and the enemy who has sowed it is the devil; and the harvest is [the] completion of [the] age, and the harvestmen are angels.
Here the Lord explains His own parable. In one verse He names three things: who sowed the weeds, when the field is cleared, and who clears it. Each answer takes away a comfort we might want. The evil was deliberate, the cure waits, and the hands that bring it are not ours.
The enemy had a motive and a method. One writer traces how he worked — not by open attack, but by copying:
The devil is the enemy, and the sowing of the weeds was his countermove. He could not stop the kingdom of heaven from being set up in the world where he was the prince. So he went to work at once, with great cunning, to oppose it and spoil it. He opposed it by imitating it.
Two different words stand behind "world" in verse 38 and "the end of the age" here. Mixing them up changes the whole picture:
"The world" in verse 38 must not be confused with "the world" in verse 39. They are totally distinct words and things. "The world" in verse 39 means the age. It is a course of time, and not a geographical sphere. Verse 38 means the sphere, the place where the gospel goes out. Verse 39 means the span of time in which the gospel is either advancing or held back by the enemy's power. The harvest is the completion of the age, that is, of the present era. It is the time while the Lord is absent and the gospel goes out over the earth... The Lord shows here that an end will come to the present sending out of the word of the kingdom, and that a day is coming when the effects of Satan's work must be fully developed and judged.
Older English versions read "the end of the world" here. Commentators call that a mistranslation, and point to the context: the Lord cleans the field, He does not destroy it:
I repeat that the end of the age is not the end of the world. The phrase "end of the world" in Matthew 13:39 is a clear error of translation... Far from being the end of the world, the very context proves the contrary. The Lord sends His angels and clears out of the field or world what is offensive to Him. The evil is judged, the scandals removed... So this is far from being the end of the "world". The harvest that closes this age will be the start of the world going on in blessing under the displayed kingdom of the Son of Man.
The servants in the parable wanted to do this work themselves. Naming the reapers as angels answers them, and settles what a disciple may do about evil in the meantime:
The servant wished to do the reapers' (the angels') work. Not so; the angels are the executioners of God's wrath. So this teaches us that the work of judgment is not the business of Christ's disciples while He is absent and rejected. We are not told to root out heresy and evil men by the strong arm of the sword. To do so is to leave the proper place of the Christian. We are to bear testimony to Christ and against the evil, most certainly. But we are to leave judgment in the hands of God, in the hands of Jesus.
The clearing waits for the end of the age, so the mixture stands. Can the damage be repaired in the meantime, and the first order of things set up again?
The Lord settles this question plainly and with authority, and His answer is no. He tells us that nothing will remedy the evil for the whole length of this age. The time of harvest — that is, the judgment — will root it out, and until then the evil goes on. Remember, though: separating from the evil, and enjoying the presence of Christ with the "two or three," is quite a different thing from claiming to set that order up again now that the evil has come in.
What men's hands were unfit to do, angels will do at a stroke. The same moment that removes the weeds also secures the wheat:
Men's hands are declared unfit for this separation. It is left to angels' hands, in the day of the harvest of Christendom. They are the reapers then. The field is to be cleared of wheat and weeds alike. At one moment the order goes out to gather the weeds in bundles to be burned, and to gather the wheat into the barn. So solemnly the day of Christian profession ends.
- Enemy. The weeds were not an accident of soil or weather. A person sowed them, and the Lord names him: the devil, working by imitation, not by open attack.
- Age. The harvest comes at the end of the age — a stretch of time, not a place. It is the span while the Lord is absent and the gospel goes out.
- Not extinction. This is not the world's destruction. The Lord clears out of the field what offends Him, so the world can go on in blessing under the reign of the Son of Man.
- Reapers. The clearing belongs to angels, not to disciples. Our part is testimony against evil. We leave the sword and the sentence to Christ.
- Meanwhile. Nothing will remedy the evil before the harvest, so the mixture stands. Separation from evil is a duty; rebuilding what has been spoiled is not on offer.
As then the darnel is gathered and is burned in the fire, thus it shall be in the completion of the age.
The Lord has just named every part of His own story — the sower, the field, the seed, the enemy, the harvest. Now He draws a line from a farmer's bonfire to the close of this age, and one word here has confused readers ever since: what ends when the weeds are burned?
The older translation reads "the end of this world." But the word for "world" in verse 40 is not the same word as in verse 38. One writer sets the two side by side:
If we treated these two words as meaning the same thing, we would miss the thought in some of the passages. For instance, in Matthew 13:38, "The field is the world" means the physical world where people live. In Matthew 13:40, "the end of the world" really means "the end of the age" — the period that closes when the Lord appears.
The difference matters. The next verses show an earth that is cleared out and then carries on, not one that is cancelled:
This is not the end of the world; the next verse proves the opposite. The Lord sends His angels and clears out of the field (that is, the world) everything that offends Him. He judges the lawless, removes what makes people stumble, and destroys the bad crop and the bad fish... The field, or world, that Satan's schemes had spoiled will be cleared of all its corruptions and of the lawless people behind them. So the harvest that closes this age is not the end of the world at all. It is the start of the world going on in blessing, under the openly displayed kingdom of the Son of Man.
The verse ties the outcome to the burning of the weeds, and a farmer burns them at the end, not while the crop is growing. So the mixture is not cleaned up before then:
The parable is not about discipline among God's children. It deals with another question: is there a cure for the evil Satan brought into this whole period "while men slept"? Can this period be put back on its original footing? The Lord decides that question at once, and with authority: no. He tells us that all through this period the evil will get no cure. The time of harvest — that is, the judgment — will root it out, and until then the evil will go on.
Verse 39 has already said the reapers are angels. That sets a clear line between the work of now and the work of then:
The angels bring in judgment from God, while the gospel lays hold of poor sinners to save them. The Lord shows here that the present sending out of the word of the kingdom will come to an end. A day is coming when the effects of Satan's work will be fully developed and judged. "The reapers are the angels." We have nothing to do with the judging, only with spreading the good; the angels deal with the judgment of the wicked.
Earlier in the parable the weeds — "tares" in the older wording — are tied into bundles before they are burned. One writer will not guess how that will happen, but he points to something already at work:
The Lord does not say that the wheat is tied into bundles to be taken to heaven. Nothing points to any special preparation of the saints before they are taken up. But God does deal with the tares in that way. The angels are to gather the tares into bundles before the Lord clears them out of the field. I will not claim to know how that will happen. Perhaps the way people group themselves together today is paving the way for the Lord's final action about the tares. But the principle of worldly association is growing fast.
The burning is not the last word here. Once the bad is taken away, the good comes into view — and the Lord's choice of verb is worth weighing:
Then comes the separating. The angels gather the tares and throw them into the fiery furnace, and "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Notice how exact the wording is: they shine — it does not say they are caught up. It will be a new age, with no mixing of the good and the bad. The gathering out of the wicked for judgment closes this age, so that the good may be blessed in the next.
- Age, not world. The harvest closes this age, not the planet. The same harvest that ends one age opens the next, under the reign of the Son of Man.
- Wait. Until the harvest the evil the enemy sowed gets no cure. Good and bad grow side by side for the whole age.
- Bundle. Before the fire comes the tying. The angels bundle the false with the false, and the true are left standing apart.
- Burn. The reaping belongs to the angels. Our work now is to spread the good, never to sort the field.
- Shine. The last word is not fire but light. With the offenders cleared out, the righteous shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom.
The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all offences, and those that practise lawlessness;
Matthew 13:41 comes from the Lord's own explanation of the parable of the wheat and the weeds. He says what happens at the end to the good and evil that grew up side by side in the world. Two words carry the weight: His kingdom, and the angels He sends to clear it.
The harvest that closes this age does not close the world's history. One writer points to this verse as the proof. The earth is cleared so that it can go on:
Far from being the end of the world, the next verse proves the opposite. The Lord sends His angels and purges from the field (or world) what is offensive to Him. In short, He punishes the living wicked, and the righteous shine in the kingdom of their Father… The harvest that closes this age will be the start of the world going on in blessing under the kingdom of the Son of Man on display.
Verse 41 speaks of the Son of Man's kingdom; verse 43 speaks of the Father's. Commentators read these as the earthly and heavenly sides of a single kingdom of God:
Here we have the upper region, called the kingdom of the Father, and the lower, the kingdom of the Son of Man… Those gathered out are not even allowed to be on the earth. They are cast into a furnace of fire. "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Both are "the kingdom of God." What a glorious prospect! Is it not a sweet thought that God will deliver even this present scene of ruin and confusion? That He will have the joy of His heart, not only in filling the heavens with His glory, but in honouring the Son of Man in the very place where men rejected Him?
The word His matters. Another writer sees in it a change in Christ's position:
"The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom" — it is now His kingdom, He is not simply sitting on the Father's throne.
The two things gathered out are traps that make others fall, and people whose lives are lawlessness. The scene of the gathering is the same field the parable began with:
Does anyone doubt that our Saviour speaks of the harvest-field, the world, as His kingdom? At His coming He sends His angels there to gather out all offences (or traps that make people fall) and those who practise lawlessness. … The earth is purged for the Son of Man's kingdom, not yet dissolved or destroyed. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father.
This gathering says something sobering about the kingdom's present state:
Weeds are in it as well as wheat, foolish virgins as well as wise. At the end of the age the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers. So the kingdom will be freed — but they must be in it to be gathered out.
The verse names who carries out the clearing, and it is not the Lord's servants:
The execution of judgment on the wicked in this world does not belong to the servants of Christ. He will accomplish it by the angels of His power, to whom He commits the execution of this work.
Another writer applies the same rule to the professing church today:
The children of the wicked one will be disentangled from the children of the kingdom and cleared right out. That happens when the Son of Man comes and opens the era of the kingdom displayed in power. Angels will do this work, not men. To clear the evil out of Christendom is no business of ours.
Because verse 41 removes the wicked and verse 43 shines on the righteous, some read the passage as the taking away of the church. One writer answers that the sequence runs the other way:
Matthew 13:41 and 43 only prove one thing: when the wicked are judged, the righteous shine out. But the righteous had already been gathered into the barn so that they could do so… Judgment leaves the just where they were. One is taken and the other left.
The clearing is not revenge. It prepares the earth for the reign of righteousness:
He gathers out of His Kingdom all things that offend. It must be so, for righteousness is about to reign. During the present day of grace righteousness suffers because evil is predominant.
- Whose kingdom — The field is the world. At the harvest Christ claims it as His kingdom. He is no longer only seated on the Father's throne.
- What is cleared — Not the world itself. He removes all that trips people up, and all who live in lawlessness.
- Who clears it — Angels, sent by the Son of Man. This judgment is not the servants' work, so clearing the church by human hands is not our task.
- When — At the close of this age, after the wheat is already safe in the barn. This is judgment, not the taking away of the church.
- Why — Because righteousness is about to reign. God will honour Christ in the very place where men rejected Him.
and they shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
These words come from Jesus' own explanation of the parable of the wheat and the weeds, given to His disciples away from the crowd. He tells them what the harvest does with the weeds, and the furnace He pictures raises hard questions about judgment and how long it lasts.
The verse belongs to a harvest that closes the present age. One writer draws a line between the two kinds of work going on — the gospel now, judgment then:
"The reapers are the angels." We have nothing to do with the judging. Our part is only to spread the good; the angels' part is to judge the wicked… The harvest is the close of the age, that is, of the present period. It is the time while the Lord is absent and the gospel goes out over the earth. Grace is going out now. The only means God uses to work on souls are moral or spiritual. The angels bring in providential judgment; while the gospel lays hold of poor sinners to save them.
What follows this verse is the righteous shining out. That order matters. The harvest clears the earth for a coming age instead of wiping it out:
The earth is cleansed in this way for the Son of Man's kingdom — not yet dissolved or destroyed. Who can doubt that the righteous will then shine out like the sun in the kingdom of the Father? This is the age to come before eternity, the thousand-year age. The glorified are on high, and the earth is free from the usurper and blessed under the reign of Christ.
Weeds thrown on a fire disappear. Some argue from that picture that the wicked stop existing. One writer answered a question about this verse. The rest of it, he says, rules that reading out:
The explanation shows that the thought here is not extinction. People only reach that idea from what fire does to weeds. The effect of the fire, as of the outer darkness, is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So the effect shown is not the end of existence, as some claim, but suffering. It is suffering called everlasting, set against everlasting life. The fire is a figure, the usual figure of judgment… They will be tormented forever and ever — words used for the length of God's own existence.
Neither reaction is a change of heart. One writer explains what each one shows:
The weeping is only in self-pity, not in repentance. Wailing is the attitude of complaining, because faith is absent. Gnashing of teeth is a spirit of rebellion, not corrected even by the solemn judgment of God.
Does each person there show both? One writer thinks not:
The two words "weeping" and "gnashing" of teeth bring out different characters. I do not think both must be true of every person.
One writer traced every place this phrase appears and found the same sort of person each time:
Weeping and gnashing of teeth! We point to this phrase, used elsewhere in the New Testament only by Matthew. It always refers to those who have made light of the offer of grace… The Jews boasted in their natural descent from Abraham and gloried in it. That descent will do nothing for them if they reject grace… They will show everlasting sorrow and regret for their folly in rejecting the salvation offered to them in this life.
The furnace carries out a sentence; it does not open a trial:
We must never for a moment think that the judgment has to do with deciding whether a soul is saved or lost. That is settled in this life. At the Great White Throne, judgment will be measured out rightly, in perfect righteousness, and no one will have a word to say.
- Now — grace works. While the Lord is absent the gospel goes out, and the only means God uses on souls are moral and spiritual.
- Now — the case closes. This life settles whether a soul is saved or lost. The furnace does not.
- Then — angels act. At the end of the age the angels take up the judging. They clear the field instead of destroying it, so the earth can be blessed under Christ's reign.
- Then — the figure holds. Fire is the usual picture of judgment. The weeping after it proves suffering, not extinction — suffering called everlasting, set against everlasting life.
- Then — hearts stay hard. Weeping is self-pity. Gnashing is rebellion. The sorrow there is regret over grace refused here, never repentance.
Then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that has ears, let him hear.
The Lord has just told His disciples why the weeds stay in the field until harvest. Now He turns from the removal of evil to what follows it: when the righteous shine, whose light they shine with, and why He calls it their Father's kingdom.
The shining has a date. It comes after the gathering out of the wicked, and one writer weighs the exact words the Lord used.
The severing then takes place. The weeds are gathered and thrown into a furnace of fire, and "then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Notice how exact the wording is: "Then the righteous will shine" — not "Then they will be caught up." It will be a new age, with no mixing of the good and the bad. The gathering out of the wicked for judgment closes this age, so that the good may be blessed in the next.
The order matters. The wheat reaches safety before the fire falls, and the shining comes last.
The weeds are gathered into bundles to be burned; and before they are thrown into the furnace of fire, the wheat is gathered into His barn... First we have the practical separation — the providential gathering of the wheat out of the way of judgment into the barn. Then comes the actual judgment of the weeds. And following on that, the wheat shines forth.
Why is the field not cleaned up now? One writer finds the answer in what is promised here.
It is a matter of further revelation that then the righteous will shine as the sun in the kingdom of the Father. And it seems to me that the term "the righteous" is not necessarily limited to those who lived after the seed of the kingdom was sown. This is the reason why there was no question, in the meantime, of purifying the field here below. God had better counsels in store for us.
Just before this the Lord spoke of the Son of Man's kingdom. Here He says "their Father." Commentators read the change as marking two spheres of one reign.
The Father's kingdom is heavenly, just as plainly as the Son of Man's kingdom is earthly. Matthew 13:41-43 proves it. The risen saints shine as the sun — and the sun is not earthly — in their Father's kingdom. Meanwhile the Son of Man, by His angels, carries out judgment on all offences and unrighteous persons in His kingdom, and just as plainly on earth.
If the righteous shine like the sun, whose light is it? One writer answers by setting the two spheres side by side.
Notice the contrast. The Kingdom of the Son of Man is below; the Kingdom of the Father is above. The righteous reign in the Kingdom of the Son of Man; they shine in the Kingdom of their Father. The Sun of righteousness has risen on the earth, and this is why the righteous shine as the sun. They are with Him, sharers of His glory. They are not suns themselves — central, independent orbs — but shining with the glory put upon them.
One writer connects the word "shine" here with an earlier scene in Matthew.
I note that this word "shine" is the same as the one used of our Lord on the mountain where He was transfigured — "His face shone like the sun" (Matt. 17:2).
One word carries the warmth here: "their." It tells the believer whose kingdom he will shine in.
Further, notice that it says, "In the kingdom of their Father." Here is great blessedness to the child of God in this word of happiness that makes it his own. It shows the position in which the Lord Jesus has placed them — associated with God as their Father, in His kingdom... He unites Himself to them as one who calls them brothers. He calls them to look up to God as their Father: "I will tell of your name to my brothers"; and again, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."
The verse ends with a call the Lord had already used earlier in the chapter. One writer notes who it singles out now.
Yet, though covering so large a sphere, the Lord says in verse 9, "He who has ears, let him hear." In the Old Testament the call went to all Israel, to all the people. Now it comes to each of us, to a Christian personally. Whatever happens, no one can hand this responsibility of hearing and receiving the truth of God to someone else. Woe to those who deny or weaken it.
- Cleared — the angels gather out the offences and the lawless first; the shining starts only when the mixture in the kingdom is over.
- Kept — the wheat goes into the barn before the fire falls; the righteous are safe before the glory begins.
- Above — "their Father's kingdom" is the heavenly side; the Son of Man's kingdom is the earthly side of the same reign.
- Borrowed — they shine because they are with the Sun of righteousness, wearing a glory put on them, not their own.
- Heard — the promise closes with an appeal to the individual, and each hearer answers for his own ears.
The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hid in the field, which a man having found has hid, and for the joy of it goes and sells all whatever he has, and buys that field.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls;
This short parable of the merchant turns on one question. Who is doing the seeking? The answer decides whether the story is about a sinner searching for Christ, or about Christ searching for us.
The familiar reading makes the merchant a sinner hunting for salvation. Commentators reject it. No lost person, they say, ever went looking for fine pearls.
Now is it not harsh in the extreme to infer that lost sinners are compared to a man in quest of fine pearls? It is not even true of the rare case of the rich young ruler. His conduct was blameless, yet he clung to his wealth. He gave up treasure in heaven and left Christ full of sorrow. He never knew his ruin and did not even seek to be saved. And there is no greater mistake than to say that Saul of Tarsus matches the merchant — "determined, discriminating, unremitting." By his own word he was "chief of sinners," and, like everyone else, saved in sovereign grace.
The second objection is about currency. A buyer must have something to pay with.
The usual thought is that the merchant is the sinner seeking salvation, and that salvation is the pearl. Some take Christ to be the pearl instead. Either way, it is far from the truth; far from God's thought. The sinner giving up all that he has to buy salvation — to buy Christ?! What has he to buy with but his sins. Is this the gospel of the grace of God?
Turn it around, and the merchant is Christ. He knows what He is looking for, and He alone can value it.
It is Christ then who really seeks and buys. He alone has the perfect discernment of the moral beauty He saw and prized above all. Beyond dispute, He alone of men understood and sought fine pearls. And this one pearl of great price He saw, in God's purposes, to be saints like Himself, holy and blameless in love. Yes, one with Him — the glorious church, which He will present to Himself, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
The parable just before this one speaks of treasure hidden in a field. The pearl adds what treasure alone could not say.
The parable of the hidden treasure did not fully show what the saints are to Christ. For the treasure might consist of a hundred thousand pieces of gold and silver. And how would this mark the blessedness and beauty of the Church? The merchant finds "one pearl of great price." The Lord does not only see how precious the saints are. He sees the unity and heavenly beauty of the assembly. Every saint is precious to Christ; but "He loved the church and gave Himself up for her." That is what we see here. I have no doubt that its spirit may be applied to every Christian. But I believe it is meant to set out the loveliness of the Church in the eyes of Christ.
Writers work the same contrast from the side of the materials themselves. A treasure chest can hold a dozen unlike things; a pearl cannot.
The term "treasure" might include gold, silver or any articles of value, and so be of a very mixed nature; but the beauty and value of the pearl depends entirely on its being all of one substance. So we find that in the second parable the merchant is especially said to have found "one pearl of great price."
The image carries its own history. No one mines or mints a pearl. It comes out of deep water, and it costs the life of the creature that made it.
This Church is one — one pearl. The pearl is brought up out of the deep sea. It is taken out of the rough shell that first encased it. And it is taken at the cost of the life of the creature that gave it being. So the pearl is a fitting picture of the Church. She has been drawn out of the sea of Gentile waters, and out of the roughness of her natural condition. It cost the life of Him in whom she was seen and chosen before the foundation of the world.
The next verse says the merchant sold all that he had. Applied to Christ, that word "all" runs deeper than we can measure.
But who can measure how poor He became? To have that pearl, so precious to Him, He sold all that He had. He freely laid aside all the glory of heaven, all the joys of His eternal home, and all that was due to Him there as Creator and God. He took on all the sorrow, suffering, and shame of bearing witness here on earth. And He took all the judgment due to sin — our sin — on the cross. Who can measure that "all"?
On the main point the writers here agree: the buyer is the Lord, and the price He paid was Himself.
- Seeker. The merchant is not the sinner but Christ. A lost person never went hunting for fine pearls, and has nothing to pay with but sins.
- Sight. He alone could value the pearl, seeing what God purposed His saints to be.
- Single. "One pearl" says what treasure could not. Not just precious saints, but one Church, whole and beautiful.
- Sea. The pearl comes from deep water and out of its rough shell, and it costs the life that formed it.
- Sold. He gave up heaven's glory and bore the judgment of the cross — and so the pearl is His.
and having found one pearl of great value, he went and sold all whatever he had and bought it.
A pearl dealer finds one pearl worth more than his whole stock. He sells everything he owns to buy it. Everything in the parable turns on one question: who is the buyer? Is the sinner buying Christ, or is Christ buying what He was looking for?
Commentators here read the merchant as Christ. They argue it from the word "seeking."
It could not be fully said of a man awakening to believe the gospel that he is seeking fine pearls. Here it is one who seeks "fine pearls," which no unconverted man ever really sought. There is no possibility of applying these parables except to the Lord Himself.
The common reading fails at the same point: the buyer must have something to sell.
People usually take the pearl to be Christ, and say the sinner sells all to have Him. Such a thought has no foundation at all in Scripture. What has the sinner to sell? Nothing, unless you count his sins as being worth something, which is worse than folly. The sinner is guilty, defiled, ruined, bankrupt, lost, and dead in sins.
A dealer is no lucky passer-by. He buys by expert judgement.
He knew what he was about. He had taste, discernment, knowledge, about what he sought. It was the well-known beauty of the thing that caused his search... And he buys nothing else along with it... Until He found this pearl, He had no reason to sell all that He had. As soon as He sees it He decides; He gives up everything for it.
The parable just before this one spoke of treasure, which comes in many parts. A pearl is one whole thing.
This stresses the unity of the assembly too, for it is "one pearl of great value." "Treasure," on the other hand, is no doubt made up of various parts, as there are twelve tribes in Israel... The best pearls take long to make, and God's grace has worked for long centuries to do His great work in the assembly. In the end she will be presented to the Lord Jesus as an adornment, to be worn near His heart forever.
A pearl has a strange beginning. It grows out of an injury.
It forms in the depths of the ocean, inside the shell of the pearl oyster, when some foreign matter gets in. The irritation this sets up calls out the best energies of the creature. It cannot throw the intruder out, so it covers it with fine layers of pure pearl. So out of what seemed only evil comes one of the purest, most beautiful and most valuable things in creation.
Writers here apply that picture to the Church herself.
She herself is only the offending object that caused the sufferings and death of the Lord of glory. But she is clothed with radiant beauty, the work of God's sovereign grace and wisdom.
Two details matter here: where this trader came from, and how he sells.
The "merchant" here is literally "a man on a journey," one who has come from far. He had come all the way from heaven's highest glory, down to seek pearls in the depths of the sea of the nations... This is not the word used of the man who sold all to buy the field in verse 44. It is our word piprasko, "to sell as a slave." The Merchantman not only sold all, whatever He had, but He sold Himself as a slave. "He emptied Himself, taking a bondman's form" (Phil. 2:7; the ESV reads "the form of a servant"), and bought the pearl.
The list of what He gave up is a list of things He could have had instead.
To bring peace and righteousness on the earth, to rescue as the second Adam everything the first Adam lost from the grip of the enemy, to have Israel hail Him as king, to sit on the throne of His father David — all these were pearls in Messiah's crown. But to bring many sons to glory, and more, to bind them into one body by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit... THIS is the pearl of great value.
The purchase is not the end of the story. One writer follows the pearl to the city at the end of the Bible.
"The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl" (Revelation 21:21). What first meets the eye as you approach a walled city is its gate. So at every approach the pearl shines out from the surrounding wall of the divine glory. It is the chosen symbol of what the Church was to Christ, and of His own special delight in it as He saw it in eternity.
- Seeker. The merchant travels and searches. No unconverted person goes looking for fine pearls, so the seeker must be Christ Himself.
- Sight. He buys as an expert, not a bargain-hunter — He values the pearl before He owns it, and He buys nothing else alongside it.
- Source. A pearl grows in dark water around an intruder. What looked like pure damage becomes one of the most beautiful things in creation.
- Sale. The word for His selling is the word for selling into slavery: He gave up the throne, the kingdom, and Himself.
- Setting. What He paid everything for shines at every gate of the city. From every direction, all see what she was worth to Him.
Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a seine which has been cast into the sea, and which has gathered together of every kind,
The seventh and last parable of Matthew 13 changes the picture. Fields and seeds give way to the sea, and sowing gives way to fishing. Two questions press hardest. What is the net? And why does it take in fish of every kind, not only good ones?
The Greek word for this net is not the usual one. It appears only in this verse, and it means fishing on a far bigger scale.
Amphiblestron occurs only in Matthew 4:18 and means a casting net. It was thrown around the object, which is where the term came from. The more usual word is diktuon... But the sagene (in Matthew 13:47 only), from sattein, to pack or load, was a dragnet or seine, on a larger scale.
A dragnet is not aimed at one fish. It sweeps everything in its path.
The net stands for the message that goes out, and the sea for the restless mass of humanity it is thrown into.
In this last parable the kingdom is presented as it is in its effects and purpose in the eye of God. It is His purpose to gather out of the world a people for Himself, and the means He uses is pictured as a net cast into the sea. The net is clearly the preaching of the cross of Christ — to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness... The sea is the symbol of the inhabitants of the earth in a state of tumult and lawlessness. And that is very much the state of the world... Within the Christian world you find not only the greatest good on earth, but also the greatest wickedness. There are real and false disciples of Christ.
Another reading takes the sea as the nations — the peoples outside Israel.
If the sea speaks of the nations, then the fish speak of the people in them. In God's purposes, the kingdom of heaven has to do not only with Israel and the church, but with the Gentile nations too.
The net does not screen what enters it. So the catch is mixed. That marks a real difference from the earlier parable of the weeds sown among the wheat.
This is like the parable of the wheat and weeds. In both cases angels do the untangling at the end of the age... But there is also a clear difference. In the earlier parable the wicked are in the world as the result of Satan's sowing. Here "the word of the kingdom" goes out among the nations like a net, and people of all kinds profess to receive it.
"Every kind" is not the same as everyone.
This parable does not assume a work of grace in every soul gathered into the net. Yet the net only gathers a small portion of the fish in the sea. How foolish then to think the whole world will be converted, when a scripture as plain as this says otherwise!
When the net is full, someone must sort the catch. Who does that work?
Who are "they"? We never find the angels gathering the good. They always separate the wicked for judgment. The fishers were men, like the servants in the first parable... The angels' business is always with the wicked; the servants' with the good.
This shapes the work of anyone serving God now.
The Christian worker is busy with the good. He is an agent of the grace that saved him. He leaves the worthless aside for those angels who excel in might... There is no question of a good fish turning worthless or of the worthless rising to good.
Some take the net as the gospel going out today. Others place it at the close of the age.
This is not the gospel net, as it is often called. After the one pearl is taken up, the end of the age begins. This parable falls into the completion of the age. The dragnet is let into the sea, which represents the nations. The parable refers to the preaching of the everlasting gospel as it will take place during the great tribulation (Revelation 14:6-7)... All this cannot refer to the present time nor to the church, but to the time when the kingdom is about to be set up.
- Net. A seine is a wide dragnet, and the word appears only here in the New Testament. It pictures a message thrown out on a scale that catches everything.
- Sea. The water stands for a world in turmoil. The fish are people from the nations, not Israel or the church alone.
- Every kind. People of all sorts profess to receive the word of the kingdom. So the catch holds real and false disciples side by side.
- Not all. The net takes a portion of the sea, never the whole of it — which rules out the idea that the world will all be converted.
- Two hands. Servants gather the good into vessels; angels deal with the wicked. Commentators differ: does the net picture preaching today, or the close of the age?
which, when it has been filled, having drawn up on the shore and sat down, they gathered the good into vessels and cast the worthless out.
A net dragged through the sea catches whatever is in its path. The sorting comes later, on the shore — who does it, what they want, and what happens to what they reject.
The verse never names the people who draw the net and sit down to sort. One commentator answers it from what angels do elsewhere in Scripture. They are always given the opposite job.
Who are "they"? We never find angels gathering the good. They always separate the wicked for judgment. The fishermen were men, like the servants in the first parable. … The angels' business is always with the wicked; the servants' business is with the good. Separating the wicked from among the just is not the fishermen's work at all. And throwing the bad away is not the same thing as the furnace of fire.
The net brings in a mixed catch. Both kinds wear the Christian name, and one writer says telling them apart is a solemn responsibility.
The net has gathered in both good and bad. The good fish are those who have humbly admitted their guilt and ruin, and the Saviour's precious blood has cleansed them from their sins. The bad are those — and how many! — who "profess and call themselves Christians," but have no love for the Saviour's person and no living faith in the gospel. Mistakes in discernment are all too possible. Even so, everyone to whom Christ is more than a mere name carries a solemn responsibility to tell the good from the bad, in godly fear — keeping company with the one and avoiding the other.
So where does the mixture come from?
In the net the mixture came from the work of man. The kinds of fish were distinct, no doubt, but a single labour gathered them all into the net — and that labour was man's, the fishermen's. This is not here a work of the enemy, but the imperfect work of man.
Notice the order. The good go into something. The bad are only thrown out. One action is the aim of the work; the other only clears the way for it.
The fishermen are taken up with the good: they put them into vessels. The bad they only reject and set aside. What is the fisherman after? What does he care about? The good fish. To have them as he wants and intends, he must reject the others along the way. But he does that only so that he may have the good. Beyond that, he has nothing to do with the bad. They are not his concern. They are only in his way: the net was not cast for them. He gathers the good into vessels. Where they go after that is not his business either: his work is to catch them and gather them into vessels apart.
The verse ends their work not with the haul but with the storing. One writer sees in that the shape of serving Christ near the end.
Putting the good into vessels is the closing act of the fishermen. The Holy Spirit gives them the ability to tell the good from the bad. This wisdom was not withheld before. From the beginning, receiving souls into the Church is putting the good into vessels. But the energy of the Holy Spirit in the fishermen makes care for the "good" the mark of the close. Some travel about proclaiming the name of Jesus, then leave those who may have been converted to go wherever they like. They may be doing only what they have power for. But they are not the fishermen who give character to the kingdom of heaven at the close.
The verse puts the good into more than one container, or vessel.
The vessels would represent companies of saints, with nothing in them that points to different sects.
The fishermen do not pick the moment. And other hands handle what comes after.
The fishermen will draw the gospel net to shore when it is full. No one but God knows how soon that will happen, though everything around us suggests the end of the age is near. The fishermen simply throw the bad fish out of the net. They were not the fish they were looking for. And angelic power, not human hands, will deal out God's judgement on those who falsely claim the Christian name.
- Net — the imperfect work of man makes the mixture inside it, not an enemy sowing at night.
- Sorters — "they" are men, like the servants in the first parable. Angels never gather the good.
- Good — those who own their guilt and are cleansed by the Saviour's blood. The bad wear the Christian name with no living faith.
- Vessels — the good are the whole aim. The bad are set aside only so the good can be kept. The vessels picture companies of saints, not rival sects.
- Furnace — being thrown out of the net is not yet the fire; angels, not men, carry out that judgement.
Thus shall it be in the completion of the age the angels shall go forth and sever the wicked from the midst of the just,
The Lord has just told the story of the net full of fish, and now He explains it. Three questions follow: when is "the end of the age," who does the separating, and why are the wicked taken from the just, not the just from the wicked?
The older wording "the end of the world" makes many readers think of the earth burning up. The word is age, and what follows it is a new era, not the end of everything.
In Matthew 13 we find the expression "the end of the world" occurring three times. A reader might suppose that this refers to the end of the world, as the Apostle Peter describes it: "the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed" (2 Peter 3:10). But the correct translation is "the end of the age." So it refers to the close of this present age of God's grace. God will then pour out His judgments on this guilty world, leading up to the Lord setting up His kingdom on this earth for a thousand years, called the millennium.
The direction of the move matters here. The wicked go and the just stay. That is the reverse of what happens when the Lord comes for His own.
This is the clearance of the earth for millennial blessing. When the Lord comes for His own, which 1 Thessalonians 4 sets before us, He removes the saints. Then the wicked will not be severed from the just, but the just from the wicked. The righteous will be taken, and the wicked left. Here it is the reverse of this — the wicked taken and the righteous left... Here, on the contrary, the righteous are those not taken away to inherit heavenly blessing, but left behind to inherit earthly.
In the parable the men on the beach sort the fish. In the explanation the workers disappear and angels take over. They handle only one group.
At the end of the age, the angels will come out and sever the wicked from among the just. They do not gather the just from among the rest, as the fishermen did. They will cast the wicked into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Nothing here says the angels are busy with the just. Gathering them into vessels was not the angels' work, but that of the fishermen. The angels are in both parables occupied with the wicked.
The same event has two halves, and the motive behind each is not the same. One is preservation; the other is punishment.
The fishermen gather the good into vessels, to take care of and preserve them — an act of interest and value. The angels sever the wicked from among the just. The fishermen sought out the good. The angels seek out the bad for punishment, and "cast them into the furnace of fire" — an act of vengeance and wrath.
Not everyone reads the net the same way. Many call it the gospel net at work today. One writer denies that and places the whole scene at a later point.
This is not the Gospel net, as it is often called. This parable falls into the completion of the age... All this cannot refer to the present time nor to the church, but to the time when the kingdom is about to be set up.
If the severing belongs to angels at the end, it is not a task for believers now. People who claimed Christ's name have taken it up anyway.
Some who claimed to be Christ's servants handed over supposed heretics and other spiritual offenders for outward punishment. They did exactly what is forbidden for now... Destructive judgment on Christians in name only is not the servants' work. It belongs to the angels of the Son of Man.
- Age, not world. The phrase means the close of an age. What follows is Christ's kingdom on earth, not the end of everything.
- Views differ. Commentators split over the net: many call it today's gospel work, while another places the whole scene when the kingdom is about to be set up.
- Angels sent. Angels do the severing, and they deal with the wicked alone. Other hands gather the good into vessels.
- Wicked removed. The bad go out and the just stay in place. That is the opposite of the Lord's coming for His own, so it is not the same event.
- Ours meanwhile. Christ's servants are not to hand people over for punishment now. That judgment belongs to the angels.