What does Matthew 13:24 Mean?

Study Notes

parable
This parable Matthew 13:24-30 is also interpreted by our Lord Matthew 13:36-43 . Here the "good seed" is not the "word," as in the first parable Matthew 13:19 ; Matthew 13:23 but rather that which the word has produced. 1 Peter 1:23 , viz.: the children of the kingdom. These are, providentially Matthew 13:37 "sown," i.e. scattered, here and there in the "field" of the "world" Matthew 13:38 . The "world" here is both geographical and ethnic--the earth-world, and also the world of men. The wheat of God at once becomes the scene of Satan's activity. Where children of the kingdom are gathered, there "among the wheat" Matthew 13:25 ; Matthew 13:38 ; Matthew 13:39 . Satan "sows" "children of the wicked one," who profess to be children of the kingdom, and in outward ways are so like the true children that only the angels may, in the end, be trusted to separate them Matthew 13:28-30 ; Matthew 13:40-43 . So great is Satan's power of deception that the tares often really suppose themselves to be children of the kingdom Matthew 7:21-23 . Many other parables and exhortations have this mingled condition in view (e.g.)

Matthew 22:11-14 ; Matthew 25:1-13 ; Matthew 25:14-30 ; Luke 18:10-14 ; Hebrews 6:4-9

Indeed, it characterizes Matthew from Chapter 13 to the end. The parable of the wheat and tares is not a description of the world, but of that which professes to be the kingdom. Mere unbelievers are never the children of the devil, but only religious unbelievers are so called (cf) Matthew 13:38 ; John 8:38-44 ; Matthew 23:15 .

The kingdom .

Verse Meaning

Jesus told the crowds another parable. He literally said, "The kingdom of heaven has become like ..." Matthew used the aorist passive tense, homoiothe. This is very significant because it indicates a change in the kingdom program. The change was a result of Israel"s rejection of Jesus. In all these parables Jesus did not mean that any single person or object in the parable symbolized the kingdom. The narrative itself communicated truth about the kingdom. [source][source]

[source]

"The parable of the wheat and tares is not a description of the world, but of that which professes to be the kingdom ^[1]." ^[2] [source]

Context Summary

The tare was a species of rye grass, which in its earlier stages, closely resembled wheat. In this world, and in the Church, professors are closely mingled with possessors. But there come great times of revealing, in the trials and difficulties of life, and in fact Satan and his angels never sleep. Let us beware of them, but be not afraid: Christ is stronger.

The mustard seed and the leaven represent the extensive and intensive, the outward and inward, the objective and subjective, aspects of Christianity. Sometimes when the Church is reaching its branches to the farthest, its heart is being corrupted by the slow spread of evil. See 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. See what stress our Lord lays on unnoticed beginnings! What seed is smaller than the mustard! Yet it may be the gateway through which Nature may pour her inner energies, forcing the rootlet down and the green shoot up. And it requires but a very small amount of leaven to permeate a large quantity of meal. Bigness is not greatness. Watch the first speck of sin; cherish each grain of holy impulse. [source]

Chapter Summary: Matthew 13

¹  The parable of the sower and the seed;
¹⁸  the explanation of it
²⁴  The parable of the weeds;
³¹  of the mustard seed;
³³  of the leaven;
³⁶  explanation of the parable of the weeds
⁴⁴  The parable of the hidden treasure;
⁴⁵  of the pearl;
⁴⁷  of the drag net cast into the sea
⁵³  Jesus is a prophet without honor in his own country