Matthew 13:36-43  Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

This is one of those parables where Jesus tells us exactly what He means. Jesus sowed good seed, believers. The devil comes along and sows the weeds, his followers. And notice that the field is the WORLD, not the church. There will be both believers and non-believers in the world until the final harvest. God will sort out the weeds at the end. His judgment will be announced on the basis of whether or not you believe that He is your Savior. Those who believe that Jesus died to pay for sin and rose in victory over sin and death and Satan will receive the benefit of all He accomplished. Those who don’t believe are the weeds that will be cast into the fire. God’s judgment makes the determination.

Something worth noting here: since the field is the WORLD, and not the church, this does not tell us that we must simply put up with sin and unbelief in the church. That is not the case, not the point being made here. We try to lead all sinners to repentance and faith. We point out errors in a loving effort to lead people to turn from their sin and to their Savior. This is something the followers of Jesus will want to do. It is neither kind nor loving to tolerate or ignore sin. Instead, we point it out to help people grow in their lives as followers of Jesus and become more and more like Him.

However, here will always be weeds with us in the world until that final harvest. We may not always know who they are, even though we think we do. You need to be careful how you treat others. Just because you think someone is a weed does not mean he or she is in God’s sight. And it is His judgment that matters, not yours or mine. For all you know, you may be a weed in someone else’s eyes. Our task in the church is to love each other as Christ loved us, and to be just as loving to those outside the Church. You are to use God’s Word to grow in being Christ-like and help your brothers and sisters to do the same. It will all get sorted out by God in the end.