Question about the parable of the weeds...?

Question

Matthew 13:24-30
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.'"

…see question in additional details…

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Question:
When He said, “No, lest in the gathering the weeds you root up the wheat alone with them.”

Does it mean:
a) You may pull up wheat that you thought was a weed. That is, you do not have perfect discernment and cannot see the heart of another man. You may think someone is a false Christian that is actually a true Christian
b) While pulling up the weeds, you may inadvertently disrupt the wheat that is next to this weed. That is, if you point out false Christians in the church and kick them out of fellowship, it will hurt the other Christians in the church.

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Answer 1

Hi. I garden. Good gardeners and farmers know which plants are weeds and which are wheat. And in real life, if you uproot weeds, you may in fact uproot the plant you want to keep which is growing right next to it.

Jesus was talking to a bunch of people who were also gardeners and farmers and who literally knew weeds from wheat. The parable would have made immediate sense to them.

I also thought this sermon (below) on the topic was interesting.

Answer 2

It means that God will be the judge in the end and so you don't want to go around accusing people of being false Christians because they might be legit and just going through something in their life.

The other thing it means is that when you see someone who brings reproach upon the name of Christ but who claims to be a Christian and unbelievers point it out you can use this scripture to show them that not everyone who claims to be a Christian is really a Christian, the Devil plants people in the church for the very purpose of trying to destroy it.

The original word is not "weeds" but "tares". Tares are a poisonous weed that looks just like wheat while they are growing but when the wheat starts to mature the tares become evident.

Matthew 13:36 Then having dismissed the crowds, Jesus went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field."

37 He answered and said to them: "He that sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 And the field is the world, and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the evil one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 40 Therefore just as the tares are gathered and burned with fire, thus it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who work iniquity, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Answer 3

Expecting to find the perfect church is neither achievable nor Biblical. Until Christ’s return, the church will always have a mix of true and false believers..The church struggles against division and strife as false believers put forth agendas and demands apart from God’s will.
Discriminating between true and false believers isn’t always obvious. weeds, especially in the early stages of growth, resemble wheat. Likewise, a false believer may resemble a true believer. In Matthew 7:22, Jesus warned that many profess faith but do not know Him. Thus, each person should examine his own relationship with Christ (2 Corinthians 13:5). 1 John is an excellent test of salvation. When a false Christian becomes apparent through unrepentant sin or unbelief, the church leadership has clear, Biblical action steps. But they must be careful not to uproot a true believer needing discipline and encouragement.
Jesus Christ will one day establish true righteousness. After He raptures the true Church out of this world, God will pour out His righteous wrath on the world. During that tribulation, He will draw others to saving faith in Jesus Christ. At the end of the tribulation, all unbelievers will be judged for their sin and unbelief; then, they will be removed from God’s presence. True followers of Christ will reign with Him.

Answer 4

Sometimes I hate when other translations do this.

This is the wheat and tares parable. Jesus warned of "plucking out the tares early, lest you pluck out the good wheat.

In early stages, wheat and tares look exactly the same, you cannot tell them apart. Only when the growing season is complete is when you can tell the tares from the wheat. Tares bear no fruit.
the barn represents a place with Jesus. The tares represent the enemy who tries to disrupt the church through his planting. You can tell the difference by the fruit people show.
Jesus will take care of those against him. Christians are to bring all to fruition and let the fruit tell the story for the person.

Answer 5

Pastor Billy says: stop trying to lead the witness yacha.

You get me I'm sure but let us quit the small talk, the kingdom Christ is eluding to here is the Church in the present. The Church is a prefigurement of the Kingdom to come and we should all strive to follow Christ as completely as possible but even in his Church we have sinners and saints together your question is obviously why? because the Church once again is only a prefigurement of the Kingdom to come and therefore it has not been perfected and so where is the best place for sinners to be so as to be prefected eventually? why in Christ's Church. The Church acts like a hospital in drawing men to Jesus. Through the sacramental Christian life we are repeatly renewed in God's grace after sin.

The sad reality today is some sects of Protestantism teach in a prefected Church already and perfected believers already solely based upon initial conversion yet "true Christians" (thought I'd use some Evangeleese language here) yet "true Christians" are instructed to carry their crosses daily and upon present and future sins follow Christ's additional instruction of repentance thereby returning to God's grace, returning to salvation.

A "once saved always saved" fundamentalist type preacher and congregation will never get that message of Christ and I pity them.

Getting back to the weeds, they are the sinners in the Church and although we can discern who has publically sinned it is left up to God to pass final judgement upon those individuals and he will do this at the harvest. The Church therefore is not holy because everyone in her is all holy all the time for if this was the case as viewed by Fundamentalists who tend to lock the sinner outside the frontdoor of the chapel it would only become more holy or less holy depending upon the actions of men.

Answer 6

It means that although you may be raised as a Christian and people think you are a Christian and you act like one, even if you do all of these things, but you do not live for God, you are like a weed among His grain.
When it comes time to harvest the grain. It will be separated from the weeds and the weeds will be thrown into a pile and burnt. Acts do not equal salvation, and while you may look like a Christian to others, God knows the difference. Works will get you no ware but hell

Answer 7

I have always thought that this parable dealt with both false denominations as well as false Christians. The weeds could be seen as either denominations proclaiming to be Christian but not teaching the truth. Or it could be people sitting on the pew and claiming to be Christians when they are not saved.

As to why He left the weeds I am not so sure. I think the world would be a better place without the false denominations. And I am not sure how removing them could hurt true Christians. Unless exposing them for the lies they are would tar all of Christianity with the same brush and thus keep someone from becoming saved.

For instance say JW's were finally exposed and the denomination ceased to exist. The cult like activities were exposed. Once that happened maybe it would be an excuse for someone not to become a Christian. They would claim all Christians are like JW's. Not really sure though. Remind me to ask Jesus when we meet Him.

Answer 8

There is no need for us to speculate on the meaning of this parable, since Jesus went on to explain it himself, and in great detail:

Mat 13:36 Then having sent away the multitudes, he came into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying: Expound to us the parable of the cockle of the field.
Mat 13:37 Who made answer and said to them: He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.
Mat 13:38 And the field is the world. And the good seed are the children of the kingdom. And the cockle are the children of the wicked one.
Mat 13:39 And the enemy that sowed them, is the devil. But the harvest is the end of the world. And the reapers are the angels.
Mat 13:40 Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire: so shall it be at the end of the world.
Mat 13:41 The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals, and them that work iniquity.
Mat 13:42 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:43 Then shall the just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Answer 9

Another interesting question...

Something about the way you phrased your argument made me recall one of my favorite scenes from the movie "A Man for All Seasons". Sir Thomas More's son-in-law (William Roper) asks, "So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law"...More replies "Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?" Roper says "Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that" and More replies "Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!"

I have heard people ask why God doesn't choose to do anything about those that do bad things. Perhaps this parable explains that to do so would limit the good works too. When I look at some of the laws we have now that protect free speech, they certainly seem to be used to spread both good AND bad. However, removing those laws (as some advocate) would remove the protection of those that spread good words. For example, a law prohibiting "hate speech" certainly seems like it would "weed out" people that try to spread hate...but it isn't inconceivable that people could use that law to stop people from speaking certain truths from the bible too!

I also think this parable could be yet another example of something that Jesus said repeatedly...that we should love everyone and let God handle vengance...that we should focus on taking care of ourselves and our relationship with him and let him worry about when and how he will take care of those that rejected him and/or hurt others.

Answer 10

In an illustration about wheat and weeds, Jesus foretold that true religion would be virtually obscured for a time. Read the account for yourself at Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. Jesus sowed a field with wheat, “the fine seed,” which pictured his faithful disciples who would make up the original Christian congregation. He warned that “an enemy,” Satan the Devil, would in time oversow the wheat field with “weeds”—people who professed to follow Jesus Christ but who in fact rejected his teachings.

Very soon after the death of Jesus’ apostles, individuals appeared who proved to be “weeds,” favoring twisted human teachings over “the very word of Jehovah.” (Jeremiah 8:8, 9; Acts 20:29, 30) As a consequence, a perverted, counterfeit Christianity appeared on the world stage. It was dominated by what the Bible calls “the lawless one”—a corrupt clergy class that was itself steeped in “every unrighteous deception.” (2 Thessalonians 2:6-10) Jesus foretold that this situation would change “in the conclusion of the system of things.” The wheatlike Christians would be collected together in unity and “the weeds” would eventually be destroyed.