Jesus Holds Wheat and Tares in the FieldBible World
13:42Matthew 13:42
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
At the end of the world the Son of man will send His angels to gather out of His kingdom all that offends and all who do iniquity and cast them into the furnace of fire to be utterly destroyed in eternal death, while the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father and receive eternal life. The wailing and gnashing of teeth is the suffering and anguish of those cast into the fire. The wheat and the tares must grow together until the harvest, so the present church remains mixed and no human may root up the tares, for human beings cannot read the heart and tares can closely resemble wheat, while Christ and His angels never mistake character. Character rather than religious profession or church membership decides destiny, for each person is judged by words and works. The parable therefore teaches humility and distrust of self rather than judgment and condemnation of others, and warns that those who feed on the faults of brethren will themselves be ranked among the tares.
Parable Setting and Symbols
Matthew 13:42 belongs to the explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares, in which the Son of man is the sower of the good seed, the field is the world, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, people born of God's word and the truth, while the tares are the children of the wicked one, people embodying error and false principles sown not by God or His angels but by the enemy who is the devil. The good corn is good doctrine, the light of the gospel, and God's traditions and most holy word, whereas the cockle and darnel are man's traditions and laws, darkness and false religion sown where the devil is resident and at work. Where he works, Bibles are put away for beads, gospel light for candles, Christ's cross for purgatory, clothing the naked and poor for decking images and stones, and God's word for human commands, for he is never out of his diocese, never idle, and ever at his plow, requiring equal diligence in sowing the good corn.
Christ sows the good seed in the heart, while Satan secretly sows seeds of evil upon the human mind that spread and bear harmful fruit. The tares are thus Satan's evil seed among the good grain, and their presence in the church dishonors God, misrepresents salvation, and imperils souls. The parable describes God's work of salvation through the church in the world, within which people are to grow and ripen for God's harvest. It shows divine and satanic agencies engaged in decided opposition and vital conflict until the close of earth's history, with the tares long looking like wheat yet rejected at the harvest while the wheat is gathered for Christ.
The tares remain tares and are not changed into wheat before the harvest, showing that the wicked are not converted at the harvest. The wheat and tares remain together until that end, and the tares do not all become wheat before it. At the end of the world the angels remove from Christ's kingdom those who cause offense and do evil, and the wicked who remain distinct from the righteous are gathered out and cast into fire and utterly destroyed, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth, in contrast to the righteous who are gathered to safety and receive eternal life. That separation ends their presence among the righteous forever.
The wheat and the tares must grow together until the harvest, so the present church is the mixed militant church, not yet the triumphant church. The separation takes place at the harvest and is carried out by angels, with the tares gathered for burning and bound and cast into the fire while the wheat is gathered into the garner. The presence of tares among the wheat does not mean the church will be destroyed or broken up before then.
Final Separation by Angels
At the end of the world the Son of man sends forth His angels to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and all who do iniquity and to cast them into a furnace of fire where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth in suffering and anguish. The good seed are the children of the kingdom sown by the Son of man, the tares are the children of the wicked one sown by the devil, the field is the world, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels, and as the tares are gathered and burned so the wicked including counterfeit Christians are destroyed in fire. The wheat and the tares must grow together until that harvest and the tares remain tares and are not changed into wheat before it, so the present mixed condition is the militant church not yet the triumphant church. After the wicked are removed the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father and receive eternal life.
Then the difference long hidden becomes plain, revealing true followers of Christ from those who only appear religious. Christ judges each person by words and works, and character rather than religious profession or church membership decides destiny. Judgment has been given only to Christ, who lived humanity and alone understands human weakness and striving for Christian perfection, so no man has the right to measure the characters of fellow men or to root up the tares. Human beings cannot reliably identify and separate the wheat and tares because tares can closely resemble wheat and the human heart cannot be read to distinguish who is wise and who is foolish.
Christ as the true Watcher knows the false from the true and never makes a mistake in His estimate of character, and His angels know character by fruits, are commissioned to counterwork those who fight against the truth, and will never mistake in gathering the wheat from among the tares. The separation is the angels' work at the harvest of gathering the wheat into the garner for safety and binding the tares for burning, while the chaff likewise is burned and the wheat gathered into God's garner. This same gathering is described as the third angel selecting the wheat and binding it for the heavenly garner, selecting and sealing the wheat for the heavenly garner while separating the vile from the precious. The presence of tares among the wheat does not mean the church will be destroyed or broken up before that time.
The separation of the wicked from the righteous ends their presence among and trouble for the righteous forever. The wicked are destroyed and become as though they had not been, after which every voice in the whole universe unites in joyful praise to God. The great day of final ingathering is foreshadowed by the Feast of Tabernacles as the feast of harvest, when the Lord of the harvest sends forth His reapers to collect the tares for the fire and to gather the wheat into His garner. Because the wicked are punished at the end, the parable rules out a temporal millennium in which the whole world is converted before Christ's second coming. The wicked are bound for the fires of the last day that will purify the earth, not by another flood but by fire from within the earth uniting with fire from heaven, and each person's choice and service determine whether he belongs with the good wheat or among the wicked destined for the fire.
Furnace Fire and Punishment
To be cast into the furnace of fire is to be gathered out from among the righteous at the end of the world and utterly destroyed by burning at the harvest. The tares remain tares and are not changed into wheat, but are gathered like bundles for burning while the righteous are gathered to safety and receive eternal life. That burning is eternal death, which will soon be the portion of all who reject Christ. The wailing and gnashing of teeth are the anguish and suffering experienced by those cast into the fire. Their punishment stands in contrast to the righteous, who shine forth in their Father's kingdom.
The chapter containing the verse is a warning about future destiny and judgment and the fate of those who will not stand acquitted before Christ. Its warning is to be taken seriously and heeded. The binding of the tares in bundles ready to be burned is being fulfilled as the wicked bind themselves together through turmoil and confusion filling the cities. That self-binding includes the bondage of workers of different trades to labor unions and trade unions, and the conditions brought about by strikes. It also includes men uniting in confederacies and unions through misuse of power, cruelty and force used to cause men to unite, with confusion, strife and discord between labor and capital, crime, selfishness, pride and pleasure-seeking, all worked by satanic agencies while the world reaches the conditions that existed in the days of Noah.
The bundles are people who take sides with Satan, transgress the law of God, yield to his temptations, and become tempters and helpers in his work of oppression. The image therefore applies to those who join unions that disregard God's commandments. It applies also to those who remain connected with secret societies, who will be burned with the tares at the last day.
Warnings for Faithful Living
The gospel calls people out from the world to be gathered together in church capacity, so the kingdom must be kept free from the sinful practices of the world, and the parable must be read carefully with the Holy Spirit impressing the minds that desire clear perception. It teaches humility and distrust of self rather than judgment and condemnation of others, for being in the church does not prove that a person is a Christian. The tares are counterfeit Christians, defective members, and hypocrites found in every church and throughout the land.
Their sins are no excuse for any soul and do not justify blaming Christ and His ministers, for Christ gave His life to save all who believe, and those who truly believe are genuine without pretense and true to one another in heart, soul, and action. Those who make defective members their theme of conversation, who habitually see evil and talk of evil and feed on the real or supposed faults of brethren, will themselves be ranked among the tares. Christ is the only perfect pattern and Sin-bearer, and no brother or sister can bear another's sin, so all must feed on Christ and obey the truth rather than feed on defective character, or they will perish in the furnace of fire and have only a false, contentious experience in unrighteousness.
The tares represent the worldly and unfaithful who ripen for destruction by rejecting God's authority and truth, in contrast to the faithful who ripen as wheat for God's garner. No one should sow tares but should sow the good seed of the kingdom, for a person's conduct influences others toward wrong or right and connects faithful conduct with the kingdom's final judgment of evil. The binding in bundles ready to be burned is not God's planning but the planning of a power that must in nowise be acknowledged.
It is being fulfilled as the wicked bind themselves together through turmoil and confusion in the cities, bondage of workers to labor unions and trade unions, strikes, and conditions of oppression, with thousands combining together, including in labor unions formed or to be formed and in secret societies, taking sides with Satan, transgressing God's law, yielding to temptation, and becoming tempters and helpers in oppression. Therefore God's people must not center their work in the cities, must preserve individuality, must not unite with trades unions or secret societies, must stand free in God, and must use all entrusted capabilities to give the last warning message, while God has a people who see the evil of oppression and refuse to unite with the enemy. The imagery of tares among wheat also pictures a proposed group of workers containing unreliable people among the faithful, without explaining or applying the punishment by fire there.
At the end of the world the Son of man will send His angels to gather out of His kingdom all that offends and all who do iniquity and cast them into the furnace of fire to be utterly destroyed in eternal death, while the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father and receive eternal life. The wailing and gnashing of teeth is the suffering and anguish of those cast into the fire. The wheat and the tares must grow together until the harvest, so the present church remains mixed and no human may root up the tares, for human beings cannot read the heart and tares can closely resemble wheat, while Christ and His angels never mistake character. Character rather than religious profession or church membership decides destiny, for each person is judged by words and works. The parable therefore teaches humility and distrust of self rather than judgment and condemnation of others, and warns that those who feed on the faults of brethren will themselves be ranked among the tares.
Parable Setting and Symbols
Matthew 13:42 belongs to the explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares, in which the Son of man is the sower of the good seed, the field is the world, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, people born of God's word and the truth, while the tares are the children of the wicked one, people embodying error and false principles sown not by God or His angels but by the enemy who is the devil. The good corn is good doctrine, the light of the gospel, and God's traditions and most holy word, whereas the cockle and darnel are man's traditions and laws, darkness and false religion sown where the devil is resident and at work. Where he works, Bibles are put away for beads, gospel light for candles, Christ's cross for purgatory, clothing the naked and poor for decking images and stones, and God's word for human commands, for he is never out of his diocese, never idle, and ever at his plow, requiring equal diligence in sowing the good corn.
Christ sows the good seed in the heart, while Satan secretly sows seeds of evil upon the human mind that spread and bear harmful fruit. The tares are thus Satan's evil seed among the good grain, and their presence in the church dishonors God, misrepresents salvation, and imperils souls. The parable describes God's work of salvation through the church in the world, within which people are to grow and ripen for God's harvest. It shows divine and satanic agencies engaged in decided opposition and vital conflict until the close of earth's history, with the tares long looking like wheat yet rejected at the harvest while the wheat is gathered for Christ.
The tares remain tares and are not changed into wheat before the harvest, showing that the wicked are not converted at the harvest. The wheat and tares remain together until that end, and the tares do not all become wheat before it. At the end of the world the angels remove from Christ's kingdom those who cause offense and do evil, and the wicked who remain distinct from the righteous are gathered out and cast into fire and utterly destroyed, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth, in contrast to the righteous who are gathered to safety and receive eternal life. That separation ends their presence among the righteous forever.
The wheat and the tares must grow together until the harvest, so the present church is the mixed militant church, not yet the triumphant church. The separation takes place at the harvest and is carried out by angels, with the tares gathered for burning and bound and cast into the fire while the wheat is gathered into the garner. The presence of tares among the wheat does not mean the church will be destroyed or broken up before then.
Final Separation by Angels
At the end of the world the Son of man sends forth His angels to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and all who do iniquity and to cast them into a furnace of fire where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth in suffering and anguish. The good seed are the children of the kingdom sown by the Son of man, the tares are the children of the wicked one sown by the devil, the field is the world, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels, and as the tares are gathered and burned so the wicked including counterfeit Christians are destroyed in fire. The wheat and the tares must grow together until that harvest and the tares remain tares and are not changed into wheat before it, so the present mixed condition is the militant church not yet the triumphant church. After the wicked are removed the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father and receive eternal life.
Then the difference long hidden becomes plain, revealing true followers of Christ from those who only appear religious. Christ judges each person by words and works, and character rather than religious profession or church membership decides destiny. Judgment has been given only to Christ, who lived humanity and alone understands human weakness and striving for Christian perfection, so no man has the right to measure the characters of fellow men or to root up the tares. Human beings cannot reliably identify and separate the wheat and tares because tares can closely resemble wheat and the human heart cannot be read to distinguish who is wise and who is foolish.
Christ as the true Watcher knows the false from the true and never makes a mistake in His estimate of character, and His angels know character by fruits, are commissioned to counterwork those who fight against the truth, and will never mistake in gathering the wheat from among the tares. The separation is the angels' work at the harvest of gathering the wheat into the garner for safety and binding the tares for burning, while the chaff likewise is burned and the wheat gathered into God's garner. This same gathering is described as the third angel selecting the wheat and binding it for the heavenly garner, selecting and sealing the wheat for the heavenly garner while separating the vile from the precious. The presence of tares among the wheat does not mean the church will be destroyed or broken up before that time.
The separation of the wicked from the righteous ends their presence among and trouble for the righteous forever. The wicked are destroyed and become as though they had not been, after which every voice in the whole universe unites in joyful praise to God. The great day of final ingathering is foreshadowed by the Feast of Tabernacles as the feast of harvest, when the Lord of the harvest sends forth His reapers to collect the tares for the fire and to gather the wheat into His garner. Because the wicked are punished at the end, the parable rules out a temporal millennium in which the whole world is converted before Christ's second coming. The wicked are bound for the fires of the last day that will purify the earth, not by another flood but by fire from within the earth uniting with fire from heaven, and each person's choice and service determine whether he belongs with the good wheat or among the wicked destined for the fire.
Furnace Fire and Punishment
To be cast into the furnace of fire is to be gathered out from among the righteous at the end of the world and utterly destroyed by burning at the harvest. The tares remain tares and are not changed into wheat, but are gathered like bundles for burning while the righteous are gathered to safety and receive eternal life. That burning is eternal death, which will soon be the portion of all who reject Christ. The wailing and gnashing of teeth are the anguish and suffering experienced by those cast into the fire. Their punishment stands in contrast to the righteous, who shine forth in their Father's kingdom.
The chapter containing the verse is a warning about future destiny and judgment and the fate of those who will not stand acquitted before Christ. Its warning is to be taken seriously and heeded. The binding of the tares in bundles ready to be burned is being fulfilled as the wicked bind themselves together through turmoil and confusion filling the cities. That self-binding includes the bondage of workers of different trades to labor unions and trade unions, and the conditions brought about by strikes. It also includes men uniting in confederacies and unions through misuse of power, cruelty and force used to cause men to unite, with confusion, strife and discord between labor and capital, crime, selfishness, pride and pleasure-seeking, all worked by satanic agencies while the world reaches the conditions that existed in the days of Noah.
The bundles are people who take sides with Satan, transgress the law of God, yield to his temptations, and become tempters and helpers in his work of oppression. The image therefore applies to those who join unions that disregard God's commandments. It applies also to those who remain connected with secret societies, who will be burned with the tares at the last day.
Warnings for Faithful Living
The gospel calls people out from the world to be gathered together in church capacity, so the kingdom must be kept free from the sinful practices of the world, and the parable must be read carefully with the Holy Spirit impressing the minds that desire clear perception. It teaches humility and distrust of self rather than judgment and condemnation of others, for being in the church does not prove that a person is a Christian. The tares are counterfeit Christians, defective members, and hypocrites found in every church and throughout the land.
Their sins are no excuse for any soul and do not justify blaming Christ and His ministers, for Christ gave His life to save all who believe, and those who truly believe are genuine without pretense and true to one another in heart, soul, and action. Those who make defective members their theme of conversation, who habitually see evil and talk of evil and feed on the real or supposed faults of brethren, will themselves be ranked among the tares. Christ is the only perfect pattern and Sin-bearer, and no brother or sister can bear another's sin, so all must feed on Christ and obey the truth rather than feed on defective character, or they will perish in the furnace of fire and have only a false, contentious experience in unrighteousness.
The tares represent the worldly and unfaithful who ripen for destruction by rejecting God's authority and truth, in contrast to the faithful who ripen as wheat for God's garner. No one should sow tares but should sow the good seed of the kingdom, for a person's conduct influences others toward wrong or right and connects faithful conduct with the kingdom's final judgment of evil. The binding in bundles ready to be burned is not God's planning but the planning of a power that must in nowise be acknowledged.
It is being fulfilled as the wicked bind themselves together through turmoil and confusion in the cities, bondage of workers to labor unions and trade unions, strikes, and conditions of oppression, with thousands combining together, including in labor unions formed or to be formed and in secret societies, taking sides with Satan, transgressing God's law, yielding to temptation, and becoming tempters and helpers in oppression. Therefore God's people must not center their work in the cities, must preserve individuality, must not unite with trades unions or secret societies, must stand free in God, and must use all entrusted capabilities to give the last warning message, while God has a people who see the evil of oppression and refuse to unite with the enemy. The imagery of tares among wheat also pictures a proposed group of workers containing unreliable people among the faithful, without explaining or applying the punishment by fire there.