Tares Among the Wheat

[Daily Devotional]

Tares Among the Wheat 

     Let both 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. Matt. 13:30.  

     In this world we shall become hopelessly perplexed (as the devil wants
us to be) if we keep looking upon those things that are perplexing, for by
dwelling upon them, and talking of them, we become discouraged. . . . We may
create an unreal world in our own mind or picture an ideal church, where the
temptations of Satan no longer prompt to evil, but perfection exists only in
our imagination. The world is a fallen world, and the church is a place
represented by a field in which grow tares and wheat. They are to grow
together until the harvest. It is not our place to uproot the tares,
according to human wisdom, lest under the suggestions of Satan the wheat may
be rooted up under the supposition that it is tares. The wisdom that is from
above will come to him who is meek and lowly in heart, and that wisdom will
not lead him to destroy, but to build up the people of God. . . .  

     None need to err, none need to lose the golden moments of time in their
short life history through seeking to weigh the imperfections of professed
Christians. Not one of us has time to do this. If we know what is the manner
of character Christians should develop, and yet see in others that which is
inconsistent with this character, let us determine that we will firmly
resist the enemy in his temptations to make us act in an inconsistent way,
and say, "I will not make Christ ashamed of me. I will more earnestly study
the character of Christ in whom there was no imperfection, no selfishness,
no spot, no stain of evil, who lived not to please and glorify Himself, but
to glorify God and save fallen humanity. I will not copy the defective
characters of these inconsistent Christians; the mistakes that they have
made shall not lead me to be like them. I will turn to the precious Saviour,
that I may be like Him, follow the instruction of the Word of God, which
says, 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus'" (Phil.
2:5).  

>From That I May Know Him - Page 179