Weeds

“He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.  
The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,  and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 
“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.  
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.” 
            Matthew 13:37-43 Jesus explaining the parable of the weeds.

Jesus in explaining the parable of the weeds makes it clear that one day there will be judgment on the earth.
That weeds, the “sons of the evil one” will be plucked up and burned in the fire. In other words the world will be cleaned up once and for all. The evil of the world removed leaving the true believer to “shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
Weeds can infest everything. They grow easily even when the good seed cannot.
The church is not immune from weeds and sin creeping in.
Over the years we have heard of many prominent evangelist who have let sin enter their lives and thus has destroyed their ministry.
There are also ministers and evangelist out their who are out their perverting the word of God for their own gain.
We must as Christians be careful about who we put our trust in.
We need to look long and hard at what the minister or evangelist is saying. We need from time to time question what they are saying. Asking does what they are saying truly line up with the overall word of God. Or is the person just ‘cherry’ picking. Putting together verses that make what the preacher is saying sound correct, when it really isn’t.
We need to examine what is being said.
Look at all the verses quoted in the context they were used in the chapters they were taken from.
As Christians we need to be asking hard questions of our pastors, teachers and evangelist.
It is essential that we ask them to explain anything we don’t understand or seems like it is being misinterpreted.
An honest preacher will never shy away from questions.
My pastor and I jointly teach a bible study every Wednesday. We have an agenda. We study various books of the bible and biblical topics systematically.
We are however open at any time to questions about anything.
For us a typical bible study opens by asking if anyone has any questions about anything before we start the study. People are also encouraged to stop us at any time during the study to ask questions.
The questions asked particularly prior to the start of the study have been from a wide range of topics, usually unrelated to our study. They are questions people have about what they have read during the week to what they have heard on television, radio or other forms of media.
We do our best to answer all the questions then and there.  Which praise God we have nearly always been able to do so.
Every now and then while we can quote the verse pertaining to the answer we sometimes can’t find it. At that point we tell the person we’ll have the quote for the following week or for Sunday.
This I believe is how it should be.
We are even going to the point of bringing a lap top computer to our studies in the new year as one more resource in helping us study better.
I truly believe the individual should be able to question the pastor or priest of their own church. They should be able to write and expect an answer from evangelist about what they have spoken.
I believe it is up to the individual to pray and read the scriptures asking God for guidance. It is up to us to read commentaries on the scriptures from reputable sources as well as read some church history.
We in the west particularly here in North America have a great deal of resources at our finger tips. Be it from the library, Christian book stores, or the internet, the ability to inform ourselves on what is right doctrinally is there.
   By being well informed we can see for ourselves when a church leader, be they a bible study teacher, priest, pastor, or evangelist is wrong and can take appropriate action to avoid the false teaching.
In a world of mass media it is easy for false teaching to enter the church. It is easy for sinful men to masquerade as honest teachers.
Jesus makes it clear that all those who do evil will one day be plucked up and cast into the fire. Until then however we need to be aware. Asking God to lead us to all that is truth.
So going into this new year of 2014 let us all pray that God will show His glorious truth through His people wherever they may be.
May this year truly be a year when all Christians everywhere reach a record number of people for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.