A Parable Warning

I have set before you stresses God’s keen awareness of the world that awaits the Israelites, where He also enacts heaven and earth as a witness to them for the reality they face. It was God Himself that set the stage for what they would experience and the choices they would make. He does not say, in this context, that either one will trump the other in that particular time period, rather, the focus is on the response and reaction of Israel.

Jesus Christ came with the same message for His believers yet in a greater scope and totality. His same message is in full view and awareness of not only what will happen in the world, but more importantly in His body of belief, and even in the entire kingdom community.

“Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather with me scatters” (Matthew 12:30 CSB).

Jesus spoke with regard to the growing resistance to His message and the pushback He received over the casting out of demons and His authority to do so. More significant is that His words directly confront those who get in the way of or resist the will of God and the work He came to fulfill. Ultimately what Jesus Christ lays before all is that we are either for or against Him. This reality will further define itself as this article proceeds in our examination of the scriptures. With the above introduction from Deuteronomy 30 (verse 19 in particular) and Matthew 12, we will move to the parables of Matthew 13 which are the central focus of discussion.

THINGS NOT ALWAYS AS THEY APPEAR

Matthew 13 contains insightful passages, which are important to grasp to have a broader understanding of the believer’s experience as it puts the believer in step with how Jesus thinks. It also spans from an ancient knowledge of the kingdom to the end of the age, even after all enemies are destroyed, including the last enemy – death.

Before continuing we want to point out a key element, that He uses imagery to convey and also to veil a subject in a marvelous manner. In these parables, Jesus sometimes uses similar settings and similar imagery however these similar images do not always possess the same meaning. Sometimes they do align in meaning, but in a few of the parables in Matthew 13 we can suspect similarities will cloud their meaning.

PARABLE OF THE SOWER

Then he told them many things in parables, saying, “Consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep. But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it. Still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit: some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times what was sown. Let anyone who has ears listen.” (Matthew 13:3-9 CSB).

The emphasis of this agrarian example is on the ground where the seeds landed. We have:

• The wayside, where nothing could grow because the ground was too hard.
• Stony places where the soil was thin and the seed would spring up quickly, but was unable to take
• Good ground describes soil that is fertile and a good, productive crop grows.
• Among thorns describes soil that is fertile but thorns and weeds grow there as well as This will be the larger part of our focus.

Matthew records an explanation for this parable to Jesus’ disciples which He gave exclusively to them apart from the larger crowd. Matthew does not record an interpretation for the other parables, which does not mean they were not given.¹Mark 4:34 records that Jesus explained all (Greek:panta – the whole) to His disciples privately.

Mark 4:34 records that Jesus explained all (Greek:panta – the whole) to His disciples privately.

“So listen to the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But the one sown on the good ground—this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown” (Matthew 13:18-23 CSB).

We have the farmer who sows, who we can assume is Jesus Christ. We have seed, and with a high degree of confidence, we can say that the seed is the Word of God (See Luke 8:11) and that the type of ground or soil (based on the response of that soil) determines the type of people or agency which is or is not gathered to Christ.

We also see that the increase, if we have indeed the good, fertile, responsive ground, is furnished at a tremendous rate when compared to how much was sown. We can safely say that the soil, or lack of soil, and what type of soil is the focus. It is the ‘Parable of the Sower’ because it is revealing the will of Christ as that of any good farmer – to utilize and transform good ground into profitable yield. It tells of what is required to grow His seeds.

Keeping these images in mind, we continue to the parable of the wheat and weeds.

THE PARABLE OF THE WHEAT AND WEEDS

He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. The landowner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’

“‘An enemy did this,’ he told them.

“‘So, do you want us to go and pull them up?’ the servants asked him.

“‘No,’ he said. ‘When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat in my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30 CSB)

These first two parables are in keeping with an agrarian theme, but there are some differences, including what the two parables are about.

In the parable of the sower the seed represents the Word of God as we noted. Here, on the other hand, what is planted (in this case wheat) represents the body of responsive believers, and they are growing.

The parable of the sower and the types of ground shows how we potentially receive and respond to Jesus Christ, and the parable of the wheat and weeds is in reference to how God will divide the crops at the time of harvest. Although in both cases we have a similar Landowner, Master, Farmer or Sower as a figure of Christ, the other images or figures say something else.

These weeds represent or include all types of agents of evil, of spirit and of flesh, knowingly and unknowingly, animate or inanimate in the world where God has planted His wheat.

…The weeds are the children of the evil one (Matthew 13:38).

Thus, those who are vehicles of these agents, spiritual or flesh, are those who are cast out and burned.

The parable of the sower spoke of the individual types of ground being affected by different means of Satan’s tampering, including rocky shallow ground, the wayside where birds carry the seed away and consume it, and weeds or thorns that choke the seed thus showing the potential that good ground, where there is growth of the seed, can be robbed. As long as God’s people are in the world, there will be intrusive elements in teaching, experience and unbelievers that have been intended by the enemy to negatively affect them.

This is a crucial element for our consideration given the tone and content of many messages coming from ministries across the Christian spectrum, particularly in the developed west. Consistently emanating from lecterns and media programs is the angst regarding the welfare, status, economic stability, personal rights, and strength of the nation state. In particular is the persistent message in widespread teachings that would have believers concern themselves that, as the body of Christ they are to engage and be engulfed in matters regarding the welfare of their nation – expending energy and resources to influence public policy and societal morality.

If the servants (not to be confused with the reapers who are the angels) and other participants in the welfare of the field make an emphasis on ‘digging up’ the surrounding weeds of the world in disobedience to the Landowner, then they will inevitably undermine the faith of the crop they believe they are caring for. This has already occurred, as evidenced in the confusion and desperation in the body of believers. Dominating the conversation are the prayers offered to God on the matters of abortion and concerns over moral decay. Even border security, national and economic securities and military influence abroad are prevalent in prophetic messages offered out as warnings to the church and the world. Many ministries call on the nations to repent and turn back to God as they look to dig up the weeds that surround them in their world.

Jesus Christ shared this parable for a purpose as God’s people are participants in the kingdom of heaven. The parable is more than merely informative as there are potentially real consequences if we fail to integrate the warning.

The instruction to the servants is to not interfere where God has a plan. That plan, already in place, puts believers in this world as a sojourners, not a citizens of it where they need to additionally direct their faith towards persistence and welfare of the nation. The apostles declared the citizenship and identity of the believer is of heaven:

For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:18-20).

A focus on earthly things are all things the enemy can offer that appear as good to concern the wheat with, including the moral and economic health of the nation- state.

In the Christian west, the domestication of the Christian faith has been underway for so long that many fail to recognize and manage the distinctions between their citizenship in heaven and their temporal presence on earth. The tares (elements of domestication) have been integrated into the harvest to such a degree that only a few of the servants today can sense the apostle Paul’s angst.

Even so, the studious servants are to maintain the directive of preparing the harvest irrespective of the weeds, which are now maturing in the world with noxious inedible fruit that is bitter and choking. Only Christ, in the reckoning of those who are “against” Him at the final harvest itself, will make the full distinction (Matthew 13:41), and the patience of the saints is needed in not allowing the distractions of the world to choke their growth as they “gather with” Him.

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Unique to the Gospel account of Matthew is the expression “the kingdom of Heaven” mentioned thirty-twotimes. The parallel expression “the kingdom of God” (for example Matthew 13: 31-32 and Luke 13:18-19 and elsewhere) is found in the other gospel accounts.

Christ spoke in Aramaic, which was the common language of the people he interacted with. Heaven is frequently used for God Himself as a figure of speech (e.g., Luke 15:21 “I have sinned against heaven”). It has been suggested Christ spoke the same expression and did not interchange the words, but Matthew was inspired to translate the Aramaic to Greek, so he retained the figure of speech.² Bullinger, E. W., The Companion Bible, Appendix 114, (Michigan, Kregel Publications, 1990), 155

It has also been suggested that Matthew, a Jew writing to Jews, did not want to offend his audience who were sensitive regarding the use of the name of God. However, Matthew uses “kingdom of God” five times, and in Matthew 19:23-24 he uses both in quoting Christ. For this author, there is no clear resolution in terms of any significant difference between the two expressions. For the purpose of this paper, they are considered to mean the same thing and are interchangeable.

THE AMBITIOUS MUSTARD SEED

He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches” (Matthew 13:31-32).

Matthew does not provide a specific interpretation of the elements of this parable as He had done with the previous two.³ Neither does Luke in his account in Chapter 13. The majority of Christian interpreters use this parable as a description of the growth of the church or the community of believers to espouse the success of the church and ultimately the kingdom of God. However, when examined along with the context of the parables before and after it, and Christ’s general interpretation in verse 41, the parable demands to be approached differently.

We see again a man with a field who has planted this mustard seed. The Master has planted a seed, not a tare, but it is the growth of the seed that comes into question. Jesus is not highlighting the glory of His kingdom at this juncture which is the common interpretation. He instead is describing an abnormal growth to be avoided, or perhaps put in better terms, an unpleasant and uncomfortable but temporal reality to be understood in regards to the kingdom. It ought to be read as a description of corruption in and around the body of believers, in similar fashion to the wheat and the weeds.

We are accustomed to the mustard seed being likened to an image of faith (Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6). Yet as we have alluded to earlier, these similar images do not always possess the same meaning. This mustard seed, though having humble beginnings, has grown to an unnaturally large state. It is the largest (Greek meizon (Strong’s 3173 – large, great in the wildest sense) compared to the rest of the produce of the soil. Mustard plants are more like a bush and do not grow into an enormous size or tree (Greek: dendron) in which birds can rest in its branches. It is an annual that dies every year. It is impossible for it to grow into a tree. Instead of the humble plant, it has obtained a large, abnormal and ungainly growth.

When trees are symbolically used in the Bible, they have been used to represent authority, power and dominion – someone in authority, for example Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4.10-12) and Pharoah (Ezekiel 31). Therefore this seed had ambition, and in its growth and self-perceived service to God, became lofty with pride and concern for self-sought domination. Have we witnessed and experienced such attributes in the world of Christianity before?

Ambition and validation can be powerful elements of human nature both in individuals and in a collective – where they become particularly manifested. The first instincts of some might suppose this to be a fully counterfeit church such as the Roman church that has grown into a worldwide institutional power with influence having many protestant offshoots, or branches. This may be so, but the context of the parable is still the kingdom of God – the seed was authentic – there is ambition being exercised amongst and against those entering the kingdom and its inhabitants. There is an unauthorized, but permitted, influence.

The interpretation of the Great Commission, as instituted by Jesus Christ that, for the process of the gospel to go to the ends of the earth, has caused some to assert that such a commission must primarily be done through organizational  structures that must be well-funded. Corporations in the secular world operate with the same goals however, those goals being growth and revenue. That naturally leads to classical corporate structures in churches where the ambition becomes growth of the church and growth of revenue, and not the glory of God.

There is also a natural tendency in people to gravitate to groups and organizations that emanate prestige and status with big programs and dynamic leaders. Ambition is contagious in this way.

Christ indeed instructed us to take the gospel to everyone, but it must be done His way. His way is to not put any under a heavy yoke:

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30).

To not develop hierarchies:

“But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren” (Matthew 23:8).

To not self-promote:

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake (2 Corinthians 4:5).

and not be motivated by money. When any one of these develop sufficiently, they become an element that resists Jesus Christ and act against Him.

We also see birds arriving and finding a place in the branches. The birds of the air are not songbirds, but birds of prey – buzzards and vultures. We see in history, even after humble beginnings, how sustained organizational growth is quickly mandated in the culture of most endeavors in both secular and religious arenas. These types of environments attract and cultivate evil mindsights and evil men – the birds of prey – who see opportunity and reason to establish authority and control for themselves.

Thus we see something in the kingdom community being produced entirely different than the effective, pungent, but low-profile approach to engaging humanity that the Lord desired. We see this expressed of Christ Himself:

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him,

and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out”(Isaiah 42:1-3 CSB, (see also Matthew 12:16-20)).

Christ did not come to serve and witness ostentatiously or brazenly, nor would He advertise Himself (as in the fashion of larger ministries do today). His ministry would be quiet, non-aggressive, and unthreatening. We are called to walk and conduct ourselves as He did.

This is how He intended His church to be, a family community going forth conveying the message of Christ with sincerity and truth – having a community example to the world. It is important to remember it was still an authentic seed that was sown to the best of our knowledge. Yet Christ had no illusions as to the potential of what the growth of that seed could become. He already knew of the corruption that would always try to overtake it. By some nefarious influence in the kingdom, it can be corrupted with ambition to get ahead of the Head of the church.

Anyone who runs on ahead and does not remain in the doctrine of Christ [that is, one who is not content with what He taught], does not have God; but the one who continues to remain in the teaching of Christ does have God,  he has both the Father and the Son (2 John 9, Amplified Bible).

CORRUPTION FROM THE ONSET

An examination of the 1948 Constitution and bylaws of the Radio Church of God which became the Worldwide Church of God will provide some further insight.

With a cursory review of this document we see indications that the primary objective was to preach the gospel to all nations which was generally accepted in Christian circles. There is however a bias towards western democracies. The second objective states the following:

Article II – OBJECT
2) to effectively warn the people of the United States, the British Commonwealth of Nations, and the Democracies of Northwestern Europe whom we understand to be the descendants of the House of Israel, of the divine judgments from Almighty God prophesied soon to fall on our peoples in punishment unless we repent of and turn from our increasing sins and violations of God’s laws, and return to national and individual total reliance upon the God of our fathers;

Comment: Embedded here is the teaching of Anglo- Israelism which predated the existence of that organization. Article II includes a call to action to warn certain nations of calamity and encourage a return to a theocracy (that has never existed in these nations). Though this cannot be scripturally supported, it was and is very influential in membership behaviors and world views.

The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy in its various forms since its first version (1942) issued by Herbert Armstrong was arguably the most heavily advertised, and certainly the most requested piece of literature in the organization’s history, ⁴Barrett, D. V., (2013), The Fragmentation of a Sect: Schism in the Worldwide Church of God, Oxford University Press, p. 34

  The teaching was almost ubiquitous in other booklets and magazine articles on prophecy produced by the church.

Due to its influence and capture of new converts to the organization that brought on its growth, subsequent offshoots of the organization are compelled to maintain an Anglo-Israelism teaching and publish literature in support of it. This author is aware of ministers in these organizations that reject the teaching, but fear to publicly oppose it for the sake of appearances and possible retribution by influential church executives. Here again the prevailing underlying doctrine of growth trumps scriptural obedience.

KINGDOM AND CHURCH CONFLATION?

The question should be asked by those reading this paper whether we are conflating the church of God and the kingdom of heaven. This would be a mistake; why would He liken the kingdom of Heaven with nefarious matters of the world and the environment in which the church exists?

The church is a body of believers on earth and is not the kingdom of heaven. Kingdom is the English translation of the Greek term basileia, which means dominion, royal power, kingship, or rule. ⁵ Refer to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon for further explanation.     Christ is speaking in broader terms of God’s sovereignty. The church is under the dominion of God, but the church itself is not the kingdom. The church has no dominion. Unlike the kingdom, it cannot be inherited, and it cannot be received. The church in this world is temporal and will not always exist, but those who are in it are citizens of heaven already (Ephesians 2:6) – all who are in the church are under His dominion.

So long as there has been a King of heaven, there has been a dominion under Him. There was an ancient state of the kingdom, a present and a future. Christ spoke in terms of all times in these parables.

We see the past:

All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

“I will open My mouth in parables;

I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the  world” (Matthew 13:34).

And we see the future:

The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:41-42).

At these times and the time in between, even under His dominion, nefarious activities of the enemies of God, including death, exist somewhere (See 1 Corinthians 15:26). He still reigns over it. Christ the King, once all enemies of the kingdom are cast out, will hand the kingdom over to the Father.

These parables therefore teach us the realities of the kingdom in this age as it pertains to the church of God experience. Perhaps it may be helpful to interpret “The kingdom of heaven is like” more specifically as “The kingdom of heaven is presently like”. We can say this confidently given Christ’s interpretation of the present reality in Matthew 13:41.

 fellowship the disciples would have quickly recognized. Three measures of meal (an ephah) also appears when the angel confronted Gideon (Judges 6:19), and when Hannah dedicated her son Samuel at the temple she took with her an offering of three measures of meal, again unleavened (1 Samuel 1:24).

“Breaking bread” together has always been a special community element in sharing in the needs of life. Even Paul considered it as the unleavened bread of sincerity, honesty, and truth (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). In the community of believers it represents an opening of understanding of one another, humility without hiding behind artificial facades. I think we can agree that it is special to God that we be as open and honest as we can and regard each other appropriately (Philippians 2:1-4). Eating together is a channel for this to occur, and is also symbolic of the whole of fellowship.

So the disciples heard something very familiar, and yet very foreign within a short parable that is one sentence long. They were immediately challenged with three measures of meal, unleavened – authentic and sincere, yet with a woman having her own interests, hides leaven until all is leavened. The conflict is evident, and it must have provoked within the disciples, as it should with us now, that there is something about this parable that requires serious consideration.

Leaven is something which disintegrates, breaks down, and corrupts. Leaven Biblically is disruptive and corrupting. It causes a puffed-up swollen condition. With these properties, it symbolizes the destruction of honesty and an obfuscating of reality. That is what yeast does when you put it into bread. At a certain point the baker arrests the action of the yeast by baking the bread in the oven. But leavened bread will always spoil far more quickly than unleavened bread.

So now with this picture of the parable, we see this unauthorized influence of leaven and how it has worked itself in the kingdom of God through recorded history, before the foundation of the world, from the time of the beginning of the church of God with Abel and Seth to our present day. During all this time it was often the very ones who were to encourage the fellowship of God to be free from the corruption of the leaven who, allowed God’s house to be permeated by it. In our more contemporary experience, these are the leaders – the pastors, teachers and elders, but those who enabled them are also culpable.

Yet perhaps we should not be too critical as there appears to have been a protracted influence of the leaven before the foundation of the world, and a cycle of unleavened and leavened occurrences in local fellowships of people as they arise and fall. Each time the leaven begins to permeate, fellowship is disrupted and often destroyed. The process of scattering, reassembling possibly, then begins again.

A LESSON

The astonishing lesson of these parables takes us again to a teaching of Christ Himself about entering the kingdom of God – to follow the narrow path of entrance despite the influence of worldly external cares, tares, ambitions, and all the types of leaven. Many, unfortunately, will take the path of destruction – to succumb to worldly cares, be distracted by the weeds, become overly ambitious in their service, and be disconnected from the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

God is faithful – He does not call people to fail, He calls them to succeed, and will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are capable of resisting (1 Corinthians 10:13). Yet, it must be that we are hewn in the roughness of the quarry to fit perfectly together in the kingdom (Ephesians 2:19-22, 1 Peter 2:1-5, 1 Kings 6:7).

We return to our opening words that introduce these parables – to gather with him or scatter to oblivion or, at best, frustration, angst and confusion.

THE GENERAL INTERPRETATION

Christ gives us the final words on these series of parables:

Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels,

 and they will gather out of His kingdom

all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! (Matthew 13:40-43).

Clearly there are offensive elements in the kingdom now that are to be disposed of, including death. The end of the age is at the end of the 1000-year reign of Christ on earth, and not at Christ’s return. The apostle Paul reflects on this future event:

Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:24-26).

CONCLUSION

After the triplet of parables in verses 47 to 50 Jesus concludes perhaps with a final parable to the disciples:

Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”

Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old” (Matthew 13:51-52).

Matthew helps us a little in interpreting this parable in earlier verses of this chapter:

All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

“I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the  world” (Matthew 13:34).

Here Matthew quotes Psalm 78 recorded by Asaph. In brief, Asaph reflected on the history of his people – their record of forgetfulness, faithlessness, foolishness and failure and he sought to understand what it all meant. Asaph helped his readers understand the enigma (mystery) of their history. He explained aspects of their history that were previously unknown, because it is not just the history of Israel, it is also a history of God.

He used parables; by comparing various things he gave them a broader understanding of history. Matthew relates this to Christ’s purposes in the use of parables.

The good scribe therefore also considers what it all means and further understands the kingdom of God throughout history and finds the answers that are appropriate. He has the insight of the psalmist – there is treasure in these insights, and these insights come from a place that is new and old.

The scribe can look at the new and the old and the broader context of the history and dispense the wisdom of God appropriately.

FINAL THOUGHTS – IS UNITY IN THE BODY POSSIBLE TODAY?

Though differences may and do exist, along with flare ups in contention given we are all imperfect – the answer to this question is that disunity or a division has never really existed. It is not possible that Christ be divided (1 Corinthians 1:13). We either are in the process of gathering with Him or we are interfering with the kingdom and against Him. We are either growing in grace and knowledge or contributing to disunity and corruption.

From these parables we see it to be unwise to uproot the weeds, to cut down trees or attempt to de-leaven the kingdom ourselves. This ultimately is in the hands of the Son of Man and His angels. Instead, it is the calling of the wise stewards of the kingdom of God to know and navigate the corruption that exists in its present state.

We must remember that Jesus taught these parables privately to His disciples and in that context it is not paramount that they be understood by all believers in all times. For unbelievers and those who are misguided in their intentions they are riddles not understood, but are highly illuminating illustrations for those accepting their meaning. Even so, for those gathering with Him the corruption in the kingdom in this age may not be of any particular influence on them – this too is a blessing.

Many look to the early progress of the church as described in the book of Acts as an ideal and desired model of growth – yet we are not particularly instructed that this is the model for us to imitate, nor use as a metric to measure ourselves against. The ripening of the tares as we near the time of the harvest, unauthorized ambitious growth of the mustard seed coming to fruition as a grotesque tree, and the fully permeated lump that the kingdom has become are offensive– but that is the reality. For God to be pleased with us it is not necessary for a restoration of the church of God to what can be described by the early church broadly speaking, or from any other desirable time in the past – because that is not the goal. We are working and living in our present – not the conditions of others. Jesus Christ as the Head of His church is not interested in being an arbitrator and peace maker between those who gather with Him and those who scatter, and He also prohibits His own servants from doing so as we can see.

Some have taken up a sincere cause to create bridges amongst various factions in the Sabbatarian churches of God – but such endeavors, no matter the sincerity, can instead fuel the scattering instead of the gathering. In the broader sense we do not want to unwittingly bring together those who are scattering, having agendas for growth and other attributes that these parables reveal and their negative influences, with those who are gathering with Him.

Perhaps we can say, considering the state of the kingdom now, we must endeavor to gather with Him first before we can truly gather together with each other.

If we instead adhere to the wisdom and grace of God, we will find greater opportunities in local congregations that are familial in nature and adhere to the apostolic teachings that nurture the growth of individuals and encourage the gifts of the spirit. If there is to be a revival it will be in local fellowships with openness, oneness and transparency between the brethren. This is the environment that the Spirit of God will move and we are still free to do this. It is still the three measures of meal we can share where God Himself feels invited.