HOST: Michael Whitworth
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”
While this parable is really about the eventual separation of the good from the bad (we’ll think about that tomorrow), there is another truth that I want to think about now. In the story, the tares exist because they are sown by an enemy. The good seed represents godly and faithful lives produced by the seed of God’s word (as we saw in the Parable of the Sower). But there are also bad seeds—seeds of unbelief, worldliness, greed, hatred, and sinfulness that are sown among the good. These seeds produce ungodly and sinful lives. The enemy is Satan. He is constantly trying to contaminate people’s minds, hearts, and lives with his bad seed. His hope is that, as those bad seeds spring up in the lives of many, they will destroy the fruit of the good seed and cause all to be lost. What we must remember is that God’s enemy is our enemy as well. Satan’s desire is to take us away from God and destroy us. We must be diligent and purposeful in our efforts to fend off the attacks of Satan and nourish the good seed of God’s word so that we may continue to grow in faith and knowledge and bear the good fruit that God intends.
What are some things that we can do to protect ourselves against Satan’s bad seeds?
Don’t forget to pray and have a great day!
