Parable of the Tares -- No Middle Ground

The story of the parable of the tares is found in Matt. 13:24-30 and explained by Jesus in verses 36-43. I quote the parable as follows:

"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. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?' But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.''" (Matt. 13:24-30 NKJV)

There has been debate over the years about this parable as to whether or not the kingdom referred to is the church or the entirety of the world, all of humanity, over which God rules. It is the world for in Jesus’ explanation of the parable he says as much, “The field is the world.” (Matt. 13:38 NKJV) The emphasis in the parable is the contrast between the wheat and the tares. There is no middle ground to be had. One is either a tare (a weed in the newer translations) or wheat and which one it is makes all the difference.

Let us say for the sake of argument the parable is a reference to people in the church. It is not but let us say for the moment it is. There is no middle ground there to reside in. You still have an either/or scenario. If the ungodly in the church are not to be saved then what hope does that leave for the ungodly outside the church? The answer is none. All outside the church are ungodly in that they have never obeyed the gospel and are sinners in God’s sight. If you have not obeyed the gospel and you are old enough to do so then you are still in your sins.

All the godly are in the church. One cannot be godly and be outside the church for the same process that saves a man (gospel obedience) makes him, by God’s grace, godly. God adds the saved, the godly ones, to the church. "And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47 NKJV) The church is that which Jesus is the Savior of. "Christ is the head of the church; and he is the Savior of the body." (Eph. 5:23 NKJV) The "body" is the church. "And he put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body." (Eph. 1:22-23 NKJV)

If a person is saved he is in the church, the body of Christ, but this does not mean once saved always saved for a Christian can fall away and become ungodly, even become a disbeliever, later in life.

In a practical sense as far as what will happen in the last day, the Day of Judgment, everyone is a tare who is not saved whether in the church or outside it. All outside the church are going to be gathered together to be burned along with any tares that are found in the church. Again, the parable is not about the ungodly in the church but those who are ungodly in the church will not be saved.

While Peter may have had (?) reference to the Roman invasion and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 when he penned the following passage he nevertheless made a point we all need to give consideration to. He said, "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" (1 Peter 4:17 NKJV) What indeed? When one obeys the gospel the Lord adds that person to the body of Christ, the church, where the saved abide.

Paul talks of Jesus' second coming and says this, "When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he comes, in that day." (2 Thess. 1:7-10 NKJV) We see no middle ground. One has either obeyed the gospel or he has not.

It brings me great sadness to know people I care about and realize that to them gospel obedience and faithfulness is no big deal. What are they thinking? Do they think the Bible is a fairy tale and there is no judgment to come? Do they believe you cannot trust God's word, that all the talk about eternal fire and gnashing of teeth is just so much hyperbole? Have they followed hook, line, and sinker the common opinion that as long as you are a decent human being you will be saved? Do they think they are special and God is going to give them a free pass despite their shunning of him, disrespect, and lack of love for him? Or, is it that they are just so "this-worldly" that they cannot give spiritual matters the time of day? What are they thinking? I do not know but does it matter what the motive for disobedience is when the result is the same regardless?

They live their lives giving God little to no consideration. "The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts." (Psalms 10:4 NKJV) No, to you and me they do not seem "wicked" as we generally think of wicked people but we must remember we do not think as God thinks nor do we see or understand as he does. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," says the Lord." (Isa. 55:8 NKJV) Besides, if we are honest, and we stop and think about it, we know a person who does not seek God is proud in that he thinks he can do fine without giving God a primary place in his/her life.

If we don't care about God while living why should we think we shall be saved in the Day of Judgment? Whatever other lessons are to be found in the parable of the tares this one stands out to me -- there is no middle ground. One is either wheat or a tare, saved or lost, has obeyed the gospel or hasn't obeyed the gospel, loves God or does not love God. How we desire middle ground, if not for ourselves for others, but there is no middle ground to be had. It is finally heaven or hell.

"Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The son of man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 13:40-42 NKJV)

There is no middle ground but unlike in the physical realm where a species cannot help but be whatever it is in the spiritual realm a tare can be changed into wheat if the desire is there to make the change. God's desire is to save, not to cast into the furnace of fire. "The Lord … is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?" (Ezek. 18:23 NKJV) "For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord God. "Therefore turn and live!" (Ezek. 18:32 NKJV)

Yes, turn and live for there is no middle ground.

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Mt. Sinai and The Day of Judgment

What do the children of Israel coming to Mt. Sinai have to do with the Day of Judgment?  More than you might think.  The children of Israel reached Mt. Sinai in the third month after they left Egypt (Ex. 19:1-2).  They had had by this time many experiences and had seen God working actively on their behalf in miracle after miracle.  They had seen the plagues in Egypt many of which they were spared.  They had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, they had been provided with drinking water miraculously on two separate occasions (Ex. 15:22-25, Ex. 17:1-7), they had been fed with manna and quail (Ex. 16), and they had been able to defeat those who attacked them with God's help (Ex. 17:8-13).  There was also the cloud that accompanied them by day and the pillar of fire that accompanied them by night.  Evidence of God's presence with them and of his care for them was everywhere to be seen.

At Mt. Sinai, the Lord spoke to Moses from the mountain (Ex. 19:3) with a message for the children of Israel.  They were to be reminded of what they had seen the Lord do to the Egyptians and "how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself." (Ex. 19:4 NASB)  These things they were fully aware of.  The Lord is prepared to make a covenant with them making them his special people if they will only agree to obey him keeping his covenant (Ex. 19:5-6).  Moses goes back to the elders of the children of Israel, meets with them, and "all the people" (Ex. 19:8 NASB) agree to do whatever the Lord says.

Here is where we begin to get to what I want to talk about.  Moses returns with the words of the people to the Lord.  The Lord then says to Moses, "Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you forever." (Ex. 19:9 NASB)  All Bible students are well aware this will be the time when God descends on Mt. Sinai in sight of the people though he will be hidden in a cloud.  "On the third day (after preparations for the event are made--DS) the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people." (Ex. 19:11 NASB)  It will be the time when the Lord delivers the Ten Commandments.

A question is in order here.  Why was one of the purposes of this event "so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you (Moses--DS) forever"? (Ex. 19:9 NASB)  The answer to this question is simple enough.  Moses was God's lawgiver, "For the law was given through Moses" (John 1:17 NASB).  He was God's man, the man who acted as a mediator between God and God's children, the children of Israel.  When Moses spoke to the children of Israel they were to listen for he spoke to them on God's behalf.  This event was to make it crystal clear to all of God's relationship with Moses so that the children of Israel would know with certainty that to disobey a command Moses gave was to disobey God himself.

However, there was also another reason God wanted the people to hear him.  He says, "so that the people may hear when I speak with you." (Ex. 19:9 NASB)  They had seen God in action in his miracles but they had not yet heard his voice.  He wanted them to hear him.  Why?  Was it just more confirmation to the people that Moses was God's man as God talked directly to him?  There was that in it but might there have been more?  Yes!  It was to learn to fear God.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to hear the voice of God?  What kind of an effect would that have on a man or woman?  If you were to hear a voice from heaven right now, a loud speaking voice from the heavens (not a quiet inner speaking to the mind or spirit), what kind of an effect would it have on you?  Our first and immediate reaction, one we would be incapable of not having, would be to strike us with terror down to our toes.  The children of Israel had been told what was coming, what was going to happen, and were in expectation but even so, it terrified them.  Fear can change a man and we want to pursue that thought a little bit.

On the third day, as God had said, he descended on the mountain called Mt. Sinai in the presence of the people who were at the base of the mountain although far enough back, according to God's commandment, not to be touching it.  "So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled." (Ex. 19:16 NASB)  

"Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire.  Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.  And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice." (Ex. 19:18-19 NKJV)  The NASB says, "God answered him with thunder."  However, while the original language can be technically translated either way the NKJV is correct, it should be voice rather than thunder.

How do I know?  Deut. 4:10-13, "Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, 'Assemble the people to me, that I may let them hear my words so they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.'  You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom.  Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form--only a voice.  So he declared to you his covenant which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and he wrote them on two tablets of stone." (NASB)  They heard words, the words of God spoken by God, not thunder.  We find further confirmation of this in Ex. 20:22, the very words of God himself directly speaking on the subject.    

On the day God descended on Mt. Sinai (called Horeb in Deut. 4:10) the New International Version says the people "trembled with fear." (Ex. 20:18 NIV)  While that is not a literal translation, the literal is "they trembled" (NASB), it is the exact meaning of the literal.  They trembled due to what they were seeing and hearing.

On that third day when God came down on top of Mt. Sinai Moses went up.  God then instructed him to go back down, warn the people again to stay their distance, and to get Aaron and bring him back up to the top of the mountain with him (with Moses), see Ex. 19:20-24.  This he did.

However, having heard God speak terrified the children of Israel to the extent that they begged Moses, "Let not God speak to us, or we will die." (Ex. 20:19 NASB)  Moses responded, "Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin." (Ex. 20:20 NASB)

So what are the lessons in this account for us?  I have not been telling a story just to repeat a story.  There are important lessons here for you and me today.  Here are some of them.

(1) One should fear God.  Fear is a motivating factor from God himself.  Its purpose is to keep us from sinning.  Many today say we should have no fear of God.   But the Bible says we are to perfect holiness "in the fear of God." (2 Cor. 7:1 NASB)  Of those listed by Paul in Rom. 3 as being "under sin" (ver. 9) one of the condemning factors is, "There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Rom. 3:18 NASB)  Paul speaks of a factor that motivates him to preach to sinful men.  He says, "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men." (2 Cor. 5:11 NASB)  He does not want men to experience condemnation and knows there is a reason to fear such an end.

Yes, I know perfect love casts out fear and the one who fears is not perfected in love (1 John 4:18).  I am sure Paul did not fear God as in trembling fear but the fear of the Lord is one of the things that keeps us from sin (Ex. 20:20) and keeps us walking in faithful obedience so that we can develop that perfect love which in our spiritual maturity destroys fear.  That day comes when we can say as Paul did, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Tim. 4:7 NKJV)  We never know when we are about to finish the race but we can know before death that we have fought the good fight and have kept the faith and thus have the assurance of salvation.  We need not fear God as long as we are walking in the light but the fear of God ought to keep us walking in that light.

(2) Another lesson we can learn from this account is that fear itself will not keep us on the straight and narrow road of righteousness over the long haul.  All who know the Bible know the rest of the story that is not being covered in this article.  I refer to the golden calf, an idol, which will be made before Moses returns from being on the mountain with God for forty days.  We have here a people who have experienced the real God who speaks and works miracles and who is full of wonder and awe, capable of striking terror into people in an instant, and before Moses can come down off this smoking mountain where God is the people are already into idol worship.

This is at a time when Moses is receiving the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone.  It is at the time when "the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai … and to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top." (Ex. 24:16-17 NASB)  But, did it matter?  What effect did this wondrous sight have on the children of Israel? 

People will worship their idols and soon forget God.  This is still true today.  Give a man a little terror in his life and he suddenly comes to God but it often only lasts as long as he remains terrified.  As soon as the terror abates he is back to his worship of money, or entertainment, or whatever it is he worships.  That said there are two types of men--wise men and foolish men.  Wise men learn a lesson from terror and it remains with them.  Wise men can learn from what has happened to others.  Foolish men can only learn when the stripes are laid directly on their own backs. 

(3) The final lesson in this article pertains to the terror of the Lord itself.  The children of Israel were terrified of God when directly in his presence at the foot of the mountain.  Now I want to ask one thing.  Do you think it will be any different on the Day of Judgment?  I have no idea why people have no fear of facing God in judgment, people who live their lives here in disobedience.  Do they think they are going to be standing before God as equals on that day? 

When the Day of Judgment comes it will be as it was on that morning at Mt. Sinai.  There will be no doubt about God's existence.  There will be no doubt about whether or not there is going to be a Day of Judgment.  There will be no doubt about where you are heading very, very shortly if you have never obeyed the gospel.  There will be stark terror in the hearts of all the disobedient.  There will be knees too weak to stand on.

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 13:42).  "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Heb. 10:31 NKJV)  "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20:15 NKJV)

It is easy to walk with a swagger through life and tell yourself and others you can handle anything, that you do not need help from anyone and that you are not afraid of God.  Well, maybe you are not afraid.  Maybe you are not wise enough to be afraid but God will make you afraid in the Day of Judgment.  It is just so foolish and unnecessary that people will throw their lives away and for what?  It was for a golden calf in Moses' time and often for nothing more than foolish pride and arrogance and the pleasing of self in our own time.

Everyone needs to count the cost now of disobedience to God.  "God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." (Gal. 6:7 NKJV)  Will your heart fail you for fear on the Day of Judgment?  It doesn't have to be that way but it is indeed "a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Heb. 10:31 NKJV)  If you are unfaithful and disobedient we will see how strong and tough you are on that day and you will see for yourself.  On that day we will all know who we are and what our place is.

That will be the day when "the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." (2 Thess. 1:7-9 NKJV)  Yes, like at Mt. Sinai men on the Day of Judgment will know God is God and that man is not the boss.

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