Matthew 13:29

‘But he says, “No, lest it happen that while you gather up the tares (darnel), you root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘Gather up first the tares (darnel), and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn'.” '

The householder said ‘no' because he was concerned lest in attempting to root out the darnel they root out some of the good wheat as well, for their roots would have become intertwined. So he commands that both be allowed to grow together until the Harvest. At that point he will tell the reapers to first gather in the darnel and bind them into bundles so that they can be used to stoke fires, and then gather the wheat, which can be gathered into the barn (the scene is very similar to that in Matthew 3:11). The interpretation will follow shortly.

We are often told that ‘the experts say' that the darnel would be uprooted as soon as it was found. But even if it is so, (and authorities tend to disagree on this as on all such matters), it does not affect the story, for that was intended to bring out a point which could only be brought out by telling it in the way that Jesus told it. He was not giving gardening lessons. He was talking about the interaction and complexity of human beings. Nor was Jesus saying, ‘do not root out false prophets'. What He was saying was, ‘do not pass judgments on the genuineness of the conversions of ordinary individuals. Eventually they will be know by their fruits'.