“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘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.’” (Matthew 13:24–25, NKJV)

In the parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus showed that good plants and bad plants will exist side by side until the end of the age. This is one of the few parables where Jesus explained it fully to His disciples.

A man sows wheat seed in his field, but while he sleeps, his enemy sows tares among the wheat. Now tares are weeds that are a kind of darnel resembling wheat. In fact, you cannot tell the difference between wheat and darnel until the plants mature. Wheat produces heads of grain, but darnel produces nothing. The servants of the owner did not recognize the tares until the wheat produced a crop. Then they asked if they should gather them up. But the owner told them not to do that lest they uproot the wheat along with the tares. Instead, they were to let both grow side by side until the harvest. Then the reapers would gather the tares and burn them, but the wheat would be gathered into the owner’s barn.

When Jesus explained the parable to His disciple, He said that the Son of Man was the One who sowed good seed. The field is the world, and the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. But the tares are the sons of the wicked one, and they are sown by the devil.

Now it is disturbing to consider that children of the devil exist side by side with children of God. We are hesitant to call anyone a child of the devil, and that is good because we cannot see into another person’s heart. Moreover, the children of the devil are not clearly recognizable until the harvest, which is at the end of the age. We must not seek to purge the church of evil by gathering them up. We are not to conduct “witch hunts” so to speak, lest we uproot good people. Rather, we must be patient and trust God to sort things out in the end.

Now this does not mean that we cannot deal with sin. We must judge, expose, and rebuke sin in the church. We must go to those who offend and humbly show them their fault in the hope of restoring them (Galatians 6:1). Neither does this mean that we cannot observe who the tares are among us. Speaking of false prophets, Jesus said that you will know them by their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20). A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. But we cannot ultimately judge whether a person is saved or lost. We must wait until the Lord comes who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the thoughts of hearts (1 Corinthians 4:5).

Certainly, it is uncomfortable to think that the person sitting next to us in church could be a plant of the devil and not a true child of God, but that is exactly what Jesus teaches. However, in the parable it is impossible for tares to ever become wheat, but people are different. Someone who is a child of evil can repent and become a child of God, and we hope and pray for this. This is also why we must be longsuffering and wait until God acts. He alone searches hearts and knows the end from the beginning. He knows those who belong to Him and those who belong to Satan. We must wait upon the Lord and continue to do good until He comes to take us home. This is difficult, but we must not be overcome by evil; rather we must overcome evil with good. May God help us!