Wheat and Tares
The Separation of the Righteous and the Wicked
God uses the tribulation to separate
the wheat from the tares
(Matthew 13:24–43)
the wheat from the chaff
(Matthew 3:12)
the sheep from the goats
(Matthew 25:32-33)
believers from pretenders
(Titus 1:16)
the righteous from the wicked
(2 Corinthians 6:14-17)
It is a winnowing process that will take the form of persecution for the righteous and, ultimately, destruction for the wicked.
This is the wisdom of God working.
What Satan means for evil,
God means for good.
Genesis 50:20
"His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat (believers) into His barn (kingdom), but He will burn up the chaff (the unrepentant) with unquenchable fire."
--- Matthew 3:12 amplified version
Matthew 13:24–30
contains the parable of the wheat and the weeds, also known as the parable of the wheat and the "tares."
Christ later explain this as a metaphor for God separating believers from non-believers in the final judgment
(Matthew 13:36–43).
The enemy in the parable is Satan. In opposition to Jesus Christ, the devil tries to destroy Christ’s work by placing false believers and teachers in the world who lead many astray.
Instead of requiring these false believers to be rooted out of the world, and possibly hurting immature believers in the process, Christ allows them to remain until His return. At that time, angels will separate the true from false believers.
In the world today, there are many people who pretend obedience to Christ.
We cannot always tell the difference between true and false believers. It is not always obvious. Tares, especially in the early stages of growth, resemble wheat.
Likewise, a false believer may resemble a true believer.
"Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
--- Matthew 25: 31-34, Matthew 25:41, Matthew 25:46
