Tares
39
of uprooting the precious grain. And shall we not be as forbearing
toward our fellow men as the Lord of heaven and earth is toward Satan?
The world has no right to doubt the truth of Christianity because
[73]
there are unworthy members in the church, nor should Christians
become disheartened because of these false brethren. How was it
with the early church? Ananias and Sapphira joined themselves to
the disciples. Simon Magus was baptized. Demas, who forsook Paul,
had been counted a believer. Judas Iscariot was numbered with the
apostles. The Redeemer does not want to lose one soul; His experience
with Judas is recorded to show His long patience with perverse human
nature; and He bids us bear with it as He has borne. He has said that
false brethren will be found in the church till the close of time.
[74]
Notwithstanding Christ’s warning, men have sought to uproot the
tares. To punish those who were supposed to be evildoers, the church
has had recourse to the civil power. Those who differed from the
established doctrines have been imprisoned, put to torture and to death,
at the instigation of men who claimed to be acting under the sanction
of Christ. But it is the spirit of Satan, not the Spirit of Christ, that
inspires such acts. This is Satan’s own method of bringing the world
under his dominion. God has been misrepresented through the church
by this way of dealing with those supposed to be heretics.
Not judgment and condemnation of others, but humility and distrust
of self, is the teaching of Christ’s parable. Not all that is sown in the
field is good grain. The fact that men are in the church does not prove
them Christians.
The tares closely resembled the wheat while the blades were green;
but when the field was white for the harvest, the worthless weeds bore
no likeness to the wheat that bowed under the weight of its full, ripe
heads. Sinners who make a pretension of piety mingle for a time
with the true followers of Christ, and the semblance of Christianity is
calculated to deceive many; but in the harvest of the world there will
be no likeness between good and evil. Then those who have joined the
church, but who have not joined Christ, will be manifest.
The tares are permitted to grow among the wheat, to have all
the advantage of sun and shower; but in the time of harvest ye shall
“return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between
him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.”
Malachi 3:18
.
Christ Himself will decide who are worthy to dwell with the family