Why not separate the weeds from the wheat?

[TonyChanYT]

Matthew 13:

29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them."

Why not separate the weeds from the wheat?

1. When young, They are not easy to distinguish.
2. Their roots are intertwined. Pulling one affects the roots of the other.
3. The process is disruptive to the soil condition.

How does uprooting the weeds, which are the unbelievers, also uproot the believers along with them? How does removing the bad ones in this world affect the good ones?

We can't tell which is which with perfect certainty. However, when we can, excommunication is possible. 1 Cor 5:

11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Why not separate the weeds from the wheat?

According to Jesus, we often don't know which is which. When we do know, according to Paul, we should expel them.

 

[Cassandra]

Matt 13:30 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.”

Looks like a second coming thing to me. They are to grow together till the harvest.

 

[Bob Estey]

Matthew 13:


Why not separate the weeds from the wheat?

1. When young, They are not easy to distinguish.
2. Their roots are intertwined. Pulling one affects the roots of the other.
3. The process is disruptive to the soil condition.

How does uprooting the weeds, which are the unbelievers, also uproot the believers along with them? How does removing the bad ones in this world affect the good ones?

We can't tell which is which with perfect certainty. However, when we can, excommunication is possible. 1 Cor 5:


Why not separate the weeds from the wheat?

According to Jesus, we often don't know which is which. When we do know, according to Paul, we should expel them.

I suppose the separation cannot take place until the sin is complete. You can't judge a person just for contemplating sin, I don't believe.

 

[APAK]

Matthew 13:


Why not separate the weeds from the wheat?

1. When young, They are not easy to distinguish.
2. Their roots are intertwined. Pulling one affects the roots of the other.
3. The process is disruptive to the soil condition.

How does uprooting the weeds, which are the unbelievers, also uproot the believers along with them? How does removing the bad ones in this world affect the good ones?

We can't tell which is which with perfect certainty. However, when we can, excommunication is possible. 1 Cor 5:


Why not separate the weeds from the wheat?

According to Jesus, we often don't know which is which. When we do know, according to Paul, we should expel them.

The work of the Kingdom is still active today and will be completed at the end of this age. Of course, ones Eschatology drives this thought that is scriptural.

The parable of the tares in the Kingdom of Heaven, of Matthew 13:24-30, suggests that the tares, that represent evil or false teachings are not plucked out when they are young because it would be difficult for the servants (believers) to distinguish between the wheat (representing good or true teachings) and the tares. The farmer, representing God, instructs the servants to let both grow together until the harvest, which represents the end of the age, when the Kingdom work is completed.

We see this confusion today, in disguising a false teacher or an evil person versus a believer in Christ.

The truth though will come out in the end when all masks come off.

 

[Papa Smurf]

Matthew 13: Why not separate the weeds from the wheat?

1. When young, They are not easy to distinguish.
2. Their roots are intertwined. Pulling one affects the roots of the other.
3. The process is disruptive to the soil condition.

How does uprooting the weeds, which are the unbelievers, also uproot the believers along with them? How does removing the bad ones in this world affect the good ones?

Hi Tony, I have a couple of thoughts about this. First and foremost, we cannot uproot all of those who we think/believe are not/never will be believers, because how can we possibly know that (we cannot see the heart of a man like God can). If we did so, perhaps those who are true believers 'yet to be' would be wrongly cast aside by us as being sons of the evil one (when they had actually been sown in the field by the Son of Man instead ).

Conversely, it can also be difficult to know who is/who is not a true believer at times, even among those who have been around the church for years, because it is not unusual to have true believers who act as if they are unbelievers instead (for a season anyway), or unbelievers who oft times look like believers to us, because they do and say the kinds of things in the church that seem to be consistant with what they might do if they truly were believers .. e.g. Matthew 7:21-23 (see v22 especially). In the end however, we find out that they were trusting in their own works to save them, rather than in His finished work, alone.

We can't tell which is which with perfect certainty. However, when we can, excommunication is possible. Why not separate the weeds from the wheat? According to Jesus, we often don't know which is which. When we do know, according to Paul, we should expel them.

We excommunicate ~believers~ in the church who steadfastly refuse church discipline (IOW, believers who will not repent of their ongoing sins and/or blasphemies, even after the church has told them that they must). We do so for the good of the body, of course, as well for the good of our sinning brother or sister.

I do not believe that we excommunicate ~unbelievers~ however, as they have never actually been in true fellowship w/us (though we may be forced to ask them to leave, at least for a time, if they become disruptive). So, rather than attempting to teach unbelievers to ~act~ like Christians (on a temporary basis, at best .. because it is against their very nature to to do so) we continue to present & teach the Gospel to them so that they can ~become~ Christians instead (~then~ we can excommunicate them .. just kidding, well, hopefully anyway ).

There are several examples of the Apostle Paul doing this very thing. For instance,

1 Corinthians 5 (LSB)​

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. ​

2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. ​

3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. ​

4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, ​

5 you are to deliver this man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, ~so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord~.​

​

1 Timothy 1 (BSB)​

18 Timothy, my child, I entrust you with this command in keeping with the previous prophecies about you, so that by them you may fight the good fight, ​

19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and thereby made shipwreck of their faith. ​

20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan ~to be taught not to blaspheme~. ​

God bless you!!

--Papa Smurf