Counterfeit Mixed in With the Genuine (Matthew 13:24-30)

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

(Matt 13:24-30)

All that I said in my previous entry regarding the parable of the Sower was in order to prepare for what I believe the Lord is saying in this passage, and for a message from the Lord that’s going to specifically be its most relevant for the Church living right before the return of Christ.

Before we get to that, I want to draw your attention to the fact that in the verses immediately following the this teaching on the tares, Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven is LIKE a mustard seed: it starts off small, and then grows and fills the whole garden. Keep that in mind while we look at this parable, even though contextually it’s written after the parable we’re currently in.

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