Set Apart

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

2 Corinthians 6:17, KJV

The wheat and the tares

Jesus told of a farmer who sowed good seed, and of an enemy who came by night and sowed tares among the wheat. When the servants saw the weeds, they asked, "Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest" (Matthew 13:28-30).

The tares were probably darnel, a weed that looks almost exactly like wheat until the grain appears. That is the point of the parable. Real and false grow side by side in this world, and even in the church, and they can look alike for a long time. Jesus explains that the harvest is "the end of the world" and that "the reapers are the angels" (Matthew 13:39), not the servants.

So the parable gives two instructions at once. Know that tares are real. And do not appoint yourself the reaper. Separating wheat from tares is God's work, at the harvest.

Known by their fruits

If we are not to uproot the tares, we are still told to recognise false teachers. "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:15-16). John says, "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1).

Fruit takes time to show, and it is seen in character more than in knowledge. Paul warned of people "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" (2 Timothy 3:5), and of a time when people "will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears" (2 Timothy 4:3). A teacher who knows many verses but sows fear, pride, division or contempt for others is showing his fruit. So is one whose predictions fail: "if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken" (Deuteronomy 18:22).

Test yourself by the same rule. The fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22-23), and "though I… understand all mysteries, and all knowledge… and have not charity, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:2).