Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
The parable of the sower shows God's plan to reach good and honest hearts with His word. The parable of the tares shows the plan of Satan to hinder God's purpose by sowing false teaching in the world.
What are tares? "a kind of darnel, the commonest of the four species, being the bearded, growing in the grain fields, as tall as wheat and barley, and resembling wheat in appearance" (Smith's Bible Dictionary, IV: 11D). It was difficult to tell the difference between the wheat and tares until near the time of harvest when the wheat began to head. It was common for farmers to wait until near harvest time to begin separating them. Therefore, Jesus was using a well-known fact from common experiences to teach a very important spiritual lesson.
Breaking the Parable Down
The Son of Man sowed the good seed.
"Son of Man" being a reference to the coming Messiah. Jesus used this phrase in describing himself (Mark 14:62) as it is a reference going back into the Old Testament concerning the coming Messiah (Daniel 7:14-15).
The good seed are the sons of the kingdom (the righteous).
The Devil sowed the tares.
In the parable, the tares are the sons of the evil one.
"The field is the world."
"The harvest is the end of the age."
"The reapers are angels."
At the time of the harvest the tares are thrown into the furnace of fire and the wheat enters into the kingdom of God (vv. 30, 42-43).
What Can We Learn From This Parable?
1. Satan works in the world to defeat the purposes of God. The teaching of error carries out the will of Satan and leads souls to destruction.
Read 2 Peter 2:1-10
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; 3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.
2. We must be on the alert. "While men slept" (Matthew 13:25) Satan sowed the tares. "For certain men crept in unnoticed" (Jude 4).
Read Paul's warning to the elders at the church at Ephesus (Acts 20:29-30).
Read 2 Corinthians 11:14-15. Wow Satan will even appear as an angel of light to deceive people as will his servants disguise themselves. And false teachers often deceive the hearts of the simple with smooth talk and flattery (Romans 16:18).
3. Error is very serious. It does not always appear evil until its time of fruit has come. That is why attitudes and principles are so important. The reality of the difference between wheat and tares does not always appear until the harvest time. While tares endanger the health of man, so false religious teaching threatens the soul of man as false teaching leads one to being lost eternally (v. 42).
Great departures from the truth begin with the tiny seeds of sin and error which might appear harmless at the beginning.
4. It is our responsibility to test religious teaching by the word of God. "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).
The word of God is the rule by which all teachers and doctrines are to be measured. Regardless of how pleasant a teacher may be, or how reasonable his words may sound, we are to test his words by the Bible (God's word).
"Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Ye will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:15-16).
Two Errors To Be Avoided
Some people have wrongfully concluded from this parable that they cannot withdraw from unfaithful members in the church as we are taught to do in the New Testament elsewhere (Romans 16:17-18; 1 Corinthians 5:1-7; 2 Thessalonians 3:6). Paul's writing don't contradict Jesus' teaching. In this parable, Jesus is describing two classes of people IN THE WORLD, and not two classes of people in His church.
"The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, bu the tares are the sons of the wicked one" (Matthew 13:38).
Another lesson to be learned is that it is not the duty of the faithful children of God to punish the children of the Devil. God will tend to that at the judgment. "Holy" wars or religious "crusades," such as have been carried out at various times to force religious faith on others, are displeasing to God. We may try to teach the word of God to the "tares," but we have no right to bring any kind of pressure or punishment upon them. The only sword we have to use is "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephesians 6:17).
Examination
What class of people in the world are you? Faithful or unfaithful? Are you living to abide in the will of God according to His word? Or are you living a life focused on fulfilling your own desires?
The parable teaches us the end result of each class. If you want to become a child of God or have some questions you are pondering then reach out. Request a Bible study. There is no matter more urgent than the condition of your soul.