Mixed (Matthew 13:41-43)

Photo by Sebastian Unrau on Unsplash

Just as Jesus had a traitor in His band of twelve, so virtually every minister  of the  Gospel has found some in their church who seem to work at cross-purposes to all they are doing. This is how it has always been. The most challenging opposition comes from within the church, not from without. That is because Satan has been in opposition to the people of God from the beginning. For at the fall of man, God cursed Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.”  Ever since then, those the devil owns (his seed) work counter to the purposes and people of God, who have been rescued from Satan’s dominion. 

To that point Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Wherever Christ “plants” true believers to bear fruit for His glory, Satan plants false Christians who oppose the work and hinder the harvest. Christians are seeds, and the kingdom of heaven is a mixture of the true seed (Christians) and the counterfeit (children of the devil).”  Warren’s point is proven in the example of the first family, where Adam and Eve’s eldest son murdered his younger brother. So the Scriptures warn us, “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.”  Cain ‘belonged to the evil one’ because he listened to the evil one and so came to belong to Satan through unrighteous thought and action. Abel and Cain and Seth were all sons of Adam, born after the fall. As such, they had a sinful bent, but also had the opportunity to repent and turn toward God. Abel did so, and Seth did so. But although God spoke to Cain and warned him about giving in to his unrighteous anger, the Word records, “Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.”  So it came to pass that brother killed brother. 

This same principle is still at work today. The seeds of the evil one are the lies that he plants in your mind. Those who choose to believe those lies come to own the action that belief bears, just as those who choose to believe God come to own the action that their belief bears. Each bears its own fruit, and they grow together. But they will not grow together forever. As Jesus said in explaining the parable of the weeds, “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” 

The growing season may seem long, but the harvest is quick and permanent. The day will come when the full harvest is ready, and on that day those who have chosen to belong to the evil one will be rooted out and destroyed. 

From that point on, those who belong to the evil one will never again bother the people of God or hinder the purposes of God. Their destiny is one of pain and limitation. Ours, the complete opposite! 

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

John the Baptist (from Matthew 3:10)

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Every natural forest has within it trees that are good for all manner of quality craftsmanship, and also trees that are just using up the soil. Both enjoy the rain and sun God sends – until the harvester appears!