Larry Grabill

THE SECRETS OF THE KINGDOM IN THE PARABLE OF THE TARES
(Incentives to Pray and Love God)
Weekly Theme: Identifying with the kingdom of God – 3rd post

Matthew 13:24-30
‘Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”’

In this post we want to explore the secrets of the parable of the tares. Jesus interprets this parable later in this 13th chapter. The field is the world. Jesus is the sower of the wheat. And the wheat plants are the sons of the Kingdom. Satan is the enemy who sows tares which are his sons. This shows that it is inevitable that pretend-Christians will infiltrate the space in the world (not necessarily the church) that true Christians occupy to try to hinder the Christians influence for God.

How do they do this? They claim to be Christians and then teach falsehoods that they claim are from God to counteract the influence of the Christians. They support abortion and same sex marriage, deny the supernatural, and teach other false doctrines and ways in the name of Christianity. Thus they succeed in deceiving some who would otherwise be convinced by the truth. They are the “lawbreakers” and “causes of sin” (verse 41 ESV).

God’s people should therefore be aware that there will be false teachers who profess Christianity in the world and be prepared to deal with them.

Some view this parable as teaching that we must allow the pretenders to operate in the church, but Jesus says the field is the world; it is not the church. Furthermore, the Bible teaches us to not allow false teachers to function in the church. Therefore, Jesus is not teaching His followers to put up with tare-people in the church, but rather to be prepared to deal with them in the world. God’s people are in the world to be salt and light to society and Satan is determined to hinder their influence through tare-people.

We conclude that Jesus teaches us to be aware that there will be pretenders and be prepared to deal with their bad influence. We should be aware of their leaven (see Luke 12:1). Yes, there are tare-people out there and we need pray for the gospel to prevail over their influence and guard against them leading us and others astray!