Matthew 13:37

And he answered and said, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.

The identity of the one who sowed the good seed is plain. It is Christ. The problem concerns the true meaning of "the field." Christ said the field is "the world," and from this it is alleged that the parable has no reference to prohibitions against the disciples' exercise of discipline against members of the church. Note, however, that authority for church discipline does not require any support from this parable, since it stands on more than sufficient authority mentioned otherwise throughout the New Testament. Besides, gathering tares into bundles to burn them is far too strong a figure for church discipline and has even less application to proposed activities of disciples without and beyond the confines of the church, namely, "in the world." Therefore, to make "the world" in Christ's explanation to mean the unregenerated portion of humanity would mean that Christ here forbade his disciples to exterminate unregenerates, a temptation which it is very unlikely any disciples ever had. It is possible that the "world-wide church" is intended or meant by this, a view supported by the fact that Christ said, "The kingdom of heaven is like" this, and also from the statement in Matthew 13:41 that the angels shall gather "out of his kingdom," indicating that purging tares out of the kingdom is actually the thing under consideration.

More bitter controversies have been waged over this portion of the Scriptures than over any other, with the exception, perhaps, of "this is my body"! Some fierce upholders of purity in the church have applied the prohibition against tare pulling to the purging of those without, namely in "the world" and have proceeded to arrogate to themselves the business of gathering the tares into bundles and burning them - even doing so literally in the case of thousands of heretics burned at the stake! Others have taken a different view and have made this parable an excuse to contain within the church every evil thing on the basis that to remove them would root up the wheat also! Neither view, it appears to this writer, is correct.

We have seen that the mild and loving discipline to be exercised by the church of our Lord is amply provided for in other New Testament writings, apart from this parable; and, it seems, what is forbidden here is exactly the thing that was done in the brutal, savage excommunications so characteristic of the church of the Middle Ages, which mounted the Spanish Inquisition and many other diabolical institutions upon the pretense of purifying the church.

It is in this frame of reference that the view is held which makes "the field" the church in the whole world. It appears that Christ did not give this parable to warn his disciples against casting "out of the world," but "out of the church," since it is only in the church that any such power, opportunity, or temptation exists for disciples to do any casting out. It is freely confessed that there are difficulties in this view, but they seem less insurmountable to this expositor than some of the difficulties inherent in the other view which, in effect, removes any prohibition against tare pulling within the church itself.

Thus, it may be said that this parable puts a terminator on church discipline in that there is a point beyond which it cannot go. Plucking up, binding into bundles - this is not allowed to Christians, however urgent the considerations of discipline. The wretched history of both Catholicism and Protestantism points up the wisdom of this restriction. With Richard Trench, we hold this parable to be primarily a prohibition against using "violent means for the suppression of error."[6]

Aside from the area of widest controversy, mentioned above, the parable is laden with many other significant and helpful teachings.