Matthew 13:39

Matthew 13:39. The devil is here represented as the author of evil in the world (and in the Church as affected by the world).

The harvest, up to which time the tares are to be left, is the end of the world. The phrase may be rendered: ‘the consummation of the age.' According to Jewish notions the coming of the Messiah was to be the end of the present age. Our Lord and His Apostles refer the Jewish phrase to the second coming of the Messiah. Our Lord does not interpret more fully the conversation of the servants and the householder (Matthew 13:27-29). Where He has been silent, controversy has been loudest. The application to the question of discipline has been hotly discussed from the fourth century until now. The parable assumes that earnest Christians will be zealous to remove impurities and offences (from the Church and the world as well) by forcible means. Without positively forbidding this which may at times be absolutely necessary, the whole drift of the parable enjoins caution and charity. Brute force, persecution, whether civil (rooting out of the world) or ecclesiastical (rooting out of the Church) finds little warrant here, and has generally resulted in actually tearing up the wheat. As regards discipline; when necessary, it is to be exercised with a prudential not a punitive purpose. The case is much simplified, when the Church is free, and not compelled by alliance with the State to allow wheat and tares to intertwine yet more closely.