Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Christ's words close His explanation of the wheat and tares, showing the final separation of the righteous from the wicked at the harvest at the end of the world. At that harvest He sends His angels as reapers to gather out all that offends and all who do iniquity for destruction by fire, while gathering the wheat into His barn. Only after the wicked are removed forever do the righteous shine bright as the sun in their Father's kingdom, entering eternal life free from darkness, sorrow and pain where God Himself gives them light. That shining belongs to those who form characters without spot or stain in vital connection with Christ, obeying truth, sharing His humiliation and suffering, and bearing fruit to His glory. Until that time the wheat and tares grow together, and the separating work belongs to the angels alone, so no person is to judge fellow members or break up the church beforehand.
Parable Setting and Symbols
This closing line finishes Christ's explanation of the wheat and tares, which is about the kingdom of heaven and the final separation of the righteous from the wicked at the harvest, which is the end of the world. At that end the wicked are removed and destroyed and trouble the righteous no more, and then the righteous shine in the kingdom of their Father as the harvest outcome for the righteous in contrast to the burning and judgment of evildoers. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, and the righteous are gathered into God's kingdom in final vindication after that separation.
Its symbols are fixed: the sower of the good seed is the Son of man, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom, the tares are the children of the wicked one, the enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. The Son of man sows the good seed while the devil sows the tares, and at the harvest the Son of man sends forth His angels as reapers to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and all who do iniquity and cast them into a furnace of fire with wailing and gnashing of teeth, while gathering the wheat into His barn.
Until that harvest the wheat and the tares grow together, and the church is the church militant and not yet the church triumphant, made up in every church of true sons and daughters of God together with counterfeit Christians. The church in the world is where the righteous grow and ripen for God's harvest, and the living Word sanctifies those who receive it. The parable shows the conflict between God's work and Satan's work continuing to the close of earth's history, with divine and satanic agencies in decided opposition and vital conflict before all the world. Satan secretly sows evil and error in the human mind while Christ sows good in the heart, so that seeds of error grow, produce harmful results, and can crowd out good, and the parable warns against allowing evil to corrupt Christian assemblies.
The harvest is Christ's gathering of His people at His coming, and the gospel harvest ripens as Christians bear fruit to God's glory, with their faithfulness hastening His return. It was foreshadowed by the Feast of Tabernacles as the feast of harvest pointing forward to the great day of final ingathering, when the Lord of the harvest sends forth His reapers to gather the tares together in bundles for the fire and to gather the wheat into His garner, at which time all the wicked are destroyed. It is connected with the third angel's work of selecting the wheat and binding or sealing it for the heavenly garner, in which those who serve must distinguish the precious from the vile. In that sealing the righteous are a little company traveling a narrow pathway, firmly united and bound together by the truth in bundles for the heavenly garner, in opposite contrast to the whole world bound in bundles ready to burn and going with lightning speed to perdition.
The verse ends with a call to hear, as a truth demanding attentive hearing. Its chapter serves as a warning and calls its hearers to heed its teaching in view of the judgment, to be read as for life. It holds before all the future destiny Christ intends for those for whom He gave His life, that the righteous who are saved will shine forth in the kingdom of their Father.
Final Separation and Judgment
At the harvest, which is the end of the world, the Son of man sends forth His angels as reapers to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and all who do iniquity and cast them into a furnace of fire where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth, while gathering the wheat into His barn or garner. As tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so the angels remove evildoers from the kingdom and judgment falls on them, and the Feast of Tabernacles as the feast of harvest points forward to this great day of final ingathering when the tares are bound in bundles for the fire. After that separation the righteous appear in brightness and are bright like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, which is their final vindication and place in the kingdom after evil has been removed.
Only after the wicked have been removed and destroyed do the righteous shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. At the end of the world the wicked are separated from the righteous so that they will trouble the righteous no more forever. The wheat and tares remain distinct until the harvest, for the harvest is the final separation of good and evil and not a time when the wicked are changed into the righteous, while the righteous are rewarded with eternal life.
In that final judgment every character is revealed as it truly is and each person is judged by talents, words, works, and fruits. Outward profession or mere belonging to the church and membership in the church do not determine destiny or prove one a Christian, but character does, and Christ distinguishes the righteous from those who only profess to follow Him. The righteous and the wicked are distinct classes, the righteous pictured as wheat ripening for God's garner and the tares ripening for destruction, and in the final judgment the righteous alone will shine in God's kingdom after the wheat has been gathered and separated from the tares. God's angels recognize each by fruits and gather the righteous without error, though human beings cannot reliably make that separation now.
That separation is the work of angels at harvest time, not the work of men now. Until that harvest no person has the right to measure the character of fellow members, to say who is wise or foolish, or to do the work of separation by breaking up the church beforehand into independent atoms. Judgment has been given to Christ alone, who lived humanity and alone understands human weakness and human striving to attain Christian perfection, while Christ as the true Watcher knows the false from the true and never makes a mistake in His estimate of the characters of men. Hypocrites are in the churches as tares among the wheat, but after a time He will separate the tares from the wheat, gathering the wheat into the garner while the tares and chaff are bound in bundles to burn.
Placing this shining after the separation of the wheat and tares at the end of the world rules out a worldwide temporal millennium of converted people and a complete triumph of the church before Christ's second coming. The parable instead shows that the world and church face dark and perilous conditions in the last days.
Future Glory Described
Then the righteous are gathered into the Father's kingdom and shine bright like the sun in final vindication and eternal life after evil has been removed. At the end of the world, after the harvest separation of wheat from tares, the angels remove evildoers from the kingdom and judgment falls on them, while the righteous are rewarded and given their place in God's kingdom in contrast to the burning of evildoers. The righteous in this explanation are the children of the kingdom, the wheat remain distinct until the harvest, and the wicked are not changed into the righteous but are removed and destroyed.
Their experience will be free of darkness, sorrow, and pain, which pass away when they enter the rest of the saints. They strive for an immortal crown and receive an imperishable reward and a home where no sun, moon, lamp, or lighted candle is needed because the Lord God Himself gives them light. There they have immortal life and reign forever and ever without end, with a life that lasts as long as the life of God. In contrast the wicked lose their light and are put out in shameful darkness and dark extinction, snuffed out while the faithful press on for eternal life. The greatness of this prospect should make God's chosen more enthusiastic than people excited over low earthly games and the mad excitement of the world over cheap sports and amusements.
The kingdom is the Father's own kingdom under His scepter, described in homelike terms to remove overwhelming awfulness and grandeur. It consists of righteousness, peace, and joy, with an atmosphere of peace, rest, joy, and love without misinterpretation. Its subjects are the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those persecuted for Christ's sake, and all who love God in sincerity and truth. Mansions there are prepared by the One who gave His life so they may be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, where they will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
At the deliverance of God's people their faces are lit with glory and reflect the light shining from Jesus' face and the image of Jesus. Those who sleep in Jesus will rise with individual identity preserved, and their loved ones will recognize them. Just before Christ's second appearing the saints are glorified and the glory in their faces shines like the sun. Those who sought to destroy them cannot endure that glory but shrink from seeing them because it causes them pain, and fall as dead men.
They shine in the glory of the Father and the Son when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven to be crowned and admired in all who believe. On that coronation day Christ enters the heavenly courts accompanied by His redeemed ones as His trophies of victory won through His suffering and sacrifice, washed and made white and tried in the blood of the Lamb. They are living witnesses that His mission of suffering and self-sacrifice was not in vain, while those who rejected His reign see Him honored and crowned in glory. Angels touching golden harps welcome the King and His trophies, and a song of triumph peals forth filling all heaven declaring that Christ has conquered.
Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ and who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God in the New Jerusalem, the city built for them as their place of rest. There the garments of heaviness are changed for the wedding garment, and there is no sadness, wail of sorrow, or dirge of crushed hopes and buried affections. The righteous who are raised from the dead through Jesus share in the life and glory made possible by His resurrection as part of His victory over death. A soul saved has lasting worth and will shine in heaven throughout eternity.
Many of the colored race who are rich in faith and trust, with quick perceptions and bright minds, are precious jewels in God's sight who will one day shine out brightly. The righteous as a little company travel a narrow pathway, firmly united and bound together by the truth in bundles for the heavenly garner by the sealing work of the third angel. After passing through severe trials and conflicts they look care-worn, then light like the sun rising from behind a cloud shines upon their faces and makes them look triumphant because their victories are nearly won. This stands in opposite contrast to the whole world bound in bundles ready to burn and going with lightning speed to perdition under Satan as conductor in the form of an angel of light.
This shining will be fulfilled when earthly labors are ended and Christ comes for His faithful children, who will then shine with sun-like brightness in their Father's kingdom. Staying earnest students in the school of Christ and remaining humble learners causes light to grow brighter and brighter toward the perfect day now, but before that final shining comes everything imperfect must be seen and put away, with all envy and jealousy and evil surmising and every selfish plan banished from the life. On the great decisive day of the last general judgment only the righteous will shine in God's kingdom, when every character is revealed and appears just as it truly is. In that day each person is dealt with according to talents, works, and the use made of them, those who have done good receiving a part in the resurrection of life while those who have done evil are repaid according to their works, and the difference between the obedient and the disobedient settles everything.
Character Required to Shine
Those who will shine must form characters without fault, without spot or stain, in the sight of a pure and holy God. The verse holds before all the future destiny intended for those for whom life was given, and it stands as a warning to be read as for life, to take heed to oneself and let no one be blinded by human sophistry. Each should ask prayerfully who shall stand acquitted before the judgment seat of Christ, for at the great day every person will be judged according to the deeds done in this life. Christ will cooperate with every human being who will cooperate with Him, by wearing His yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness, and will give daily experience in the meaning of the divine beatitudes.
The redeemed who shine are those who have prepared for the judgment by casting the love of the world out of their hearts, learning fellowship with Christ by experience, and meeting Him in peace. The promise belongs to those who humble themselves and become as little children in order to enter heaven. For the humble and contrite, Christ's prayer that they be with Him where He is and behold His glory is answered as He Himself shows them the rich glories of His kingdom, and God's voice, sweeter than any music ever heard, declares them complete in Him.
The faithful will shine after enduring misrepresentation, criticism, misconstrued motives, and misjudged humility and boldness, by keeping their eyes on Christ as the great General of armies and moving on with courage to victory. They follow the pattern of Abel who died a martyr and Enoch who walked with God unknown to the world. Staying earnest students in the school of Christ and remaining humble learners causes light to grow brighter and brighter toward the perfect day now, but before the final shining everything imperfect must be seen and put away, with all envy and jealousy and evil surmising and every selfish plan banished from the life.
The glory will be revealed to every soul who has exemplified His life and character. Those who are dead with Christ will live with Him, and those who suffer for His sake will rejoice with Him and inherit all things as overcomers. This shining is for those who endure the Lord's chastening as sons, submit to reproof and correction, humble themselves, and share in His humiliation and suffering rather than denying Him in profession, for those whom He loves He rebukes and chastens and in them He delights even as a father delights in his son, but those who in profession of godliness deny Him and refuse to share His humiliation He will deny.
The righteous who will shine are those in vital connection with Christ, who feed on Him as the bread of life, take Him as the only perfect pattern and the Sin-bearer who alone takes away sin, heed His reproofs and warnings about individual defects of character, obey the truth rather than unrighteousness, and make Christ their theme of conversation. In contrast, whoever looks at the defective members in the church and feeds on their real or supposed faults, making those defects the theme of conversation and habitually seeing and talking of evil, will be ranked among the tares and not among the righteous. The gospel harvest ripens as Christians bear fruit to God's glory, and their faithfulness hastens Christ's return. Sowing good seed means living faithfully to draw others to Christ and educating mind and heart to take hold of grand and soul-saving truths while removing questions suggested by Satan when possible, while sowing tares means wrong conduct and picking at straws, creating straw images to attack, and becoming a channel to pass along Satan's suggestions and doubt and questioning, such as disputes over the meaning of I, we, and us in the testimonies. Yet the shining of the righteous is joined to the assurance that many who are now tares will be converted.
Warnings for Church Life
The gospel calls together in church capacity those who come out from the world, and the kingdom of God must be kept free from the sinful practices of the world. The Holy Spirit impresses this instruction on the minds of those who desire a clear perception of it. In the church militant the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world, when the Son of man sends His angels as reapers to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and those who do iniquity to cast them into a furnace of fire with wailing and gnashing of teeth, while gathering the wheat into His barn, and then the righteous appear in brightness in the kingdom of their Father.
The church on earth contains faithful and unfaithful members together as wheat and tares and as wheat and chaff until the harvest at the end of the world, when the wheat are gathered into the garner and the chaff and tares are bound in bundles to burn. That separation is the work of angels at harvest time, not the work of men now. Therefore the commandment-keeping church is not to be pronounced Babylon, disorganized, or broken up into independent atoms. Its pride, self-sufficiency, stubborn unbelief, and faults that make the Laodicean rebuke applicable do not blot it out of existence. Hypocrites are in the churches as tares among the wheat, but their sins excuse no one and justify no blame against Christ and His ministers.
Those who really believe are genuine Christians without pretense, true to one another in heart and soul and action. Christ as the true Watcher knows the false from the true and never mistakes the character of men, having given His life to save all who believe before separating the tares from the wheat in time. The tares include both defective members with counterfeit Christian character and those who make those defects their theme of conversation. Whoever habitually sees evil and talks of evil and feeds on the real or supposed faults of brethren, looking at the tares and feeding on their defective character, will himself be ranked among the tares and not among the righteous who will shine forth in the kingdom of their Father.
The greatness of the prospect of the immortal crown and everlasting life, in contrast to the dark extinction of the wicked, should make God's chosen more enthusiastic than people excited over low earthly games and the mad excitement of the world over cheap sports and amusements. The wicked lose their light and are put out in shameful darkness, while the righteous receive a home where sun and moon and lighted candle are not needed because the Lord God gives them light. There they reign forever and ever with a life that lasts as long as the life of God. The church in the world is where the righteous grow and ripen for God's harvest. The parable warns against allowing evil to corrupt Christian assemblies, for the wheat represents those gathered for Christ's kingdom while the tares, though long resembling wheat, are rejected at the harvest, and the living Word sanctifies those who receive it.
Christ's words close His explanation of the wheat and tares, showing the final separation of the righteous from the wicked at the harvest at the end of the world. At that harvest He sends His angels as reapers to gather out all that offends and all who do iniquity for destruction by fire, while gathering the wheat into His barn. Only after the wicked are removed forever do the righteous shine bright as the sun in their Father's kingdom, entering eternal life free from darkness, sorrow and pain where God Himself gives them light. That shining belongs to those who form characters without spot or stain in vital connection with Christ, obeying truth, sharing His humiliation and suffering, and bearing fruit to His glory. Until that time the wheat and tares grow together, and the separating work belongs to the angels alone, so no person is to judge fellow members or break up the church beforehand.
Parable Setting and Symbols
This closing line finishes Christ's explanation of the wheat and tares, which is about the kingdom of heaven and the final separation of the righteous from the wicked at the harvest, which is the end of the world. At that end the wicked are removed and destroyed and trouble the righteous no more, and then the righteous shine in the kingdom of their Father as the harvest outcome for the righteous in contrast to the burning and judgment of evildoers. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, and the righteous are gathered into God's kingdom in final vindication after that separation.
Its symbols are fixed: the sower of the good seed is the Son of man, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom, the tares are the children of the wicked one, the enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. The Son of man sows the good seed while the devil sows the tares, and at the harvest the Son of man sends forth His angels as reapers to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and all who do iniquity and cast them into a furnace of fire with wailing and gnashing of teeth, while gathering the wheat into His barn.
Until that harvest the wheat and the tares grow together, and the church is the church militant and not yet the church triumphant, made up in every church of true sons and daughters of God together with counterfeit Christians. The church in the world is where the righteous grow and ripen for God's harvest, and the living Word sanctifies those who receive it. The parable shows the conflict between God's work and Satan's work continuing to the close of earth's history, with divine and satanic agencies in decided opposition and vital conflict before all the world. Satan secretly sows evil and error in the human mind while Christ sows good in the heart, so that seeds of error grow, produce harmful results, and can crowd out good, and the parable warns against allowing evil to corrupt Christian assemblies.
The harvest is Christ's gathering of His people at His coming, and the gospel harvest ripens as Christians bear fruit to God's glory, with their faithfulness hastening His return. It was foreshadowed by the Feast of Tabernacles as the feast of harvest pointing forward to the great day of final ingathering, when the Lord of the harvest sends forth His reapers to gather the tares together in bundles for the fire and to gather the wheat into His garner, at which time all the wicked are destroyed. It is connected with the third angel's work of selecting the wheat and binding or sealing it for the heavenly garner, in which those who serve must distinguish the precious from the vile. In that sealing the righteous are a little company traveling a narrow pathway, firmly united and bound together by the truth in bundles for the heavenly garner, in opposite contrast to the whole world bound in bundles ready to burn and going with lightning speed to perdition.
The verse ends with a call to hear, as a truth demanding attentive hearing. Its chapter serves as a warning and calls its hearers to heed its teaching in view of the judgment, to be read as for life. It holds before all the future destiny Christ intends for those for whom He gave His life, that the righteous who are saved will shine forth in the kingdom of their Father.
Final Separation and Judgment
At the harvest, which is the end of the world, the Son of man sends forth His angels as reapers to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and all who do iniquity and cast them into a furnace of fire where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth, while gathering the wheat into His barn or garner. As tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so the angels remove evildoers from the kingdom and judgment falls on them, and the Feast of Tabernacles as the feast of harvest points forward to this great day of final ingathering when the tares are bound in bundles for the fire. After that separation the righteous appear in brightness and are bright like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, which is their final vindication and place in the kingdom after evil has been removed.
Only after the wicked have been removed and destroyed do the righteous shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. At the end of the world the wicked are separated from the righteous so that they will trouble the righteous no more forever. The wheat and tares remain distinct until the harvest, for the harvest is the final separation of good and evil and not a time when the wicked are changed into the righteous, while the righteous are rewarded with eternal life.
In that final judgment every character is revealed as it truly is and each person is judged by talents, words, works, and fruits. Outward profession or mere belonging to the church and membership in the church do not determine destiny or prove one a Christian, but character does, and Christ distinguishes the righteous from those who only profess to follow Him. The righteous and the wicked are distinct classes, the righteous pictured as wheat ripening for God's garner and the tares ripening for destruction, and in the final judgment the righteous alone will shine in God's kingdom after the wheat has been gathered and separated from the tares. God's angels recognize each by fruits and gather the righteous without error, though human beings cannot reliably make that separation now.
That separation is the work of angels at harvest time, not the work of men now. Until that harvest no person has the right to measure the character of fellow members, to say who is wise or foolish, or to do the work of separation by breaking up the church beforehand into independent atoms. Judgment has been given to Christ alone, who lived humanity and alone understands human weakness and human striving to attain Christian perfection, while Christ as the true Watcher knows the false from the true and never makes a mistake in His estimate of the characters of men. Hypocrites are in the churches as tares among the wheat, but after a time He will separate the tares from the wheat, gathering the wheat into the garner while the tares and chaff are bound in bundles to burn.
Placing this shining after the separation of the wheat and tares at the end of the world rules out a worldwide temporal millennium of converted people and a complete triumph of the church before Christ's second coming. The parable instead shows that the world and church face dark and perilous conditions in the last days.
Future Glory Described
Then the righteous are gathered into the Father's kingdom and shine bright like the sun in final vindication and eternal life after evil has been removed. At the end of the world, after the harvest separation of wheat from tares, the angels remove evildoers from the kingdom and judgment falls on them, while the righteous are rewarded and given their place in God's kingdom in contrast to the burning of evildoers. The righteous in this explanation are the children of the kingdom, the wheat remain distinct until the harvest, and the wicked are not changed into the righteous but are removed and destroyed.
Their experience will be free of darkness, sorrow, and pain, which pass away when they enter the rest of the saints. They strive for an immortal crown and receive an imperishable reward and a home where no sun, moon, lamp, or lighted candle is needed because the Lord God Himself gives them light. There they have immortal life and reign forever and ever without end, with a life that lasts as long as the life of God. In contrast the wicked lose their light and are put out in shameful darkness and dark extinction, snuffed out while the faithful press on for eternal life. The greatness of this prospect should make God's chosen more enthusiastic than people excited over low earthly games and the mad excitement of the world over cheap sports and amusements.
The kingdom is the Father's own kingdom under His scepter, described in homelike terms to remove overwhelming awfulness and grandeur. It consists of righteousness, peace, and joy, with an atmosphere of peace, rest, joy, and love without misinterpretation. Its subjects are the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those persecuted for Christ's sake, and all who love God in sincerity and truth. Mansions there are prepared by the One who gave His life so they may be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, where they will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
At the deliverance of God's people their faces are lit with glory and reflect the light shining from Jesus' face and the image of Jesus. Those who sleep in Jesus will rise with individual identity preserved, and their loved ones will recognize them. Just before Christ's second appearing the saints are glorified and the glory in their faces shines like the sun. Those who sought to destroy them cannot endure that glory but shrink from seeing them because it causes them pain, and fall as dead men.
They shine in the glory of the Father and the Son when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven to be crowned and admired in all who believe. On that coronation day Christ enters the heavenly courts accompanied by His redeemed ones as His trophies of victory won through His suffering and sacrifice, washed and made white and tried in the blood of the Lamb. They are living witnesses that His mission of suffering and self-sacrifice was not in vain, while those who rejected His reign see Him honored and crowned in glory. Angels touching golden harps welcome the King and His trophies, and a song of triumph peals forth filling all heaven declaring that Christ has conquered.
Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ and who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God in the New Jerusalem, the city built for them as their place of rest. There the garments of heaviness are changed for the wedding garment, and there is no sadness, wail of sorrow, or dirge of crushed hopes and buried affections. The righteous who are raised from the dead through Jesus share in the life and glory made possible by His resurrection as part of His victory over death. A soul saved has lasting worth and will shine in heaven throughout eternity.
Many of the colored race who are rich in faith and trust, with quick perceptions and bright minds, are precious jewels in God's sight who will one day shine out brightly. The righteous as a little company travel a narrow pathway, firmly united and bound together by the truth in bundles for the heavenly garner by the sealing work of the third angel. After passing through severe trials and conflicts they look care-worn, then light like the sun rising from behind a cloud shines upon their faces and makes them look triumphant because their victories are nearly won. This stands in opposite contrast to the whole world bound in bundles ready to burn and going with lightning speed to perdition under Satan as conductor in the form of an angel of light.
This shining will be fulfilled when earthly labors are ended and Christ comes for His faithful children, who will then shine with sun-like brightness in their Father's kingdom. Staying earnest students in the school of Christ and remaining humble learners causes light to grow brighter and brighter toward the perfect day now, but before that final shining comes everything imperfect must be seen and put away, with all envy and jealousy and evil surmising and every selfish plan banished from the life. On the great decisive day of the last general judgment only the righteous will shine in God's kingdom, when every character is revealed and appears just as it truly is. In that day each person is dealt with according to talents, works, and the use made of them, those who have done good receiving a part in the resurrection of life while those who have done evil are repaid according to their works, and the difference between the obedient and the disobedient settles everything.
Character Required to Shine
Those who will shine must form characters without fault, without spot or stain, in the sight of a pure and holy God. The verse holds before all the future destiny intended for those for whom life was given, and it stands as a warning to be read as for life, to take heed to oneself and let no one be blinded by human sophistry. Each should ask prayerfully who shall stand acquitted before the judgment seat of Christ, for at the great day every person will be judged according to the deeds done in this life. Christ will cooperate with every human being who will cooperate with Him, by wearing His yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness, and will give daily experience in the meaning of the divine beatitudes.
The redeemed who shine are those who have prepared for the judgment by casting the love of the world out of their hearts, learning fellowship with Christ by experience, and meeting Him in peace. The promise belongs to those who humble themselves and become as little children in order to enter heaven. For the humble and contrite, Christ's prayer that they be with Him where He is and behold His glory is answered as He Himself shows them the rich glories of His kingdom, and God's voice, sweeter than any music ever heard, declares them complete in Him.
The faithful will shine after enduring misrepresentation, criticism, misconstrued motives, and misjudged humility and boldness, by keeping their eyes on Christ as the great General of armies and moving on with courage to victory. They follow the pattern of Abel who died a martyr and Enoch who walked with God unknown to the world. Staying earnest students in the school of Christ and remaining humble learners causes light to grow brighter and brighter toward the perfect day now, but before the final shining everything imperfect must be seen and put away, with all envy and jealousy and evil surmising and every selfish plan banished from the life.
The glory will be revealed to every soul who has exemplified His life and character. Those who are dead with Christ will live with Him, and those who suffer for His sake will rejoice with Him and inherit all things as overcomers. This shining is for those who endure the Lord's chastening as sons, submit to reproof and correction, humble themselves, and share in His humiliation and suffering rather than denying Him in profession, for those whom He loves He rebukes and chastens and in them He delights even as a father delights in his son, but those who in profession of godliness deny Him and refuse to share His humiliation He will deny.
The righteous who will shine are those in vital connection with Christ, who feed on Him as the bread of life, take Him as the only perfect pattern and the Sin-bearer who alone takes away sin, heed His reproofs and warnings about individual defects of character, obey the truth rather than unrighteousness, and make Christ their theme of conversation. In contrast, whoever looks at the defective members in the church and feeds on their real or supposed faults, making those defects the theme of conversation and habitually seeing and talking of evil, will be ranked among the tares and not among the righteous. The gospel harvest ripens as Christians bear fruit to God's glory, and their faithfulness hastens Christ's return. Sowing good seed means living faithfully to draw others to Christ and educating mind and heart to take hold of grand and soul-saving truths while removing questions suggested by Satan when possible, while sowing tares means wrong conduct and picking at straws, creating straw images to attack, and becoming a channel to pass along Satan's suggestions and doubt and questioning, such as disputes over the meaning of I, we, and us in the testimonies. Yet the shining of the righteous is joined to the assurance that many who are now tares will be converted.
Warnings for Church Life
The gospel calls together in church capacity those who come out from the world, and the kingdom of God must be kept free from the sinful practices of the world. The Holy Spirit impresses this instruction on the minds of those who desire a clear perception of it. In the church militant the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world, when the Son of man sends His angels as reapers to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and those who do iniquity to cast them into a furnace of fire with wailing and gnashing of teeth, while gathering the wheat into His barn, and then the righteous appear in brightness in the kingdom of their Father.
The church on earth contains faithful and unfaithful members together as wheat and tares and as wheat and chaff until the harvest at the end of the world, when the wheat are gathered into the garner and the chaff and tares are bound in bundles to burn. That separation is the work of angels at harvest time, not the work of men now. Therefore the commandment-keeping church is not to be pronounced Babylon, disorganized, or broken up into independent atoms. Its pride, self-sufficiency, stubborn unbelief, and faults that make the Laodicean rebuke applicable do not blot it out of existence. Hypocrites are in the churches as tares among the wheat, but their sins excuse no one and justify no blame against Christ and His ministers.
Those who really believe are genuine Christians without pretense, true to one another in heart and soul and action. Christ as the true Watcher knows the false from the true and never mistakes the character of men, having given His life to save all who believe before separating the tares from the wheat in time. The tares include both defective members with counterfeit Christian character and those who make those defects their theme of conversation. Whoever habitually sees evil and talks of evil and feeds on the real or supposed faults of brethren, looking at the tares and feeding on their defective character, will himself be ranked among the tares and not among the righteous who will shine forth in the kingdom of their Father.
The greatness of the prospect of the immortal crown and everlasting life, in contrast to the dark extinction of the wicked, should make God's chosen more enthusiastic than people excited over low earthly games and the mad excitement of the world over cheap sports and amusements. The wicked lose their light and are put out in shameful darkness, while the righteous receive a home where sun and moon and lighted candle are not needed because the Lord God gives them light. There they reign forever and ever with a life that lasts as long as the life of God. The church in the world is where the righteous grow and ripen for God's harvest. The parable warns against allowing evil to corrupt Christian assemblies, for the wheat represents those gathered for Christ's kingdom while the tares, though long resembling wheat, are rejected at the harvest, and the living Word sanctifies those who receive it.