Good Seed and Weeds

This morning I went for a 15 mile bike ride through the country side near our small town of Louisburg, KS.  As I rode by Corn and Hay fields I noticed that every now and then instead of Corn or Hay I saw a Weed growing.  Have you ever wondered why a farmer doesn't go out and pluck each weed that he sees?

The answer is found in one of Jesus' parables.  Matthew 13: 24-30 

24-26 He told another story. "God's kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too. 

 27 "The farmhands came to the farmer and said, 'Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn't it? Where did these thistles come from?' 

 28 "He answered, 'Some enemy did this.' 

  "The farmhands asked, 'Should we weed out the thistles?' 

 29-30 "He said, 'No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'"

The Kingdom currently is found in the church (the body of Christ) which is a body of people who are imperfect and flawed just like everyone else.  Sometimes it is necessary to pluck up a weed that is choking a plant and the same is true in the church.  On the most part the church should be a place for sinners to come and find people and pastors (shepherds) who will lead them out of their sin.  Leading is not condemning them for their sin but guiding them through discipleship out of their sin.  Now and then it is necessary to pluck an unrepentant person because he or she will influence the whole body.  When this is done it must be done through much prayer and with a hope of repentance not with condemnation.

So the church is like the farmer's fields that I rode by this morning.  Most of the people are like the good plants the farmer planted but others are like the weeds that have grown up within the field.  We have to remember one day we were a weed but God used us being planted among good plants to change our DNA.  At the end of the age and the harvest comes the weeds will be gathered by Jesus and separated from the good plants. Matthew 25: 31-46

As a pastor I am not to tolerate sin but I am to guide a sinner out of it.  Driving a sinner out of the church without attempting to guide him or her would not be fulfilling what God has called me to do.