(Matthew 13.) (3.) Tares Among the Wheat.
Thus it is plain that the kingdom in its present form, is not to be a universal one. From that which the prophets of the Old Testament picture, it is widely distinguished. Left to man’s reception of it, and not set up by the right hand of power, it is received by some, rejected by many, and even where outwardly received, in many cases no real fruit Godward is the result. There are thus “children of the kingdom” who in the end, like those among Israel, are cast out of it; and that where there is no fault with the seed or with the sowing of it, but the fault is entirely in the nature of the soil in which the seed is sown.
But that is not the whole picture by any means. We are now to see not merely the ill-success of the good seed, but the result of the introduction of seed of another character, and sown by another hand, — the positive sowing of the enemy himself, and not simply his opposition to that which is sown by another. “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way” (24,25). Thus in the very midst of that which the first parable has shown us springing up, — good wheat, although there may be many barren and blighted ears, — the enemy sows, not wheat at all, but tares. In this case it is not the Word of Christ that is sown, clearly, but Satan’s corruption of it. The springing up of the good seed could not produce tares, nor the father of lies preach truth. Hence the test of a man’s speaking by a good or evil spirit could be: “Every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ come in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ come in the flesh, is not of God; and this is that spirit of Antichrist,” &c. (1 John 4:2, 32Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:2‑3)). The enemy of Christ, (“his enemy,” verse 25), even “as an angel of light,” will not hold up Christ, for he knows too well what Christ is for souls. On the other hand, when Christ was preached, even of envy and strife, the apostle could rejoice for the same reason (Phil. 1). But here, not the “corn of wheat” (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)) which would bring forth wheat if it sprang up at all, but “tares” are sown; and “tares” and nothing else spring up. The word sown in imitation yet in real opposition to the truth, produces under a Christian name and dress a host of real enemies to the truth and to Christ, “children of the wicked one” (38), not mere children of nature hover fallen, but the devil’s own: begotten by his word, a God’s children by His.
And here, alas, we read of no hindrances, no opposition of hard-trodden ground, or underlying rock, no catching away by birds of the air, no choking by thorns. All circumstances favor this seed and its growth. It needs no nursing; will thrive amid “cares of this world,” and grow up in companionship with the “deceitfulness of riches.” It is at home everywhere, and the soil everywhere congenial, for its “wisdom” is not “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God:” it “descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish” (James 3:11My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. (James 3:1)).
So it prospers. And even the children of God, nay, “the servants” (27), are slow to discern the true nature of what is being sown, and growing up amongst them. Sad and solemn it is to see how lightly we think of error; for it is but another way of saying, how lightly we value truth. Yet by the word of truth ate we begotten, and by the truth are we sanctified (James 1:1818Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1:18); John 17:1717Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)). It is this by which we alone know either ourselves or God. It is of the perversion of this that the apostle said, “Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:88But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8)); words which He emphatically repeats, that we may be assured it was no hastiness of ill-tempered zeal that moved him, but the true inspiration of the Spirit of Christ.
The seed springs up, then, and there are now tares among the wheat. How soon that began in the professing Church! Judaism, legalism, ceremonialism, and even the denial of the resurrection itself, the keystone of Christian doctrine, you may find again and again among the churches of the apostolic days; and in the sure word of God what solemn warnings as, to the future, — a future long since present. “Even are there many Antichrists,” wrote the last of the apostles: “whereby we know it is the last time.
But for the sowing of these tares, those are responsible to whom the field has been entrusted. “While men slept, his enemy came, and sowed tares, among the wheat.” There was the failure. In the case given in the first parable, they had not power to prevent the ill-success of the Word of truth in men’s hearts, or the hollowness of an external profession of the truth, which yet had no proper root in the man who made it. All who “gladly received the Word upon the day of Pentecost,” were baptized “the same day.” There was no waiting to see, if, when tribulation came, they would endure, and yet that was the real test for the stony ground hearer. Such would “immediately with joy” receive the Word, and so baptism, and be added to, the disciples. It was not failure on the part of the baptizers, if such there were, for the heart they could, not react. There each man stood on his own responsibility to God.
But it was a different thing, when that which was not the Word, but Satan’s corruption of it, began to be sown, and that in the very midst of disciples. And, once again I say, how soon that took place; and how soon it became needful to write even to the little babes about Antichrist; and to exhort men “earnestly to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints;” and that, because of “certain men, crept in unawares,―ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 3, 43Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 3‑4)). Thus were the tares already manifested. “The children of the wicked one” were there. Christ was denied in His own kingdom. The question of His actual sovereignty was raised, and He must come in sovereignty and in judgment, to decide that question. The servants are not competent to decide it. “The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up,” these tares? “But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.”
A solemn lesson, from which we may, if we will, learn much; while it does not teach what so many seem disposed to learn from it. For plainly, communion at the Lord’s table is not at all the question here, and it is nothing less than willful blindness to persist in this application of it in the face of the manifold Scriptures which contradict it. What meaning could, “Put out from among yourselves that wicked, person,” addressed to the church at Corinth, have for those who here learn from the lips of the Lord Himself, as they say, that tares and wheat are to grow up together in the church, and that it is vain and wrong to attempt any such separation? And what mean even their own feeble efforts to put out some notorious offenders, if this be so? If this be to gather up tares, why attempt it in the case of even the worst, when the principle they maintain is not to do it at all?
On the other hand, this passage does teach us, that it is one thing to know and own the evil that has come in, and quite another to have power or authority to set things right again. Men slept, and the tares were sown. No after vigilance or earnestness could repair the mischief. The gathering up must be left for angels’ hands in the day of harvest. “Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say unto the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
Jude’s remedy for the state of things is just the same. Of the ungodly men of whom he speaks as having crept in among the disciples, he says: “And Enoch also; the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the LORD COMETH with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” Thus alone in the wheat-field of Christendom is the separation of the evil from the good effected. It is quite another thing to purge ourselves, according to the apostle’s word to Timothy (2 Tim. 2), from the vessels to dishonor in the house; and this we are bound to do. The purging of the house itself, the Lord alone will or can do.
Meanwhile tares and wheat do grow up together. The dishonor done to Christ in. Christendom no means of ours can ever efface or rectify. No, not even the most zealous preaching of the Gospel, however blessed the result of that, will ever turn the tares of Unitarianism, Universalism, Annihilationism, Popery, and what not, into good wheat for God’s granary. Nor can we escape their being numbered with us as Christians in the common profession of the day. If we met them at the Lord’s table, as if it, were no matter, or we could not help it, we should proclaim ourselves “one bread, one body” with them (1 Cor.10:17); for “we, being many, are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.” But while refusing to link ourselves with them to the dishonor of our Lord and Master, we cannot put ourselves outside the common profession of Christianity, to avoid companionship with them there. Nor if we had power, have we skill to, separate infallibly the Lord’s people, many of them mixed up with most of the various forms of error. “The Lord knoweth them that are His,” is alone our comfort. He will make no mistake. And “Behold, the Lord cometh” is the only available remedy which faith looks for, for the state of things at large.