There are many tares in the church today, spreading division, upsetting the holiness of the group.
Let us remember that God told us not to uproot the tares in the church because we might be pulling up the wheat. The wheat and tares look so much alike that they are difficult to discern. Some tares say and do all the right things, but have trusted in themselves and not Christ.
Tares and wheat are almost identical. Something to note about the tares is that they are deadly because their appearance is so much like the wheat, and yet they are ruinous to a gathering. The wheat are good for food but the tares are poisonous and cannot be eaten.
One way to tell the difference is to challenge individuals with Scripture and watch what comes out. The tares will be very uncomfortable and even combative. They don't always fight, but they live by cliches and unbiblical mantras they think are Biblical unwilling to change what they want to believe.
Tares see the benefits for themselves of being in the church gathering. They are not there because of Christ but only for themselves. They see the lifestyle as better for them, but have no interest in Christ guiding them through life or cleansing them.
The roots of the tares are entangled with the wheat roots. Uprooting the tares may disturb the roots of the wheat. Sometimes, wheat is not able to discern the tares and will become offended, causing a distraction in the gathering.
Matthew 13:24-30
The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares
24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;
25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.
27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’
29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
Satan hates marriage because the sealed union of two people into one person by God is representative of the relationship between believers and Christ.
The woman covered represents the church, and the man uncovered represents Christ. The devil hates anything that protects the gospel and is a symbol of the permanency of salvation through faith in Christ.
Ephesians 5:22-33 " Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
30 because we are members of his body.
31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."
The wife is one with and alongside of her husband, just as the husband is one with and alongside of his wife. The husband's role is to protect and uplift the wife in the word as well as support her in her calling as the keeper of the home.
The wife's role is to support the husband in his calling and counsel him when he strays from the word. Standing by someone does not mean doing their bidding; it means seeking Christ for the truth while coming alongside to support doing what is right.
God said it was not good for man to be alone. He needed a support system that helped him in his weaknesses as well as his support in his strengths.
Proverbs 31 says that the woman elevates her husband in the eyes of others by her good standing in the community, so that he will be honored in the city gates because of her.
When a woman takes care of all the household needs, interacts in the community as she makes goods to sell and buys a field to plant a vineyard, she is seen as diligent while providing everything the family needs.
When the husband treats his wife with the highest respect, protecting her from those who would demean her, she will be seen as special and cherished to her husband.
It is important to notice from Scripture that God never commanded each spouse to make sure the other one does what they should. Each spouse must choose to do what is right, even if the other spouse does not do what they should, while never supporting sin or evil.
No one will stand before God on judgment day and be able to use their spouse as an excuse for bad behavior or willful and angry character. We stand before our Lord alone, completely responsible for our own choices.
The purpose of marriage is to reflect the relationship between Christ and His church. No marriage should be operating under the curse when each party is attempting to dominate the other. This was a condition of the fall and not what God intended for marriage.
The husband is to lovingly lead and protect his wife, and the wife is to follow when the husband obeys God. Each one must obey God first. Submission to God is for everyone by their own choice, not compulsion or domination by anyone else.
Those who think they must dictate to their wives or the wives to their husbands are not acting in love, but in selfishness and tyranny. This is not godly and sends a monstrous witness to the world of false Christianity.
My hope is that those who are using the fall, "a woman's desire will be to rule her husband, but her husband will rule her," as an excuse for the husband to act in disrespectful ways to their wife, will stop using this passage to justify rudeness. This condition of spouses ruling over one another is a condition of the fall and not the example of a godly marriage.
No one should be ruling over the other; each should be willingly submitting as each one obey's God in a deep, abiding love for one another.
And lastly, no one should ever judge another person's marriage!!!! My mantra in the past few years has become, "mind your own business.",No one can know exactly what goes on in someone else's marriage.
Unless someone comes to us for advice and is willing to listen to Biblical counsel, we should make a practice of never judging someone else's marriage. Those who insert themselves into the marriages of others without being asked are busybodies and need to mind their own business.
1 Thessalonians 4:10-12 "…10 And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more 11and to aspire to live quietly, to ATTEND TO YOUR OWN MATTERS, and to work with your own hands, as we instructed you. 12 Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone.…"
2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 "For even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “If anyone is unwilling to work, he shall not eat.” For we hear that some of you are leading undisciplined lives, accomplishing nothing, but being BUSIBODIES. We command and urge such people by our Lord Jesus Christ to begin working quietly to earn their own living.
Just Saying!!!!
