(Please refer to last week’s devotional and also read Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43.) When the owner tells his servants to leave the weeds alone until harvest, Jesus does not mean that the church should refrain from discipline against people practicing open sin and rebellion or creating strife and factions. The weeds were there, and the servants could tell that they were weeds; however, other than being weeds, they do not seem to have actually harmed the wheat, given that the parable ends with a glorious harvest.

We note that although Jesus says the sowing was done in a field that represented the world (v. 38), it is out of the kingdom that the weeds are finally pulled. I would conclude that the sowing of the seed, the preaching of the gospel, is throughout the world, but the focus of the parable is on the kingdom or the church as the place of interaction of weeds and wheat with the owner (Christ) and his servants (perhaps church leaders). Whereas church members who act as evil leaven like the incestuous man in 1 Cor. 5 or people who are factious or disorderly (2 Thess. 3:6, Titus 3:10) should be excommunicated, there are people who are present in churches and Christian families who are not actually Christians at all and who do not act in such ways. Their lack of true fruit will be apparent to godly leaders. Should these people be expelled? No, for in so doing there would be great disruption that would injure tender and precious true believers. Imagine insisting on expelling every non-Christian husband who comes with his Christian wife! What turmoil would be created in the church and in the family! Also, imagine expelling every child of a Christian couple who did not profess faith. No, we let them alone, and the angels will do the necessary separating at the time of judgment. (And, of course, we do not always know for certain that they were sown by the devil and will never come to faith.)

Obviously, one of the basic lessons we can learn from this parable is that the church is “mixed,” that is, we find both genuine believers and unbelievers in attendance. Christian families are, unfortunately, also sometimes mixed. We should not be surprised at this situation, a circumstance that has been noted since the earliest days of the church by leading Christian theologians. However, there are even more profound concepts that come into view when we consider the “mixed” nature of the church, and we turn to them in our next study.