Beware of The Weeds

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore again, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest the gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn,”’” (Matthew 13:24-30).

What are weeds for? Weeds are very similar to that of an enemy in war. The weeds are there to kill the actual plant. If not taken care of, the weed will take over and can eventually kill the plant, destroying any hope of the desired harvest.

In this parable, the servants had planted the seed for their wheat but while everyone was sleeping, the enemy came in and planted weeds among the good seed. When this was discovered, the servants wanted to gather the weeds. However, the master instead commands them to let it all grow and at the time of the harvest, they will gather the weeds to be burned and then the wheat will be gathered into the barn.

Upon reading the parable, it is relatively easy to picture the wheat (good seed) as the followers of Christ. We are the wheat. The world... is the weeds. Whenever we are not paying attention (sleeping), the enemy (the devil) plants these weeds around us. For some, this will be detrimental as the weeds will choke you out and kill your growth in the Lord. For those who continue to grow till the harvest, there is a battle on their hands. The desire to follow Jesus and the desire to grow stronger must be stronger than any of the temptations that arise because of the weeds.

There are many weeds in our life but we must remain strong in our pursuit to keep them out of our lives.

The encouragement for this week is to recognize the weeds in your field and do not let them choke you out.

Reading for this week: Isaiah 40:27-31

Be strong, be watchful, and do not grow weary this week!