Continued from previous post.
VERSE 30 “Let both grow (Christ did not seek to prevent or hinder tare development, but allowed both to grow together. The [the tares, being in the majority] set up false, un-scriptural standards and doctrines, which have aided in the development of more tares and at the same time choking and separating the true wheat) together (That is throughout the age. Christians and imitation Christians have lived side by side in the same city, house, and family, and in the general nominal church system, elsewhere called Babylon or confusion, because of its mixture of truth and error, wheat and tares.
Only the expert [our Lord] can discern the wheat from the tares while growing) UNTIL (The command "Come out of her" was given, this was given after the announcement that "Babylon is fallen." Rev 18:4, 2) the harvest (The end or close, of the Gospel age) and in the time (The close of the summer time of favor, signifying that it will not be instantaneous, but require time) of harvest (in which we are now living. It has three elements: separation, gathering and burning. The harvest is not a time for peace; but, on the contrary, it will surely produce separation and alienation between true wheat and all else. The time of executing the command, "Gather my saints together unto me, those who have made a covenant with me by [self-] sacrifice." (Psa 50:5) This is the time when the truth makes manifest the true character of Babylon, the great false system, calling itself the Lord’s church)
I will say (It is not we, but Christ, who calls his people out of Babylon. We merely call their attention to his words and show that they are reasonable. "He that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped."(Rev 14:16) to the reapers (angels, messengers, [i.e. men, the vessels of the Lord] such as he has used in plowing, sowing and watering throughout the age; those begotten of his Holy Spirit), Gather ye together first the tares (which largely predominate, as did the chaff in the harvest of the Jewish age. Who vainly imagine themselves to be the true Church), and bind them (Restrain all individual thought and study on religious subjects; they are bound by human traditions and by a worldly spirit, bound tightly by their own prejudices and beliefs. Pride will hold them together; none will wish to appear disloyal or cowardly (toward the orthodox view). Societies act en masse. They seek to bind all by the impression that it is essential to salvation to be joined to some one of their various sects--it matters little to which one--thus combining the idea of individual responsibility with sectarian bondage) in bundles (necessary, because of their great preponderance, bound into great denominational bundles, labeled with various sectarian names viz. Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and etc. The spirit of the tares is toward sectarian greatness and show, rather than toward individual obedience and allegiance to God. Each denomination retaining its own bondage or organization, and becoming more firmly bound by being wedged in with others. Ready for the burning, destruction) to burn them (to destroy them, NOT as individuals, but as tares, imitation wheat, in the great time of trouble [NOT WITH LITERAL FIRE, we cannot burn symbolic tares in literal fire].
The Christian's duty is to lift up the standard and get the true wheat out of all the tare-bundles into liberty, in union with Christ, the only Head. All professed Christians will be shown in their true light. The true and false will be completely manifested.): but (without binding it into bundles) gather the wheat (with the sickle of truth, present truth. "They shall gather together his elect." (Matt 24:31) "Come out of her, my people" (Rev 18:4) Separated from the tares--in spirit, but not necessarily in person) into my barn (The barn condition of security, separateness from the worldly. Not back into another denomination, but gathered to Christ, into oneness with him, in fellowship of spirit through the knowledge of his Word, “For wheresoever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” Matt 24:28).”
We will continue beginning with Verse 36, our Lord's explanation of the parable in our next post.
