What is the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares?
” Answer: The parable of the wheat and the weeds, or tares, is filled with spiritual significance and truth. But, in spite of the clear explanation of the parable that Jesus gave (Matthew 13:36-43), this parable is very often misinterpreted. Many commentaries and sermons have attempted to use this story as an illustration of the condition of the Church, noting that there are both true believers (the wheat) and false professors (the weeds) in both the church at large and individual local churches. While this may be true, Jesus distinctly explains that the field is not the Church; it is the world (v. 38). Even if He hadnt specifically told us the world is the setting of the story, it would still be obvious. The landowner tells the servants not to pull up the weeds in the field, but to leave them until the end of the age. If the field were the Church, this command would directly contradict Jesus teaching in Matthew 18, which tells us how to deal with unrepentant sinners in the church: the
