The three parables in our reading today are related to the growth of the Kingdom of God. It is a fact that God’s Kingdom is a growing Kingdom and will spread to all the earth. God’s rule will one day be over all—hence the Lord Jesus in the prayer He taught us said: “Your kingdom come.Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  ….For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matt. 6:10,13).

Jesus explains the parable of the wheat and tares in Matt 13:36-43. A few lessons we can gather from the parable:

The enemy sowed in the night: The truths of the gospel are sown in all the world, yet we see the enemy sowing the “counterfeit” into the hearts of people. He sowed in the night- when people were asleep, and he was unnoticed! Today we see a lot of imitation of the truth around us- a lot of counterfeit Christianity where the wicked one uses his agents to spread false teachings and doctrines which are easily imbibed by vulnerable people. 2 Peter 2:1-2[NLT]: “But there were also false prophets ……. just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them…….Many will follow their evil teaching…. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.”  The enemy slipped away after sowing his bad seed! He sows in the night- where his deeds of evil are not exposed in the light; he does it craftily. 

We need to take heed that as children of light God has called us to live in the light- the truths of God’s Word and not be pulled into the sly tactics of the enemy. Paul warns us in Romans 13:11-13[NLT]: "Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see."

The weeds among the wheat: Note that the weeds looked just exactly like the wheat except when the wheat started to produce grain! Only the fruit could differentiate the wheat from the weed! Jesus said in Matt.7:20: “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” One can live a superficial life of a Christian but only the genuine who receive God’s Word in faith and lives by it will produce good fruit in their life. Others will just be hearers and not doers whose lives cannot portray Christ. James 1:25 [TLB] says, “But if anyone keeps looking steadily into God’s law for free men, he will not only remember it but he will do what it says, and God will greatly bless him in everything he does.”

A day of gathering in: There is a day of reckoning when the separation of the wheat from the weed will take place. Even John the Baptist spoke of this in connection with Jesus: “He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.” (Matt.3:12). As Jesus explained in Matt.13:41-43, He will remove from His kingdom all who do evil; “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom.” 

Dear brethren let us closely examine our lives today for the real and the counterfeit. If we have not received Christ and His Word by faith and do not live by it, a day of separating the wheat from the weed will come. May we be counted with the wheat!

Quote For The Day: “I never saw a fruit-bearing Christian who was not a student of the Bible.” — D.L. Moody