Verse 25 says, “But while the men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares amidst the wheat and went away.” The men were the slaves (v. 27), referring to the Lord’s slaves, mainly the apostles. It was when the Lord’s slaves were sleeping, not watching, that the Lord’s enemy, the Devil, came and sowed false believers amidst the true ones.
Verse 25 says that the enemy sowed tares amidst the wheat. A tare is a kind of darnel, a weed resembling wheat. Its seeds are poisonous, producing sleepiness, nausea, convulsions, and even death. The sprout and leaves of the tares look the same as those of the wheat. It is impossible to discern one from the other until the fruit is produced. The fruit of the wheat is golden yellow, but that of the tares is black.
In the Old Testament, the children of Israel in the kingdom of God were likened to grapes growing in the vineyard (21:33-34), whereas in the New Testament, the kingdom people in the kingdom of the heavens are likened to wheat growing in the field. The vineyard was fenced, limited only to the Jews; whereas the field is worldwide, unlimited, open to all peoples.
This parable discloses that not long after the establishment of the kingdom by the building of the church, the situation of the kingdom of the heavens changed. It was established with the sons of the kingdom, the wheat. But the sons of the evil one, the tares, grew up to alter the situation. Hence, a difference has arisen between the kingdom of the heavens and its outward appearance. Whereas the sons of the kingdom, the wheat, constitute the kingdom, the sons of the evil one, the tares, have formed the outward appearance of the kingdom, which today is called Christendom.
The wheat is the sons of the kingdom, the real believers regenerated with the divine life. The tares are the sons of the evil one, the Devil. In the early stages of their growth, the tares appear exactly the same as wheat in color and in shape. Even experts cannot discern the difference until the fruit appears. There is a great difference in the fruit of the tares and the fruit of the wheat, for the fruit of the tares is black and the fruit of the wheat is greenish yellow. The sons of the kingdom are the sons of God who have the divine life within them. The sons of the evil one are the false believers, believers only in name, who do not have the divine life in them.
When the King’s slaves wanted to gather up the tares (v. 28), He said, “No, lest while gathering the tares you may root up the wheat at the same time with them.” Both the tares and the wheat grow in the field, and the field is the world (v. 38). The false believers and the true ones live in the world. To gather up the tares from the field means to take away the false believers from the world. The Lord did not want His slaves to do this, lest while taking away the false believers from the world, the true ones may be taken away from the world. The Catholic Church did much of this and by so doing killed many true believers.
Many Christian teachers have wrongly interpreted the field, saying that it is the church. According to this interpretation, in the church there are both false ones and real ones. But the Lord says clearly in verse 38 that the field is the world. The wheat and the tares are allowed to grow together in the world, not in the church. According to the Epistles, not even sinful ones are allowed to remain in the church. In 1 Corinthians chapter five the Apostle Paul charged the church at Corinth to excommunicate the sinful one. If even the real but sinful ones must be cast out, then how much more the false ones? The church is not to tolerate the false believers, but both the false and the true are allowed to grow together in the world. Please be clear that the field refers to the world. In the world there are both true and false believers, but this must not be so in the church.
The Lord told His slaves not to separate the wheat from the tares, but to allow them both to grow together until the harvest. Otherwise, the wheat may be rooted up with the tares. This means that the false believers must be allowed to exist in the world with the true believers. In the past centuries the Catholic Church has made the serious mistake of trying to uproot those who were considered tares. But most of those taken away by the Catholic Church were the real ones, even the best ones. This is the reason the Lord Jesus did not allow His slaves to do such a thing.