He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
The one who sows the good seed is the Son of man, Christ Jesus Himself. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, and the good seed is also the word of truth He sows, while the field is the world and the tares are the children of the wicked one whom the devil sowed. The wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world, when the angels as reapers gather out the offenders for burning and gather the righteous into God's kingdom to shine as the sun. Because wheat and tares look alike while growing, the work of judging character and separating them is committed to Christ and His angels alone and not to human hands. Christ came not as a conquering king by force but as a sower implanting truth in hearts, and His kingdom prevails through patient sowing amid the conflict of divine and satanic agencies until the close of earth's history.
Sower, Seed, and Field
He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man, Christ Jesus Himself, the true Watcher over wheat and tares. He alone has the right to measure character and judge, because He lived humanity and understands human weakness and striving for Christian perfection. He came not as a king to overthrow earthly kingdoms by force, but as a sower scattering the gospel and implanting a new principle in human hearts.
The good seed are the children of the kingdom, people born of God's word, the truth. The good seed is also the word itself that He sows: the gospel to be spread throughout the world, the truth, righteousness and goodness with which He sows the world, and the corn of good doctrine. God's living Word is incorruptible seed that sanctifies those who receive it and draws them into participation in the divine nature. His kingdom's doctrines are made plain, and truth is set in contrast with error so people can recognize and discard falsehood, and when truth is planted and cherished in the heart it uproots errors cherished as truth, for He sows no error. The sowing picture applies to the human mind and heart, which people must diligently prepare and cultivate, while God gives life and vitality to the seed. Faithful prelates do the Son of man's work when they sow that corn of good doctrine.
The field in which the Son of man sows them is the world. The field also signifies 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.
The tares are the children of the wicked one, people formed by error and false principles and embodying them. Neither God nor His angels sow seed that produces them, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, Satan, the enemy of God and humanity, who sows them among the good, bringing into the church people who bear Christ's name but deny His character.
Christ's Work as Sower
The one who sows the good seed is the Son of man, and He came not as a conquering king to overthrow earthly kingdoms by force or to bring earthly triumph and national greatness, but as a sower scattering the gospel and implanting a new principle in human hearts. He sows the world with righteousness, goodness, truth, and pure seeds of heavenly truth, teaching people absorbed in earthly things.
He scatters the precious grain in the fallow ground of the human heart to make it fruitful, while Satan secretly sows seeds of evil and error that grow, bear harmful fruit, and can crowd out or destroy the good. He sows no error, for His kingdom's doctrines are made plain and truth is set in contrast with error so people can recognize and discard falsehood, and when truth is planted and cherished in the heart it uproots errors cherished as truth. The sowing picture applies to the human mind and heart, where the Word is the seed, which people must diligently prepare and cultivate while God gives life and vitality to the seed.
His work brings a harvest through patient toil despite losses and disappointments, for God's kingdom prevails not through arms or violent intervention but through patient sowing. The verse belongs to the lesson of two working forces in decided opposition and vital conflict openly before the world, divine agency and satanic agency contending until the close of earth's history. In that conflict God's living Word is incorruptible seed that sanctifies those who receive it and draws them into participation in the divine nature, the wheat is gathered for Christ while tares that only resemble wheat are rejected at the harvest, Satan tries to deceive those connected with the Word and prolong his control, and God bears long with stubborn self-indulgent men while testing and proving His people in a shaking time when everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Harvest and Final Separation
The wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world. The tares do not all become wheat. This growing together until the harvest rules out a picture of the world being wholly converted before Christ's coming. The reapers are the angels, who at the end of the world gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and those who do iniquity.
The wicked ripen as tares and the righteous ripen as wheat. At the harvest the wicked are removed for destruction, bound and burned in a furnace of fire where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. The righteous are gathered into God's garner and kingdom, receive eternal life, and shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The binding and sealing of the wheat for the heavenly garner is associated with the third angel. In the harvest the wheat is separated from the tares and the wheat is bound or sealed for the heavenly garner.
Christ Himself, the true Watcher over wheat and tares, will decide who is worthy to belong to heaven. He will judge each person by words and actions. Profession of faith alone does not determine destiny, but character does. True believers are genuine Christians without pretense, true in heart and soul and action, for whom He gave His life to save all who truly believe. Angels know wheat from tares by their fruits declaring character and gather the wheat without mistake. Christ knows the false from the true and never makes a mistake in His estimate of character.
No Human Judging Allowed
The Son of man sows the good seed, yet in the church militant on earth tares remain with the wheat until the harvest. Among them are counterfeit Christians, hypocrites, and professed Christians with pretense, while true believers are genuine without pretense, true in heart and soul and action. The gospel calls people out from the world together in church capacity, and the kingdom must be kept free from the sinful practices of the world, a point the Holy Spirit impresses on minds that desire a clear perception of the parable.
Satan sows tares among the good grain, for neither God nor His angels sow them. He brings into the church people who bear Christ's name but deny His character, and then attributes the resulting evil to Christ. By this means God is dishonored, salvation is misrepresented, and souls are put in danger.
Wheat and tares may look so alike while growing that people cannot reliably read the heart or separate them, and uprooting the tares prematurely would damage the wheat. Men cannot distinguish who are wise and who are foolish, but angels know wheat from tares by their fruits declaring character and will gather the wheat without mistake. The distinction becomes clear at the harvest at the end of the world.
Christ alone has the right to measure character and judge, because He lived humanity and understands human weakness and striving for Christian perfection. The work of judgment and separation over wheat and tares has been given to Him and has not been committed to human hands, but to Christ and His angels. He is the true Watcher over wheat and tares, knows the false from the true, never makes a mistake in His estimate of character, and after a time will separate the tares from the wheat. Angels commissioned to counterwork those who fight against the truth will never make a mistake in gathering the wheat from among the tares when the door is shut.
Therefore no person may judge fellow church members for their faults, measure their character, make their faults a theme of conversation, feed on their real or supposed defects, or let their defects prevent being a Christian. The parable teaches humility and distrust of self rather than judging and condemning others, for not everything sown in the field is good grain and belonging to the church does not prove a person is a Christian. Those who look at and feed on defective character will themselves be ranked among the tares with a false, contentious experience.
All must instead come into vital connection with Christ, the only perfect pattern of Christianity and the Sin-bearer who alone takes away sin. They must feed on Him, make Him the theme of conversation, obey the truth, and do and be what He requires in order to be saved, since He gave His life to save all who truly believe in Him.
The presence of tares together with wheat until the harvest, when angels separate them, does not mean Christ's church will be destroyed or should be broken up into independent groups. The church contains both wheat and tares until then, and the presence of error and unfaithfulness is not a reason for division, for angels, not people, carry out the final separation. Meanwhile God bears long with stubborn self-indulgent men while He tests and proves His people in a shaking time when everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that what cannot be shaken may remain. In the same way, a company gathered for the work cannot be assumed to consist only of faithful workers, since some within it may be unreliable and sow evil.
Warning and Faithful Living
The one who sows the good seed is the Son of man, and this identification belongs to the Bible's clear presentation of the plan of salvation. It is part of Christ's instruction concerning the future destiny of those for whom He gave His life, given as a warning that calls for careful, prayerful study. That warning calls for heedfulness in view of Christ's judgment, when people must stand acquitted and without stain upon character.
The Holy Spirit impresses the minds of those who desire a clear perception of this parable so they understand its instruction. The gospel of Jesus Christ calls together in church capacity those who come out from the world. The kingdom of God must be kept free from the sinful practices of the world. Christ's followers should therefore live and work so that their influence sows the good seed of the kingdom rather than tares.
Faithful prelates do the Son of man's work when they sow the corn of good doctrine. They should be as diligent to sow it as Satan, the opposing sower of cockle and darnel, is diligent in his sowing. He is the most diligent bishop and prelate in his own cause, never out of his diocese, ever at home when called for, ever at his plow and never idle. Where he is resident and his sowing prevails, books and Bibles are put away and beads and candles are put up, the light of the gospel is put away and the light of candles is put up yea at noondays, Christ's cross is put down and purgatory is put up, clothing the naked, the poor, and impotent is put away and decking of images and gay garnishing of stocks and stones is put up, and God's traditions and His most holy word are put down and man's traditions and his laws are put up.
Sowing the good seed is the work to do in answer to the enemy's work on human minds. It means removing questions suggested by Satan whenever possible and educating mind and heart to take hold of grand and soul-saving truths instead of becoming channels through whom doubt and questioning are communicated. The opposite, sowing tares, is picking at straws, allowing straw images to be created as something to attack, and educating oneself to become Satan's agent in passing along his suggestions. The same sowing applies to teaching children, for parents should deliberately place good principles in their hearts before Satan can plant evil rather than leave them to learn good and evil indiscriminately. Evil can grow faster and be difficult to remove later.
He who came to sow the world with truth sows no error. His kingdom's doctrines are made plain, and truth is set in contrast with error so people can recognize and discard falsehood. When truth is planted and cherished in the heart, it uproots errors cherished as truth. Satan, by contrast, guards the tares he has sown among the truth and seeks to make them eclipse it. He tries to deceive people connected with the Word and prolong his control, but God's living Word is incorruptible seed that sanctifies those who receive it and draws them into participation in the divine nature. The wheat is gathered for Christ, while tares that only resemble wheat are rejected at the harvest.
The one who sows the good seed is the Son of man, Christ Jesus Himself. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, and the good seed is also the word of truth He sows, while the field is the world and the tares are the children of the wicked one whom the devil sowed. The wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world, when the angels as reapers gather out the offenders for burning and gather the righteous into God's kingdom to shine as the sun. Because wheat and tares look alike while growing, the work of judging character and separating them is committed to Christ and His angels alone and not to human hands. Christ came not as a conquering king by force but as a sower implanting truth in hearts, and His kingdom prevails through patient sowing amid the conflict of divine and satanic agencies until the close of earth's history.
Sower, Seed, and Field
He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man, Christ Jesus Himself, the true Watcher over wheat and tares. He alone has the right to measure character and judge, because He lived humanity and understands human weakness and striving for Christian perfection. He came not as a king to overthrow earthly kingdoms by force, but as a sower scattering the gospel and implanting a new principle in human hearts.
The good seed are the children of the kingdom, people born of God's word, the truth. The good seed is also the word itself that He sows: the gospel to be spread throughout the world, the truth, righteousness and goodness with which He sows the world, and the corn of good doctrine. God's living Word is incorruptible seed that sanctifies those who receive it and draws them into participation in the divine nature. His kingdom's doctrines are made plain, and truth is set in contrast with error so people can recognize and discard falsehood, and when truth is planted and cherished in the heart it uproots errors cherished as truth, for He sows no error. The sowing picture applies to the human mind and heart, which people must diligently prepare and cultivate, while God gives life and vitality to the seed. Faithful prelates do the Son of man's work when they sow that corn of good doctrine.
The field in which the Son of man sows them is the world. The field also signifies 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.
The tares are the children of the wicked one, people formed by error and false principles and embodying them. Neither God nor His angels sow seed that produces them, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, Satan, the enemy of God and humanity, who sows them among the good, bringing into the church people who bear Christ's name but deny His character.
Christ's Work as Sower
The one who sows the good seed is the Son of man, and He came not as a conquering king to overthrow earthly kingdoms by force or to bring earthly triumph and national greatness, but as a sower scattering the gospel and implanting a new principle in human hearts. He sows the world with righteousness, goodness, truth, and pure seeds of heavenly truth, teaching people absorbed in earthly things.
He scatters the precious grain in the fallow ground of the human heart to make it fruitful, while Satan secretly sows seeds of evil and error that grow, bear harmful fruit, and can crowd out or destroy the good. He sows no error, for His kingdom's doctrines are made plain and truth is set in contrast with error so people can recognize and discard falsehood, and when truth is planted and cherished in the heart it uproots errors cherished as truth. The sowing picture applies to the human mind and heart, where the Word is the seed, which people must diligently prepare and cultivate while God gives life and vitality to the seed.
His work brings a harvest through patient toil despite losses and disappointments, for God's kingdom prevails not through arms or violent intervention but through patient sowing. The verse belongs to the lesson of two working forces in decided opposition and vital conflict openly before the world, divine agency and satanic agency contending until the close of earth's history. In that conflict God's living Word is incorruptible seed that sanctifies those who receive it and draws them into participation in the divine nature, the wheat is gathered for Christ while tares that only resemble wheat are rejected at the harvest, Satan tries to deceive those connected with the Word and prolong his control, and God bears long with stubborn self-indulgent men while testing and proving His people in a shaking time when everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Harvest and Final Separation
The wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world. The tares do not all become wheat. This growing together until the harvest rules out a picture of the world being wholly converted before Christ's coming. The reapers are the angels, who at the end of the world gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and those who do iniquity.
The wicked ripen as tares and the righteous ripen as wheat. At the harvest the wicked are removed for destruction, bound and burned in a furnace of fire where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. The righteous are gathered into God's garner and kingdom, receive eternal life, and shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The binding and sealing of the wheat for the heavenly garner is associated with the third angel. In the harvest the wheat is separated from the tares and the wheat is bound or sealed for the heavenly garner.
Christ Himself, the true Watcher over wheat and tares, will decide who is worthy to belong to heaven. He will judge each person by words and actions. Profession of faith alone does not determine destiny, but character does. True believers are genuine Christians without pretense, true in heart and soul and action, for whom He gave His life to save all who truly believe. Angels know wheat from tares by their fruits declaring character and gather the wheat without mistake. Christ knows the false from the true and never makes a mistake in His estimate of character.
No Human Judging Allowed
The Son of man sows the good seed, yet in the church militant on earth tares remain with the wheat until the harvest. Among them are counterfeit Christians, hypocrites, and professed Christians with pretense, while true believers are genuine without pretense, true in heart and soul and action. The gospel calls people out from the world together in church capacity, and the kingdom must be kept free from the sinful practices of the world, a point the Holy Spirit impresses on minds that desire a clear perception of the parable.
Satan sows tares among the good grain, for neither God nor His angels sow them. He brings into the church people who bear Christ's name but deny His character, and then attributes the resulting evil to Christ. By this means God is dishonored, salvation is misrepresented, and souls are put in danger.
Wheat and tares may look so alike while growing that people cannot reliably read the heart or separate them, and uprooting the tares prematurely would damage the wheat. Men cannot distinguish who are wise and who are foolish, but angels know wheat from tares by their fruits declaring character and will gather the wheat without mistake. The distinction becomes clear at the harvest at the end of the world.
Christ alone has the right to measure character and judge, because He lived humanity and understands human weakness and striving for Christian perfection. The work of judgment and separation over wheat and tares has been given to Him and has not been committed to human hands, but to Christ and His angels. He is the true Watcher over wheat and tares, knows the false from the true, never makes a mistake in His estimate of character, and after a time will separate the tares from the wheat. Angels commissioned to counterwork those who fight against the truth will never make a mistake in gathering the wheat from among the tares when the door is shut.
Therefore no person may judge fellow church members for their faults, measure their character, make their faults a theme of conversation, feed on their real or supposed defects, or let their defects prevent being a Christian. The parable teaches humility and distrust of self rather than judging and condemning others, for not everything sown in the field is good grain and belonging to the church does not prove a person is a Christian. Those who look at and feed on defective character will themselves be ranked among the tares with a false, contentious experience.
All must instead come into vital connection with Christ, the only perfect pattern of Christianity and the Sin-bearer who alone takes away sin. They must feed on Him, make Him the theme of conversation, obey the truth, and do and be what He requires in order to be saved, since He gave His life to save all who truly believe in Him.
The presence of tares together with wheat until the harvest, when angels separate them, does not mean Christ's church will be destroyed or should be broken up into independent groups. The church contains both wheat and tares until then, and the presence of error and unfaithfulness is not a reason for division, for angels, not people, carry out the final separation. Meanwhile God bears long with stubborn self-indulgent men while He tests and proves His people in a shaking time when everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that what cannot be shaken may remain. In the same way, a company gathered for the work cannot be assumed to consist only of faithful workers, since some within it may be unreliable and sow evil.
Warning and Faithful Living
The one who sows the good seed is the Son of man, and this identification belongs to the Bible's clear presentation of the plan of salvation. It is part of Christ's instruction concerning the future destiny of those for whom He gave His life, given as a warning that calls for careful, prayerful study. That warning calls for heedfulness in view of Christ's judgment, when people must stand acquitted and without stain upon character.
The Holy Spirit impresses the minds of those who desire a clear perception of this parable so they understand its instruction. The gospel of Jesus Christ calls together in church capacity those who come out from the world. The kingdom of God must be kept free from the sinful practices of the world. Christ's followers should therefore live and work so that their influence sows the good seed of the kingdom rather than tares.
Faithful prelates do the Son of man's work when they sow the corn of good doctrine. They should be as diligent to sow it as Satan, the opposing sower of cockle and darnel, is diligent in his sowing. He is the most diligent bishop and prelate in his own cause, never out of his diocese, ever at home when called for, ever at his plow and never idle. Where he is resident and his sowing prevails, books and Bibles are put away and beads and candles are put up, the light of the gospel is put away and the light of candles is put up yea at noondays, Christ's cross is put down and purgatory is put up, clothing the naked, the poor, and impotent is put away and decking of images and gay garnishing of stocks and stones is put up, and God's traditions and His most holy word are put down and man's traditions and his laws are put up.
Sowing the good seed is the work to do in answer to the enemy's work on human minds. It means removing questions suggested by Satan whenever possible and educating mind and heart to take hold of grand and soul-saving truths instead of becoming channels through whom doubt and questioning are communicated. The opposite, sowing tares, is picking at straws, allowing straw images to be created as something to attack, and educating oneself to become Satan's agent in passing along his suggestions. The same sowing applies to teaching children, for parents should deliberately place good principles in their hearts before Satan can plant evil rather than leave them to learn good and evil indiscriminately. Evil can grow faster and be difficult to remove later.
He who came to sow the world with truth sows no error. His kingdom's doctrines are made plain, and truth is set in contrast with error so people can recognize and discard falsehood. When truth is planted and cherished in the heart, it uproots errors cherished as truth. Satan, by contrast, guards the tares he has sown among the truth and seeks to make them eclipse it. He tries to deceive people connected with the Word and prolong his control, but God's living Word is incorruptible seed that sanctifies those who receive it and draws them into participation in the divine nature. The wheat is gathered for Christ, while tares that only resemble wheat are rejected at the harvest.