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50
Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers
grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say
to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in
bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”
In the parable of the wheat and the tares, we see the reason
why the tares were not to be plucked up; it was lest the wheat be
rooted up with the tares. Human opinion and judgment would make
grave mistakes. But rather than have a mistake made, and one single
blade of wheat rooted up, the Master says, “Let both grow together
until the harvest;” then the angels will gather out the tares, which
will be appointed to destruction. Although in our churches, that
claim to believe advanced truth, there are those who are faulty and
erring, as tares among the wheat, God is long-suffering and patient.
[46]
He reproves and warns the erring, but He does not destroy those
who are long in learning the lesson He would teach them; He does
not uproot the tares from the wheat. Tares and wheat are to grow
together till the harvest; when the wheat comes to its full growth and
development, and because of its character when ripened, it will be
fully distinguished from the tares.
The church of Christ on earth will be imperfect, but God does not
destroy His church because of its imperfection. There have been and
will be those who are filled with zeal not according to knowledge,
who would purify the church, and uproot the tares from the midst
of the wheat. But Christ has given special light as to how to deal
with those who are erring, and with those who are unconverted in
the church. There is to be no spasmodic, zealous, hasty action taken
by church members in cutting off those they may think defective in
character. Tares will appear among the wheat; but it would do more
harm to weed out the tares, unless in God’s appointed way, than to
leave them alone. While the Lord brings into the church those who
are truly converted, Satan at the same time brings persons who are
not converted into its fellowship. While Christ is sowing the good
seed, Satan is sowing the tares. There are two opposing influences
continually exerted on the members of the church. One influence
is working for the purification of the church, and the other for the
corrupting of the people of God.