of means ready to do His pleasure in implicit obedience to His laws, but the curse introduced what is useless and confusing, and unlike nature which obeys God's order, human beings can resist God and produce confusion. The meaning of nature's good showing restoring love against the enemy's spoiling work is read aright only in light from Calvary, where through Bethlehem and the cross good conquers evil and every blessing comes as redemption's gift, with God at once working in fallen man to defeat Satan's plans and with tillage of soil schooling the soul as God's husbandry and building. The verse therefore requires standing firm in the freedom Christ gives to gather the precious wheat rather than gathering what is harmful.
While caretakers slept, an enemy secretly scattered harmful weed seed through newly sown wheat and then slipped away. The enemy is Satan, the sleepless adversary of God and humanity, the field is Christ's church in the world and the world itself, the wheat are true children of the kingdom born of truth, and the tares are children of the wicked one embodying error. Sleep is negligence and lack of spiritual vigilance that gives him his opening, so the church on earth remains mixed with counterfeit professors alongside true disciples until the close of time. Both must be left to grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world and of probationary time, because premature uprooting would tear up wheat with tares and no human is authorized to do the separating by condemnation or force. At the harvest the Son of man sends angels as reapers who know by fruits, to bind and burn the tares in fire and gather the wheat into the barn, when the righteous shine in the Father's kingdom and each destiny is fixed forever.
Parable Picture and Symbols
The night sowing pictures an enemy slipping in while men slept, scattering tares among good wheat, then going his way. The enemy is Satan, the devil, the adversary of God and humanity, who himself never sleeps but watches for opportunity to work. His act copies the hostile practice of secretly scattering noxious weed seed in an enemy's newly sown field to harm the crop and bring loss to its owner. God and His angels sow nothing that produces tares, for the good seed is wholly His.
The field is Christ's church in the world, where God's work of saving people is carried out and believers grow and ripen for God's harvest, though the Holy Spirit works on hearts throughout the world. It is also the world itself, the human heart where Christ plants good, and the natural world. The wheat are the true children of the kingdom, born of God's word which is truth, and the tares are the children of the wicked one, embodying error and false principles.
While green the tares closely resemble the wheat and are hard to distinguish, and their roots become closely intertwined with the good grain so that pulling them threatens to damage and uproot the wheat. Sinners making a pretension of piety thus mingle for a time with true followers of Christ, and the semblance of Christianity is calculated to deceive many. When the field is white to the harvest the difference is plain, for the wheat bows under the weight of its full, ripe heads while the worthless weeds bear no likeness to it, and in the harvest of the world there will be no likeness between good and evil.
The parable uses the familiar sight of fields and workers sowing and harvesting to teach a truth that applies to all. It reveals two opposing working forces in direct conflict, divine and satanic, continuing until the end of earth's history. It is given as a warning calling for careful self-examination in view of the future destiny of those for whom Christ died, as the gospel spreads and its fruit ripens toward the final harvest when Christ comes to gather the precious grain.
Mixed Church Until Harvest
Because the enemy sowed while men slept and went away, the church militant on earth is mixed, with wheat and tares growing together in every church, imperfect and not yet the church triumphant. The gospel gathers people out from the world together in church capacity as good seed, yet the devil sows unconverted professors practicing the sins of the world among the true children of the kingdom, faithful and erring members under opposing influences until the harvest. Both are to be left to grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world, when the Son of man sends angels as reapers to bind and burn the tares in fire and gather the wheat into the barn, the righteous then shining in the Father's kingdom. No human is to root them out by condemnation, excommunication, denunciation, or attempts to purify the church, for terrible mistakes would be made and genuine believers might be uprooted with them. Judgment is left to the Son of God alone, who lived the law in humanity and understands temptation, weakness, and striving for perfection, and the Lord alone knows who truly belongs to Him.
The tares are counterfeit Christians among the true children of the kingdom, people who bear Christ's name without joining Christ, hear truth without receiving it into life, and mingle with true disciples and resemble them for a time. They are unconverted professors, mere professors of religion, hypocritical and worldly-minded, false brethren not united in heart with truth and holiness, whose corrupt principles and works eventually reveal character. Outward membership does not prove a person a Christian, and the parable teaches humility and distrust of self rather than judgment and condemnation of others. Their presence among true disciples does not excuse anyone from believing in Christ or obeying God.
Their semblance of Christianity is calculated to deceive many, for as noxious weeds sown in an enemy's newly sown wheat resemble wheat while growing yet harm the crop and bring loss to its owner, so those who bear Christ's name but deny His character dishonor God, misrepresent salvation, and endanger souls. Hypocritical and erring professors bring reproach on Christianity, cause the world to doubt Christ's truths and blame the sower, and make the whole field seem worthless under criticism. Sin among God's people frustrates to a degree Jesus' purpose to save fallen humanity from Satan's power and make human hearts fruitful in good works, while evil seeds of error and sin grow abundantly alongside the good, sometimes crowding out and destroying it and spreading from person to person until hearts that should bear good fruit are wasted. This conflict of opposing workers sowing good and evil at the same time, confusing minds, darkening understanding, and entrapping in snare, continues until the harvest.
The fact that men are in the church does not prove them Christians, yet their presence does not disprove Christianity, does not mean God has no church or has lost His own, and does not excuse unbelief or disobedience. While blades are green the tares closely resemble wheat, but when the field is white to harvest the worthless weeds bear no likeness to wheat bowing under full ripe heads, and in the harvest of the world there will be no likeness between good and evil when those who joined the church but did not join Christ are manifest. The presence of flawed members is no reason for disappointment, for disorganizing or breaking up the church, for disparaging it, or for separating from it, but believers are to remain, serve as a good example, and represent Jesus while angels, not people, separate at harvest. No person is given authority to decide who belongs to either group.
Christ calls for patient bearing with false brethren as He bore with Judas, rather than hastily trying to remove them and risking harm to the faithful. Judas among the disciples illustrates this patience toward profession without inward acceptance of truth, showing the danger of joining without being worked by the Holy Spirit while attended by messengers of darkness amid gatherings also attended by heavenly angels. No human can reliably distinguish tares from wheat because no human can read hearts. Therefore at footwashing and the sacrament all who claim to be Christians must be allowed to take part and none forbidden or excluded even if a Judas may be present, following Jesus who washed Judas's feet and let him partake though He knew him from the beginning, with each person to examine himself.
The wicked will not all turn to God, and true and false followers remain together throughout the world's history and to the close of time, two classes and two parties developing together, the vile alongside the precious, known by fruit. The enemy's sowing of tares among wheat continues in decided opposition and vital conflict before all the world till the close of earth's history. God now tests and proves His people in a shaking in which everything that can be shaken will be shaken so only what cannot be shaken remains, after long bearing with stubborn self-indulgence. Divisions and a shaking and sifting reveal who lived by the light received, as those faithfully serving God ripen as wheat for His garner in thought, sympathy, and purpose divided from the worldly ripening as tares for destruction, with no probation after judgment when the gospel work is completed and each destiny fixed forever. Their presence together is not reason to reject efforts to reach sinners, for the harvest brings separation when tares are gathered and burned and wheat gathered into the barn.
Why Both Are Spared
Both must grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world and the end of probationary time, and no human hand is authorized to root out the tares by condemnation, excommunication, denunciation, force, or civil power. The church on earth is the church militant, imperfect and mixed in every congregation, because while men slept through neglect the enemy, who is the devil, sowed unconverted professors and children of the wicked one among the good seed Christ gathered out of the world as true children of the kingdom. To use civil power to punish those judged evil or heretical follows the enemy's method rather than Christ's and misrepresents God, and there is no probation after the judgment, for when the gospel work is completed each destiny is fixed forever. The instruction must be read carefully with desire for clear perception under the Holy Spirit, keeping the kingdom of God free from the sinful practices of the world while leaving separation to its appointed time.
Premature removal would uproot wheat with the tares because their roots are closely intertwined, harming sincere believers and causing others who would otherwise remain steadfast to stumble. Terrible mistakes would be made by human hands attempting to purify the church by condemning members, since while green the tares closely resemble wheat and their true character is not yet fully revealed. When the field is white to harvest the worthless weeds bear no likeness to the wheat that bows under full ripe heads, but until then sinners with pretension of piety mingle for a time with true followers and their semblance of Christianity is calculated to deceive many. Their presence does not excuse anyone from believing in Christ or obeying God, and difficulties are to be handled with patience, care, prayer, and self-control, with some resolving without forceful intervention.
Judgment is committed not to humans but to the Son of God alone, who lived the law of God in humanity and understands the strength of temptation, human weakness, and striving for Christian perfection. No human has the right to measure the character of fellow believers, and those who oppose truth, though self-deceived and spiritually blind, are to be met without anger and passion while judgment of them is left to God. At the harvest the Lord sends angels as reapers who know by fruits and gather without error, binding the tares for fire and gathering the wheat into the barn and heavenly garner. The Lord alone can discern and separate the righteous from the wicked, giving each their true place, with the tares as those choosing disobedience and aligning with the devil as the root of sin and the wheat as the righteous whose character is known to God. Christ does not forcibly remove those who join the church without joining Christ, who hear truth without receiving it into life until corrupt principles and works reveal character, but patiently allows both to remain until He alone judges each person.
When Satan sinned even the loyal angels did not fully discern his character, so God did not at once destroy him, for had He done so the holy angels would not have perceived the justice and love of God and doubt of God's goodness would have remained as evil seed yielding bitter fruit of sin and woe. Therefore the author of evil was spared to fully develop his character, and through long ages God has borne the anguish of beholding the work of evil and has given the infinite gift of Calvary rather than let any be deceived by misrepresentation, because the tares could not be plucked up without danger of uprooting the precious grain. The same forbearance requires humility and distrust of self instead of condemnation and judgment of others, with outward church membership never proving a person a Christian. Harmful elements growing alongside sincere believers call for careful, prayerful consideration before any separation, lest those who might still be strengthened in truth be damaged.
God permits rebellion for a time to reveal the truehearted, test the faithful, expose the spurious, and let deceivers stand before the heavenly universe and the unfallen and fallen worlds in their true attributes as deceivers, accusers of the brethren, and murderers at heart, within limits Satan cannot exceed. He suffers them for a season while they manifest envy and hatred against God's people, as He allowed Satan to develop his character, even when entire families once rejoicing in truth open their hearts to calamities and falsehoods about those they loved, and new theories accompanied by false zeal harden hearts and spread like a green bay tree while precious truth loses power. The unjust are found among the just, and a sifting will reveal who has lived according to the light received. As the end nears there is a revealing of true character, with God sifting His people, the chaff separated from the wheat and the tares already binding in bundles to burn, contrasting those who merely tack truth onto carnal unsanctified character without weaving it into life with those who live by every word proceeding from the mouth of God.
Harvest Separation and Destiny
At the harvest, which is the end of the world and the end of probationary time, the Son of man sends angels as reapers to bind the tares for burning in fire and to gather the wheat into the barn, when the righteous shine forth in the Father's kingdom. Wheat and tares are left to grow together until that time because premature uprooting would endanger the wheat, and the Lord alone can discern and give each their true place at the judgment. When the gospel's work is completed the good and evil are separated and each destiny is fixed forever, for the wicked will not all turn to God and there is no probation after the judgment. The tares are never changed into wheat but remain tares, and are gathered out for destruction.
Mere professors of religion mingled with true followers will be among the first to feel God's wrath, while Satan binds them closely to himself. Many whose names are entered on the church books are not joined to Christ, not transformed into His likeness, not subjects of His kingdom and not abiding in Him, and though they may practice self-denial and perform good deeds they are not Christians. Under temptation they reveal another spirit than Christ's, and in association and dealings they misrepresent the Saviour, so God does not need their profession or service to promote His glory or establish His kingdom, nor wait for their counsels, acknowledgments or cooperation, and His work and will will not long be hindered by their objections or resistance. In contrast the wheat are God's true people who build on Christ Jesus as foundation, have the mind of Christ, live by every word of God, crucify self, separate from idols and every unclean thing, and worship in spirit and truth and holiness without stumbling. Tares sown as speculative human ideas presented as essential truth cannot be made into wheat by repentance, even though God may forgive those who taught them, and those who received falsehood in place of truth are deprived of the light and experience they could have gained.
Outward profession can deceive for a time because tares appear Christian and mingle with true followers, but at the harvest the difference between good and evil will be clear. Christ will judge each person by words and works, so profession alone does not determine destiny but character does. True and false followers remain together through history, yet their character is recognized by fruit, and the faithful serving God ripen as wheat for His garner while the worldly ripen as tares for destruction, divided in thoughts, sympathies and purposes. People cannot read hearts or safely separate them because the tares so closely resemble the wheat, but angels know the difference and will gather the wheat without error.
The separating work includes the third angel selecting the wheat from the tares, distinguishing the precious from the vile and sealing or binding the wheat for the heavenly garner and heavenly harvest.
All through the history of the third angel's message there are tares among the wheat who do much harm to God's cause, as spots in feasts of charity and wolves among sheep ready to bite and devour, delighting to bear false witness and cruelly injuring the reputation of others. They are left among the wheat until the appointed day when God judges the world and makes the separation between wheat and tares. In that day those who sought to destroy the reputation of God's servants will be revealed as hypocrites, testimony from their own lips will clear those they accused, their evil deeds and false accusations will be exposed, and each will be rewarded according to works. Seeds of doubt and opposition planted by those who counterwork God's messages and unsettle the faith of seekers work deceptively against the truth until exposed in the judgment.
Life is a sowing time in which every person by precept and example sows either wheat or tares and will reap the crop sown, so each must know what kind of crop is being sown. No one can sow tares and reap wheat, for the reaping time will be as the sowing time has been. To sow tares is to pervert the true moral standard of the gospel and pursue a wrong course that harms the flock, bringing decided danger to the soul, while God works with those who use entrusted talents in His strength to produce a precious harvest and increases their usefulness. Devoting thoughts to earthly things gives character a worldly mold, and as character is at death so it will be in the morning of the resurrection, with no conversion or transformation then to change tastes, habits, dress, thoughts and words before the redeemed, holy throng.
Satan Sows Error Everywhere
The enemy sows false doctrine, heresy, speculative human ideas, foolish imaginings and crafty teachings interwoven with Scripture, and these tares confuse minds, darken understanding, entrap souls in his snare, obscure the holy character of truth and, if left unchecked, spoil the wheat by rank growth. The tares are false ideas and theories planted in human minds that lead people to advocate error zealously, and they are not sown by the Master who sowed good seed but by the enemy while people are unaware. Worldly elements entering the church and its institutions can corrupt them and blur the distinction between those who serve God and those who do not, and truth must be clearly presented in contrast with error so people can recognize and discard error. When truth is planted and cherished in the heart it uproots errors held as truth, and the work is to strengthen the wheat and help it flourish so the tares do not gain supremacy.
He works through unsanctified, unbalanced or unconsecrated people, false brethren, and even leaders, ministers, physicians and teachers who join believers yet spread misleading theories, new theories, dissension, jealousy, criticism, accusation and unbelief. Falsehoods and calumnies enter the hearts of people who once rejoiced in the truth, and as the tares grow faith and the truth's power diminish while false zeal hardens people against truth and its advocates. Some within the medical missionary work and the ministry of the Word resemble true workers but are not genuine wheat, being objectionable in morality and piety, and calling for daily purification and following Christ. The danger may go unnoticed for a time and the resulting evils can weaken the church, yet steadfast defenders preserve the truth, which shines brighter through conflict. When servants fail to oppose evils they could check or remain silent toward work God cannot approve, they become implicated in guilt and help Satan's work to loss of souls.
After Paul left Corinth harmful influences and evil practices arose among believers and bore evil fruit as they grew careless, let natural desires control them, and returned to abandoned sins. As priests followed Tyndale with threats and misrepresentations to damage his gospel sowing after he moved on, opponents work against truth after its preacher moves on. As Latimer warned prelates to sow good doctrine instead of corrupt doctrine, Satan's sowing of tares is the spread of corrupt doctrine and religious practices. Solomon's heathen alliances and tolerance of idolatry let pagan beliefs corrupt the religion he had received from God, so tares were sown among the wheat of his religious principles. The Jewish system was corrupted by human maxims and false theories and false interpretations of Scripture that drew people away from true service, and accumulated error came from turning from God and teaching human commandments as doctrine.
At Battle Creek Satan sowed confusion through Living Temple seed-sowing and scientific errors, staining purity of faith in many minds, introducing confused ideas, letting impure thoughts mold faith, and molding students on whom little dependence can be placed. The harsh management there, the ordering and scolding and exertion of kingly authority, is not of God but of the enemy sowing unholy tares in the publishing house, and the time has come for cleansing by removing them. A rival sanitarium planted through Satan's devising close to the Lord's institution drew workers and means away from bringing present truth before men of high standing, seeking to lower the work and mingle the elevated, sanctifying, peculiar holy character of truth witnessed by the Sanitarium with tares until it sinks out of sight. Powerful agencies there stealthily planted seeds of evil as Satan worked in Eden, producing confusion of faith so physicians and ministers cannot discern between him who serves God and him who serves Him not. For years Satan sowed tares among the colored people in the South while missionary work was neglected, making the field harder yet more urgent to work rather than abandon. Men in positions of trust asleep and unwise, leavened with unbelief and doubt, blocked the wheels by misconstruing workers' words and kept the Southern work a year behind, so those who only hinder should clear the King's highway by going elsewhere.
In Oakland believers must guard the good seed of truth already sown against false teachings and movements that hinder reception of truth. In England spiritual sleep and failure to act allow harmful influences to enter, so renewed energy and earnest action are required. Evil seed already sown brings forth tares in division between gospel ministry and medical missionary work, and continued internal warfare pleases the enemy, grieves the Spirit, dishonors God and retards His work, yet repentance, unity, standing firmly on eternal truth and acting in fear of God for love of souls lets the Lord overrule evil for good. While people are spiritually asleep Satan secretly advances the Sunday movement, concealing its real issue so many followers do not know where it leads and arranging denial of mercy and justice. Error is also sown by infidel and objectionable books, novels, cheap fiction and commercial printing mingled with education, corrupting teachers and students, giving distaste for God's word and reaping infidels. Teachers mixing ideas of infidel authors with education plant erroneous beliefs whose seed produces a harvest for which they are accountable, and books presenting errors and enticing fables bring the enemy's designs into schools. Only pure Bible truth, plainly proclaimed without admixture of human conjecture, uproots it, for men taught by the enemy of all truth must not be entrusted with educating the young.
Sleep Means Unwatchfulness
Sleep is negligence, lack of vigilance, and spiritual inattention that gives the enemy his opening to sow tares among the wheat while the householder sleeps. The enemy never sleeps but watches for chances to send agents to spread error, and that error takes root in unsanctified hearts where watchfulness is neglected. While people are spiritually asleep Satan secretly sows harmful influences among God's people, mingling falsehood with truth, and neglected warnings with cherished evils hinder God's work and endanger souls. Constant prayer and watchfulness are therefore needed to resist deceptive devices, for a time is coming when the difference between those who serve God and those who do not will be discerned.
In worship this sleep is irreverence and inattention during preaching, such as talking with one another during the sermon instead of listening attentively. God wants attentive hearers, but while men sleep in this way the enemy plants his evil among them, with angels looking on and marking the irreverence. Inattentiveness causes hearers to miss words they need to keep them from straying, while Satan works to dull their senses so that warnings and reproofs do not reach the heart, change the life, or bear fruit. Distractions and irreverent conversation keep the precious seed from falling into good ground, and undermine faith in the sacredness of Christian worship.
Sleep is also living far from Jesus, neglecting His word, warnings, testimonies, prayer and watchfulness, becoming self-exalted and self-sufficient and feeling in no danger. It is getting into a groove, losing spiritual wakefulness, failing to sound the danger signal and to feel the emergency to push the work forward. While God's people sleep in this way Satan stays wide awake, active to deceive and subvert souls, stealing into the field to sow his tares and his heresies among them through unconsecrated men. His sowing cherishes the evils warned against, hinders God's work, imperils souls, ensnares the unwatchful to carry rebellion to the bitter end, and causes disunion by selfishness, corruption and worldly desire drawing away from eternal truth. When other means fail God will permit heresies to come in to arouse His people and separate chaff from wheat, calling all who believe His Word to awake, study the Scriptures diligently, examine positions critically, keep spiritual wakefulness, watch unto prayer, pray without ceasing, and trust not in finite men nor fleshly power.
That sleep includes guardians, watchmen, leaders and experienced Christians standing as mere spectators in unconsciousness of Satan's work while he earnestly labors. While those responsible for guarding the field are asleep, enemies can enter and harm the flock, wrong associations contaminate the spiritual and physical health of youth away from watchful care, and neglected uncultivated minds become soil where corrupt ideas and habits take root and crowd out good. Satan never slumbers but makes earnest persevering effort to corrupt the mind and debase the character of every youth, gathering an army of youth under his banner to carry on warfare against God and determine the future of society. He watches to take God's standard from the hands of His people and place his own standard in their hands without their discerning it, persuading sleeping men to take his arm, walk with him, and become his agents to advance his plans and increase woe and misery. Those with more experience must therefore not sleep but stand at their post as minutemen watching for souls, awake out of sleep, cast off Satan's arm, break connection with him, call upon God who never slumbers, link with Christ, teach children and guide reading and company, watch and pray, set in order and refuse tares, and uphold discipline by precept and practice through reproving, rebuking and correcting with wholesome words.
When God's servants are unwatchful and fail to oppose evils they could check, they become implicated in guilt with wrongdoers. Remaining silent in support of work God cannot approve helps Satan's work and can result in loss of souls. While watchmen sleep the enemy establishes himself among them, as when medical missionaries' failure to stay alert let worldly methods and lax principles take hold to weaken the church, or when men in trust in the Southern field, asleep and unwise and leavened with unbelief and doubt, blocked the wheels, misconstrued workers' words, and kept the commanded work a year behind. Those who can do nothing but hinder should clear the King's highway by going elsewhere, for Christ's followers have a work to undo secretly planted evil by watching, refusing to tolerate preventable evil, and doing all they can to counteract it.
Satan works while men sleep by operating upon the unfed spiritual mind when spiritual life is not constantly fed by the Spirit of God and men are unconscious of seductive influence of mind upon mind. He does not take possession by force but links the human mind with his own, imbues it with his thoughts and spirit, sows tares, accomplishes iniquity, catches away good, and leads men and women to work his works at his will without their knowing they are led by him. Two watchers work over every heart: Christ watches to draw the person to believe on the Son of God unto eternal life, while Satan watches for every opportunity to sow tares in the soil of the heart with every power against salvation. His sowing succeeds when the heart is not garrisoned with Christ's words but left exposed to suggestions and unholy passion until hard and almost insensible to the Spirit, a condition invited by one's own course, pressed by evil angels with temptation after temptation, evil thoughts, worldly desires and carnal lusts that estrange the heart from God so truth is not brought into the inner sanctuary. Unless the will is wholly submitted to God and the Captain's orders obeyed, soldiers are used by Satan to serve his purposes and bring disorder among God's soldiers, for he controls legions of evil emissaries and has sent many deceivers into the world, so it is not safe to be presumptuous, off guard, or to underestimate the effort needed to escape his subtlety and deceivableness of unrighteousness.
Because Satan comes when people are unaware, the warning must be presented again and again rather than treated as sufficient after one presentation.
Homes Schools and Youth
When parents sleep in godless indifference and neglect and fail to plant truth and godly qualities in the child's heart-field, the enemy preoccupies that field and sows vice, stubbornness, selfishness, love of pleasure, pride and sinfulness unto a harvest of death. Good, sound instruction is the safeguard, for a child's active mind cannot be kept unoccupied and evil cannot be frowned away, but only the inculcation of right principles and ennobling thoughts excludes wrong thoughts and vicious sentiments. Neglect leaves the field open and unguarded, creating an opening for evil seed, evil thoughts, habits and corrupting influences to take root unless the mind is watched over and cultivated with Bible truth. Truth alone protects the soul from endless temptation and from the evil communications that corrupt good manners.
An uncultivated, unguarded mind is soil where corrupt ideas take root, crowd out good, grow faster than good and become hard to remove, so good must be sown early before evil gains foothold lest later labor prove vain. When parents allow youth to follow the natural turn of their own minds and allow wrong habits and principles to grow for years, the enemy sows the garden of the heart and those sown wrong principles grow and strengthen with hidden dangers and a fearful ending on a path that seems the way of happiness. Wild children left to themselves with the expectation that age and reason will correct them receive marks throughout life, and in many cases all labor afterward bestowed upon them will avail nothing. Parents should therefore teach faithfully and sow good seed early rather than let children absorb good and evil indiscriminately and trust that good will eventually prevail, guarding early impressions instead of assuming evil will later lose its influence.
Sleeping is failing to correct faults, perverse tempers and self-will with patient, unremitting, prayerful culture, command, chastening and parental self-control, meekness and lowliness, but giving unlimited indulgence, blind partiality and letting the child have its own will and way until Satan as chosen leader controls and molds character with unrestrained passions and ungoverned tempers into transgression of God's law, ending in prisons or almshouses. A father's neglect at the tender age when children most need love and care is the sleep that opens the door for the enemy diligently to sow tares as an evil growth, which must now be uprooted and replaced by the good seed of the kingdom through determined, persevering effort and longsuffering patience that hirelings cannot bear. That earnest work to save souls puts away harshness and censure for a mother's tender love and Christlove that does not chide for every mistake but shows the same patience toward the lambs that Christ has shown. Only when home responsibilities are faithfully borne will a man's labors for others be accepted and will he be prepared to feed the flock with tender care for lambs, for failing to use available time and opportunities, including to teach one's children, leaves work undone and preoccupies the field. Left unworked, weeds and tares overshadow the precious plants until finally nothing of worth appears, forming habits that deteriorate character, strong inclination to evil, perverse appetite and inclination, and making children wise in disobedience, selfishness and all manner of waywardness.
Parents must therefore teach respect, obedience, self-control, purity and Bible truth from babyhood and earliest years, firmly check passion, begin early to fill minds with what is good and pure, and tend the garden by sowing good seed and removing faults and defects of character as weeds are removed from a field. They must stay watchful, cultivate the soil of the mind with unceasing care, guide reading and company, teach children to reject trashy, exciting tales and turn to sensible reading that leads the mind to Bible story, history and argument, throws light upon Scripture and quickens desire to study it. They must take responsibility for food and habits because these affect health, character and susceptibility to evil, and train at home in the fear of God rather than place children where corrupting companions efface religious impressions for wages or advantages.
In schools, sleeping is failure of instructors and guardians to give marked attention to duty and to watch for souls, and while they sleep the enemy sows tares among the wheat, bringing wrong associations that contaminate the spiritual and physical health of youth away from watchful parental care. Faithful teachers must therefore watch and pray, refuse to allow tares to be sown, set in order any person seen sowing them, and uphold discipline not only by precept but by practice through reproving, rebuking and correcting with wholesome words, never entrusting education of the young to men taught by the enemy of all truth in whom falsehood is mixed among truth. Teachers in common and higher schools become co-workers with Satan when without thinking what seed is planted and what harvest will be reaped they mingle sentiments of infidel authors with education and voice ideas that should never be placed before any mind. Recommending and retaining objectionable, infidel books that discard the Bible as lesson books and authorities is such sowing, corrupting the mind like poison taken into the system, turning inexperienced thought into channels fatal to piety, and reaping a sure harvest of students made infidels. When children and youth are placed under teachers who have no deep, earnest love for God and for souls, who are impatient, irritable, partial, and who love to order and dictate and magnify themselves, their work sows tares with the wheat in an untilled field, giving young minds a wrong mold whose crop of thistles, weeds and briars is defective education creating confusion and insubordination and resulting in loss of precious souls. The same sowing is given place by slack, inefficient training, handling matter of satanic origin that brings continual temptation, management destitute of proper discipline, shameful language, and harsh ordering and masterly authority, giving youth a terrible education displeasing to God.
Worldly display, wealthy patrons, entertainments, dress, pleasure-seeking, favoritism and alluring offers of employment silently plant tares in young helpers, nurses and students, robbing simplicity and leading astray. At the large sanitarium at Battle Creek the display of wealthy, worldly men and women who patronize the institution had already sown tares in the hearts of young men and women employed as helpers and nurses, making favorites of some, offering strong inducements to enter their employ, and surrounding youth with contact with people without the fear of God. That quiet, indirect influence of worldly display and evil associations tempts young people and corrupts their hearts.
While men sleep Satan works unseen to corrupt young people and draw them under his banner to fight against God, and failing to watch and act leaves the way open for this work.
Daily Sowing and Conduct
Life is a sowing time, and the sowing of wheat and tares goes on continually in letters written, in thoughts, words, spirit, associations, and the manner of daily duties, every association leaving its impress on character for a harvest of good or evil. Sowing wheat is being a devoted, consecrated servant abiding in the true vine, partaking of the divine nature, appropriating high and holy influences, growing in piety and grace under daily converting power, using talents in God's strength, drawing continually with Christ and learning line upon line, speaking only words in harmony with His words, and practicing truth with patience, kindness, and friendliness so good fruit results. In school life this means relying on Jesus and doing what is right so influence sows the kingdom's good seed instead of conduct that harms or discourages others. Sowing truth and not falsehood or spiritual harm is the required work for others.
Sowing tares is coming under the leadership of the enemy, imbibing pride and self-indulgence, appropriating low and debasing worldly influences, growing in worldliness and sin, cherishing the evils warned against, hindering God's work, imperiling souls, and ensnaring the unwatchful while Satan stays awake and completes his rebellion. It is hurting and imperiling souls by a wrong course that brings unspeakable loss, done by those who do not abide in Christ and are not led and taught by the Word, who link with men not led and taught of God and deceive themselves and others, steeping in deeper darkness souls God designs to enlighten. In this way a person mingled with worldlings can become worldly in spirit while unwatchful, and tares can be mixed among the wheat without the wheat recognizing the danger, as when secret societies and their vows bind joiners to the tares even while they believe themselves pure grain and fail to see their need to separate and stand in the light.
Ministers, leading men, helpers, and teachers sow tares when they neglect personal religion and their own souls and strive to mold people to their own ideas, inclinations, and practices instead of revealing Christ's love and character. Such sowing presents foolish imaginings, fables, and notions with no foundation in the Word in place of the grand truths centering in the third angel's message, descending from the highest elevation of truth to the lowest level and showing need for thorough conversion and learning anew the principles of faith. It also sows seed that brings forth tares in the form of groundless suspicions when words and actions are not closely guarded and too high an estimate is placed on one's own labors, and the remedy is more time studying the Word to have food that nourishes souls. Tares in preaching include bitter denunciation and theatrical manner that weaken Bible truth and lessen influence for good, and unbelief that grows when messages God has sent are rejected and then is spread by wavering faith to weaken others and hinder God's work.
Criticism that breaks up faith, jealousy, envy, faultfinding, evil-speaking, betraying confidence, repeating words to cut union, and inventing and passing along objections are sowing tares that unsettle minds, poison minds, weaken faith, make God's counsels ineffective, and hinder preparation of His people. The tares are seeds of doubt and unbelief sown by words and actions, openly and secretly, especially by those in responsible positions who criticize God's laborers, reject and work against the messages borne, and counteract what divine agencies work through human agencies, under guidance of evil angels with imagination inspired by satanic agencies and defective, perverted eyesight seeing things in false light. Those who reject messages God sends cause tares to spring up and multiply, and leaders who disregard warnings poison ministers and members through influence and misrepresentation.
Dwelling on the real or supposed faults of defective members, making them meat and drink and the theme of conversation, feeds a contentious experience disobedient to truth and obedient to unrighteousness and ranks the critic among the tares, for Christ alone is the perfect pattern and Sin-bearer to be fed upon for eternal life. Instead the work is to strengthen the wheat and help it flourish so tares do not gain supremacy, to resist the same temptations, turn from defective examples to Christ, build up rather than destroy, and leave judgment to God rather than attempt by human wisdom to uproot supposed tares lest wheat be destroyed. With patience and perseverance the erring who are ready to die are to be helped in humbleness and devotedness, the poor unconverted won to Jesus by restoring not destroying, pressing on to deeper sanctification and holiness rather than tearing the church to pieces or setting up some new contrivance.
Each heart and mind must be guarded as a garden under personal stewardship, watching and praying, taking heed how human teaching and sent messengers are heard, and refusing to let theories from human lips and misleading sentiments lodge among the good seed of truth. Tares sown in the soul — jealous and envious feelings over who shall be greatest, a spirit unlike Christ, resistance to brethren, false ideas of God and Christ that weaken faith and turn from truth — must be removed by ridding the mind of those sentiments, breaking every yoke and fetter, taking a decided stand on the Lord's side with His standard lifted against the enemy. The safeguard is to let God's Word and Christ's words abide within as food and drink, to purify thoughts by bringing them into captivity to Jesus, to speak with careful consideration of where words will lodge and what they will produce instead of scattering them recklessly, and to reject worldly plans, strife, fables, and a self-made false standard that forfeits communion, light, holiness, and fitness for God's work.
Tares are sown by unkind words planting envy and irritation, by skeptical unbelieving questions dropped during Bible study that start hearers in another channel, confuse ideas, cause loss of essential points, spoil the study, rob the class of solid eternal principles, and multiply words without progress in doctrine. They are sown when students act as Satan's agents by tempting others and bringing trouble, discouragement, and stumbling to teachers whom they should encourage and support, and when younger ones take up harmful examples around them. They are sown by publishing and preaching seductive fallacies even to refute them and by sowing groundless suspicions through unguarded words and actions, instead of studying the Word to provide nourishing food for souls. The call in place of this is to sow good seed that nourishes souls and does what is right.
Though tares remain among wheat, overseers must still investigate character, guard children, purify institutions, churches, conferences, and medical missionary work, and promptly recognize and correct objectionable teachings, sentiments, wrongdoing, and vice mixed with virtue so they do not leaven and spoil the work, while each person remains responsible and must examine his own faith. Defects in probationary time should not surprise God's people nor be used to disparage the church or its God-appointed agencies, for good and evil contend among professors while Satan influences minds not guarded by the Holy Spirit. The duty is to press to deeper sanctification, win souls, take up purification so the church becomes a bright light, and trust that the believer who refuses contamination and stands firm as a rock to Thus saith the Lord will have angels help and prepare the way in pure heavenly principles, safe under God's presence and favor even when some turn to their own power and riches and are overthrown.
The curse brought tares, disorder, brier, thorn, and thistle into creation through the enemy's sowing after transgression gave Satan opportunity to sow evil in the human heart and claim dominion, making cultivation harder and requiring continual warfare. Everything God created was useful and stands as a reservoir of means ready to do His pleasure in implicit obedience to His laws, but the curse introduced what is useless and confusing, and unlike nature which obeys God's order, human beings can resist God and produce confusion. The meaning of nature's good showing restoring love against the enemy's spoiling work is read aright only in light from Calvary, where through Bethlehem and the cross good conquers evil and every blessing comes as redemption's gift, with God at once working in fallen man to defeat Satan's plans and with tillage of soil schooling the soul as God's husbandry and building. The verse therefore requires standing firm in the freedom Christ gives to gather the precious wheat rather than gathering what is harmful.