Lesson of Love: The Wheat Among the Tares

I find the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares very interesting, because I kind of got a spontaneous insight about it today, so I looked it up. I was thinking about all the people in the world who have chosen to reject God's offer of salvation through Christ. I may be wrong, but in my world it seems like there are a lot more people who have just passed on the offer than there are people who are actually wanting to know, "What must I do to be saved?" There might also be quite a few people who think they have believed in Jesus, but they haven't allowed him to change them at all. They still have the worldly, sinful view of the world and live exactly like the world and think nothing of it. They may go to church, they may have gone to church all their life, yet they have never been born again, and have not really realized their need to be saved. They don't really believe they need God at all. Therefore, they don't know him because they don't want to know him, and they probably never will know him, but they are unhappy much of the time because they only know the world's way of dealing with problems because they do not have the Holy Spirit to guide them. Of course, there are those who reject the Lordship of Christ altogether. They may say they like his teaching, but they haven't really studied his teaching. They may know a few Scripture verses and have their own interpretation of them, but they have not known Jesus in a personal way. They have not felt the need to change the way they are living. They are so sure they don't need to believe in Jesus the way some of us do that they feel they are qualified to actually accuse us of not being a Christian because of our politics, perhaps, even though how can they even know what a Christian is supposed to be like? They think they know, but it's entirely subjective. Ironically, they seem to believe they are better Christians than those who profess to be Christians. I notice on social media the tendency for unbelievers to challenge Christians by saying, "Aren't you supposed to love everybody?" How can you criticize people who "don't love the way you do?" It is not love to believe something is good that the Bible clearly condemns, and it is not love to encourage someone you love to keep doing something that, if you believe the word of God, will clearly condemn you to a Christless eternity. How is that love? Believing that something is not good for you is not "hate." It is not hating a person. It is loving a person to possibly help them understand what God says about something. The problem is most people do not have the slightest idea what the Bible says because they don't read it. Most of the people who don't read it don't read it because they don't want to read it. They don't believe God has spoken to people through the Bible. Therefore, they are not interested in finding out what God is saying or what he wants from you and me. So, in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Jesus says, "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'" (Matthew 13:24-30). After being a born again Christian for almost 46 years, I am still amazed at how patient God is with all of us, and living in the midst of a,ll kinds of people, I find it so interesting being wheat among the tares. We do have an enemy. He is not as powerful as God but he is more powerful than people. He is deceptive and destructive and hates God and hates people, and we are not to be "ignorant of his devices" (2 Corinthians 2:11). When the harvest comes, the reapers will "gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into (God's) barn" (Matthew 13:30). That is some pretty strong language, but that is the language of our Lord. He did not mince words. Whatever is not of God will be burned and whatever is of God will last forever, is part of God's eternal kingdom. That's where I want to be, and that's where I want everybody to be whom God has placed in my path. The insight that I referred to earlier is one of a reaper with a sickle or a scythe to cut the wheat with a sweeping motion. I can almost see it, and it will come at the end of the age, and it will be sudden and it will come without warning. I believe the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares is a warning, but people can only be warned who are listening, or as the Bible says, "have ears to hear." He sends us into the world to represent him, and, yes, we do love everybody. The enemy, who loves to "accuse the brethren" twists their thinking so much that they will call our love hate or fear. We must always be reminded that God is love and we love what God loves and hate what God hates. God hates sin, but he does not hate people. He loves people. That's why he suffered his death on the cross and rose again to save us from sin, because he loves us, and we are to be known as people who love. So, don't be thrown off by sinful accusations that you are not loving because you condemn sin. We need to be very clear about this. To condemn sin is not hate. To want someone to be free from sin is to love them. And we are especially to love one another, because Jesus said to, and the world probably will not, and that is to be expected. We need not be surprised. Jesus has already told us all about it. "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). We can all do that.