Tares -
Any of various weedy plants of the genus Vicia, especially the common vetch.
Any of several weedy plants that grow in grain fields.
An unwelcome or objectionable element.
The parable of the wheat and the tares is found in Matthew 13:24-30
24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didn't you sow good seed in thy field? from where then has it tares?
28 He said unto them, An enemy has done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
29 But he said, No; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
There are several lessons we can learn from this parable. Before going into them though I think it is helpful to break down this parable and identify who is being talked about. Verse 24 says a man sowed good seed in his field. The man in this case is Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus often referred to Himself as the "Son of Man". The good seed are the true believers and the field is the world. The enemy that came is Satan. How do I know this? Jesus explains all of this to His disciples later in the chapter in verses 36-42
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
37 He answered and said unto them, He that sows the good seed is the Son of man;
38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Ok, so what are the lessons we can take from this parable. I'd like to share 5 lessons.
I) As believers we are good seed that God has planted in the world
John 5:16 "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."
Any farmer knows that if you want a crop you have to plant seeds. God wanted a crop of believers and worshipers so He sent His son Jesus to reconcile us to Him. We in turn are to reconcile others to God. We, as a small number of seeds, are to reproduce ourselves and thus grow the Kingdom. In nature, 1 seed can reproduce many fruits. We are to do the same. As we are scattered in the earth (the field) we are to produce "much fruit".
II) Satan can only operate while believers are "asleep"
Romans 13:11 "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."
Satan has to use stealth and is empowered only by believers who are "asleep" to what is going on around them. Notice verse 25 states that while men slept, Satan came in and sowed his tares. The tares are the pretend believers that Satan has planted among the true believers to attempt to deceive and to cause dissension among the true believers. Give the Devil credit for being crafty. Satan figured out long ago that if he couldn't beat the church, he would join it. Again, he could only do this because we as believers were "asleep" to what was going on. When you look for the devil, never be afraid to look in the pulpit. I don't care what title a person has be it pastor, elder, deacon, teacher, server, etc.. Satan will try to plant his false tares in with the wheat in all areas of the church. 1 Thessalonians 5:6 "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."
III) It is nearly impossible to identify the tares early on
Matthew 7:15 "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
When wheat is first planted and sprouts, it can look very similar to a tare; so much so that it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between the two. Appearances can be deceiving so for us to try to make a judgement on someone from what we can see outwardly is a dangerous thing. However, if we spend an extended period of time with someone we will be able to tell by their stated beliefs, their actions, and there will be something about them that differentiates them from the true believers.
IV) We do not have the job of rooting out the tares from the church
Matthew 7:1-5 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother,'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
While we may have an idea that someone we know may be a false believer or a tare, it is not our place to try to root them out. On top of that, we may even be wrong in our assessment. Jesus explains this in verse 29 "But he said, No; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them". We would make a terrible mistake if we went around our churches and started making judgements of who we feel is saved or lost. The false believers will be exposed at the end times.
V) The tares will not get away with masquerading as wheat
1 John 2:19 "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."
It may outwardly appear that those we have identified as tares are living high wide and handsome and seem to be getting away with their life of deceit. However, they will not escape the final judgement when they are bundled up to be burned in the eternal lake of fire. At the same time, God will gather the true believers into His barn (Heaven) to be with Him for eternity.
We need to be aware that there are false believers (or tares) among us. We need to be loving and kind to them and hope that through our kindness they will see Christ and be converted. We are to not try to pass judgement on people based on a guess of what we see in their outward life. While we need to be loving we also have to confront the open apostasy that we see. However, in this context the tares are not the obvious, overtly anti-christians. They run an effective covert operation that is tough to spot which is why we need to be sober at all times as was mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 5:6
No comments:
Post a Comment