So Ephesians 6:15 is referring to the Sandals of the Gospel. And as we did with the belt of truth and breastplate of righteousness, we will consider the sandals in three ways.

First, we will look at how the sandals were used by the Roman soldiers in battle. Second, we will consider how Christians are to use them in spiritual battle. Finally, we will learn how Christians can put on the sandals of the gospel as we fight alongside Jesus in spiritual warfare.

The Sandals for the Soldier

The sandals of the Roman soldier were very similar to some sandals you might see today. They were made primarily from leather and were fastened to the feet with leather cords that went around the ankle and partway up the calf.

Upon initial inspection, the sandals appear to be quite flimsy, providing little protection or stability to the soldier. But such was not the case.

The sandals were light and airy, which allowed the feet to breathe and stay cool and dry, even when the soldier marched, worked, or stood guard all day long.

While a soldier might have sore feet after marching 25 miles, they would not have blisters, and they would quickly and easily dry after marching through a stream or river. The leather strips were designed in such a way so that they did not rub or cause sores on the feet, ankles, or calves.

One aspect of the sandals, however, made them essential pieces of armor for the Roman soldier, and this aspect to the sandal set these sandals apart from those that the average Roman citizen might wear around town or in the marketplace.

The Roman soldier sandals were fitted with metal spikes on the bottom of the sole. These spikes helped them maintain their footing. The spikes allowed them to—in the words repeated four times in Ephesians 6:10-14—stand firm in the battle.

Often, the soldiers would be fighting in slick or muddy terrain. The grass and soil might get trampled and become slippery with dew, rain, or blood. The spikes on the bottom of the sandals helped the soldier maintain his footing in battle. It helped the soldier stand firm.

It is similar to the shoes that many athletes wear today. Track, soccer, football, and baseball shoes all have some sort of spikes or plastic knobs on the bottom to help the athlete maintain their speed and footing while playing on the field.

The sandals of the Roman solider provided similar stability. While they sandals did not provide much in the way of protection, they certainly helped soldiers stay on their feet in the midst of battle. After all, a soldier flat on his back because he tripped or slipped is at a great disadvantage to an enemy solider who is still on his feet.

So these sandals had one purpose: to keep the soldier on his feet.

The spikes and studs on the bottom of the sandals were also used as weapons. When enemy soldiers fell before an advancing Roman legion, the Roman soldiers would stomp on the fallen combatants, thereby inflicting greater harm and damage on the soldier, making it much less likely for them to rise up and fight again.

What then are the sandals for the Christian?

The Sandals for the Christian

In Ephesians 6:15, Paul states that the sandals are the preparation of the gospel of peace.

There are three key terms in this phrase that must be considered before we can know what the sandals are for the Christian: preparation, the gospel, and peace. Let us consider the central term first, the gospel.

The word gospel means “good news,” and when it is used on Scripture, it refers to all the good news about Jesus.

The gospel is not just the good news about everlasting life and how to spend eternity with God. The gospel is also about how to live this life now, in friendship and fellowship with God and with each other, and also in fulfillment of who God made us to be. The teachings and example of Jesus show us the truth about all such things.

So the biblical gospel is every truth related to the person, work, and teachings of Jesus Christ, not just about how to gain eternal life, but also how to live our lives now as God wants and desires.

Lots of people get confused about what the gospel is and how to share it with others. That is why there is so much confusion in Christianity today about the nature and message of the gospel.

And while it is true that the gospel is centered on the person, work, and teachings of Jesus Christ, it is essential to recognize that there is one central truth of the gospel which forms the foundation for all other gospel truths.

The one central gospel truth is this: Jesus gives eternal life to those who believe in Him for it.

This truth can be stated in various ways. For example, we could say, as Paul does, that justification is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, or as we read numerous times in the Gospel of John, eternal life is by faith alone through Jesus Christ alone.

The gospel is good news and this is the best news there is. But you must get this central truth firmly set in your mind before the rest of the gospel makes any sense. If this central gospel truth is not firmly planted in your life and theology, the gospel of good news quickly becomes bad news.

You see, there are lots of Christians who think that in order to gain eternal life, or keep eternal life, they have to perform a set of good works.

Some Christians think they have to get baptized, or attend church, or read their Bible and pray every day. Others believe that they have to live a good life and try to obey the Ten Commandments in order to keep their eternal life or prove that they have it.

But as soon as they start to add these sorts of good works to the central promise of the gospel, eternal life is no longer free, but becomes something we have to work for in order to gain or keep.

And when eternal life is something we have to work for, it is no longer attainable, because we can never be good enough, or work hard enough to gain, keep, or prove that we have eternal life.

Eternal life is based solely and completely on the promise of God that He gives eternal life to anyone and everyone who simply and only believes in Jesus for it (cf. John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47). Only by recognizing the freeness of the gospel are we then able to live our lives with assurance, stability, and peace.

This is why Paul calls refers to the gospel as the gospel of peace.

Once we know that we have eternal life through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, peace enters into our lives because we no longer have to worry about where we stand with God.

We no longer have to strive to perform enough good works.

We can know with complete certainty and assurance that we are part of the family of God, that He has accepted us and welcomed us into His family, and that there is nothing we can do to separate ourselves from His love (Rom 8:38-39).

There is great peace in knowing that we are safe and secure in the arms of God.

When you do not know that you are safe, your life becomes filled with doubt and fear, which causes you to stumble and fall into the mud and muck of life. You also become fearful of stepping out in faith to follow Jesus into dark and dangerous places on the battlefield of life.

If you don’t know for sure that you have eternal life, or if you are afraid that there is something you can do which will cause you to lose your eternal life, then you will become immobilized with fear.

But when you know without a shadow of a doubt that you are safe, then you can step out in faith to follow Jesus wherever He leads, because you know that He will never let you fall, that you are safe and secure with Him.

Such knowledge will also allow you to interact with other people in ways that bring peace to their lives also.

Paul calls these sandals the gospel of peace, and this is not just peace with God, and personal peace in your life, but also peace with other people.

Ephesians 2 is all about how Jesus created peace on the cross, not just between God and ourselves, but also between ourselves and all other people on earth. Jesus broke down the religious dividing walls of hostility that exist between various groups of people.

Jesus showed us, through His sacrificial death on the cross, how to die to ourselves and create peace with other people.

So the gospel truly is a gospel of peace. It brings peace to our own lives, and it also creates peace between ourselves and other people.

So the gospel of peace is the good news about Jesus that leads to peace in all areas of our lives.

The third key term, then, is preparation.

Paul writes that we are to shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The sandals are not precisely the gospel itself. Rather, the sandals are the preparation of the gospel.

The preparation of the gospel is accomplished in two ways. We become prepared in the gospel by first knowing what the gospel message is, and then secondly, by preparing and planning to share it with others through our words and our actions.

Just as the sandals helped keep the soldier on his feet in battle, being prepared to share the gospel with others will help you stay on your feet as a Christian.

If you are not really clear what the gospel is, and if you don’t really know how to share the gospel with others, then you don’t really know if you yourself have believed the gospel or if you have believed the right thing, or believed enough.

We must, as Peter writes, always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks to give the reason for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:15).

Just like with the other pieces of spiritual armor, it is not enough to own the sandals, you have to put them on. In order to get firm footing on the slippery ground of life in this world, you need to put on your sandals.

You need to get those steel-studded soldier sandals so that you can have firm footing and not slip around in fear and uncertainty while on the field of battle. And Paul says we put on the sandals by being prepared with the gospel of peace.

You must be prepared by knowing how the gospel impacts your own life, and you must be prepared in knowing how to share and live the gospel with others. This is what we learn in the final section: how to strap the sandals of the gospel on your feet.

Putting on the Sandals

We already know from the previous section what the gospel is, but it is important to elaborate on the gospel a little bit further in order to properly prepare ourselves with the gospel.

The gospel is every truth and concept related to the person, work, teaching, and ministry of Jesus Christ.

This means that there are thousands and thousands of gospel truths. After all, since the entire Bible is somehow related to the person and work of Jesus Christ, this means that every biblical truth is a gospel truth.

Since there are so many gospel truths, this is why the gospel presentations of Christians becomes so garbled. Some Christians prefer to share one set of truths, while other Christians prefer to share a different set of truths.

For example, many Christians like to talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus. And these are good things to talk about, for they are gospel truths (cf. 1 Cor 15:1-8). But other Christians like to get into prophecies about Jesus, or how all people are sinners in need of grace. These too are gospel truths and can be mentioned.

But you can see how it gets confusing for Christians and non-Christians alike. One person shares one set of gospel truths and another person shares a different set, and both claim that they are sharing the gospel.

But if we can focus on one central idea, this helps bring every gospel explanation into proper focus. There is one central gospel truth to which all other gospel truths point, and it is this: Jesus gives eternal life to anyone who believes in Him for it.

Or to state it another way, eternal life is received by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

This is the central truth of the gospel which must always be kept in mind, and which must always be our focus. Once we keep this truth in the center, all other gospel truths flow from it and support it.

So is it true that Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead? Yes. And you can share these gospel truths with people if you want. These truths helps support and defend the idea that the promise of Jesus can be trusted. If Jesus was just any other person, then when He died, He would have stayed dead.

But the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead, proves that Jesus was who He said He was, and is able to offer what He offered, namely, eternal life. The death and resurrection of Jesus proves that Jesus can give eternal life to those who believe in Him for it.

Can we talk about prophecy and human sinfulness? Sure! Prophecy about Jesus helps show that God was planning and preparing the world for the truth that would come through Jesus, which is that we don’t need good works and religion to earn our way back into God’s good graces.

From the very beginning, God predicted and promised that He would send a Messiah who would show the world the one true way back to Him, which is through faith alone in Jesus. Due to our sinfulness, we can never be good enough to work our way into God’s family, so He freely welcomes us into His family when we believe in Jesus.

Do you see how the one central truth of the gospel helps bring clarity to every other truth of the gospel? The truth of eternal life by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone is the central, unifying truth of the gospel which pulls all of the rest of the gospel truths together into a coherent whole.

When you keep this central truth in mind, you can share a lot of other gospel truths with others without sounding like you are speaking gibberish. You can share a lot of truths, or a few truths. You can answer questions and objections they might have. The gospel becomes simple to share with others, because you no longer have to worry if you have shared enough truth or the right truth. You have one simple truth to share, and everything else flows from that.

When you share the gospel with others, keep it simple and keep it scriptural. Share the central gospel truth with others the same way Jesus did. Whenever Jesus told someone about how to receive eternal life, He told them to believe in Him for it. If this was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for us. We do not need to try to change these words or improve upon them. For example, I hear many Christians invite others to do one of the following things:

• Believe and ___________ (Repent, confess, be baptized, etc.).
• Accept Christ as your Lord and Savior.
• Repent of your sins.
• Confess your sins.
• Be sorry for your sins.
• Be willing to give up your sins.
• Confess Christ.
• Follow Christ.
• Accept Jesus as your personal savior.
• Commit/submit/surrender your life to Christ.
• Put Christ on the throne of your life.
• Turn your life over to Christ.
• Give your heart/life to Christ.
• Let go and let God.
• Believe in God.
• Have faith.
• Believe that Jesus died on the cross.
• Ask/invite Christ into your heart/life.
• Pray this prayer.
• Walk an aisle.
• Come forward.
• Raise your hand.
• Sign this card.

Some of those things are good things to do. Some of them are even biblical things to do. But not a single one of those is stated anywhere in the Bible, or ever used by Jesus, Paul, or any other biblical author, as a way to receive eternal life.

In fact, a person can do or believe every single one of the items on that list, and still not believe in Jesus for eternal life.

Some of the items on that list are good works, so when we use them, we are telling people to perform good works in order to receive eternal life.

So when Christians start to use practices and phrases like these as a way to share the gospel, it gets confusing for them and for those who hear us.

Rather than use such muddled messages, let us use the words that Jesus used and simply invite people to believe in Jesus for eternal life. It’s simple; it’s clear; and it’s biblical.

Now, this central gospel truth about eternal life also helps us in our own life. As indicated earlier, it helps keep us on our feet as followers of Jesus. If you don’t know that you have eternal life, then you will be uncertain about what you need to do, or how good you need to be, in order to gain eternal life.

This uncertainty creates much fear and instability in your life.

But once you believe in Jesus, and you know that you have eternal life as a result, you no longer have to worry about whether you are doing enough, or obeying enough, or performing enough good works.

Instead, you can step out in faith to follow Jesus without fear because you know that He will keep you safe and secure, no matter what.

Once we know we have eternal life in Jesus, we can begin to practice all the rest of the gospel truths that are contained in Scripture. After all, if the gospel contains every truth related to the person and work of Jesus Christ, and since many truths related to Jesus are about how to live our life here and now, then this means that the gospel contains many truths about how we are to live.

The gospel is not just about what we believe or what we say, but also about what we do.

But again, if we think that we need to live a certain way in order to gain or keep eternal life, then we will live in constant fear and will never be surefooted on the field of spiritual battle.

But maintaining a hold on the central truth of the gospel, that eternal life is the free gift of God to anyone who believes in Jesus for it, helps us then maintain a proper perspective on the purpose of every other gospel truth. Many of the other gospel truths are given to help us live in this life the way God wants and desires.

When we live out the truths of the gospel, we will get rid of sin in our lives, because sin trips us up and causes us to stumble into the muddy ground at our feet. When we live out the truths of the gospel, we will love our enemies, forgive others, and serve those who mistreat us and abuse us.

In other words, we will be creating pockets of peace in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We will be standing on our feet in the field of battle, living out the truths of the gospel of peace with those who surround us. We will have our feet firmly planted on the ground.

So do you have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace?

You must first know that you have eternal life by faith in Christ.

This will then allow you to know how to simply and clearly share this message with others.

And finally, the clear and central gospel message will enable you to live out the rest of the gospel in your life right now.

This is how you shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Knowing the central truths of the gospel, knowing how to share it with others, and knowing how to live in light of the gospel will greatly aid you in staying on your feet during spiritual battle. It will keep you from becoming muddled and unclear as you bring good news of peace to a world that needs to hear.

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In this study, we are considering the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13:24-30, and specifically what it means when the tares are cast into a furnace of fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Is Matthew 13:40, 42 (Matt 13:50) a warning about hell?

Let’s begin with the specific verses we want to consider:

Matthew 13:40, 42: “Therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. … and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

It is important to first consider the context of Matthew 13.

Matthew 13 contains several parables which have consistently challenged interpreters and Bible students. In fact, even the first hearers of these parables were confused by them, as evidenced by the fact that the disciples asked Jesus to explain the parables to them (cf. Matt 13:10, 36).

As Jesus explains the parables, He also tells His disciples that one reason He speaks in parables is so that people do not understand what He is talking about (cf. Matt 13:15-16).

In other words, Jesus wanted people to be confused by His parables. Why? So that those who wanted to learn what He was talking about would come to Him for an explanation.

Therefore, if you’ve ever been confused by a parable, be encouraged, for you are on the right track. Then allow this confusion to lead you to the feet of Jesus.

Three Keys to Understanding Parables

By doing this, you will come to discover three keys to understanding the parables of Jesus.

First, if Jesus explains some of the symbolism of the parable, this will greatly help in your understanding.

Second, it is critically important to learn the historical, cultural, and theological contexts behind the parables.

What matters most in these parables is not what you and I want them to say, but what the original audience heard and understood Jesus to be saying. This means that if you want to understand these parables, you must get into the mindset of the original audience by seeking to understand their times and culture, how they read the Hebrew Bible, and what sort of concerns and issues were commonly discussed in their day, not ours.

Finally, it is important to recognize that Jesus had a sense of humor.

Many of His stories were told with a twinkle in His eye and a half-smile on His lips. The stories often contain half-jokes, plays on words, and surprising twists and turns that were intended to amuse, delight, and amaze His hearers. His parables used humor to instruct the hearers about what was most important.

Historical-Cultural Background to the Parables in Matthew 13

With these three keys in mind, a few cultural, historical, and theological details will help us better understand what Jesus is saying in Matthew 13 (and in all of His parables).

First, most of Jesus’ parables are about the kingdom of God. Many people today, when they think about the kingdom of God, think about heaven.

But nobody in the days of Jesus thought this. They had daily, negative experiences with the “kingdom of Rome,” and they longed for the promised and prophesied Messiah to come and overthrow Rome so that the kingdom of God could take over.

The kingdom of God, therefore, is the rule and reign of God on earth, here and now as a replacement for the kingdoms of men.

Second, the people to whom Jesus spoke were nearly all Jewish, who had been immersed in the themes and ideas of the Hebrew Scriptures since birth.

Many modern Christians spend little to no time studying the “Old Testament,” and as a result, fail to understand much of what the New Testament teaches. This is especially true with the parables. A deep understanding of Old Testament concepts, imagery, and themes is necessary to understand the parables of Jesus.

Finally, it is critical to recognize that the parables of Jesus were politically and religiously subversive, but not primarily against Rome, as the Jewish people wanted and expected.

His parables were subversive to the politics and religion of Judaism. This is one of the reasons Jesus didn’t want everyone to understand what He was saying. If people among the Jewish political and religious ruling class understood what Jesus was saying, they would have crucified Him much sooner than they did. If we fail to grasp the subversive and dangerous elements in the parables of Jesus, we have likely misunderstood them.

So with all of this in mind, Matthew 13 contains seven parables about the kingdom of God, which is also called the kingdom of heaven.

And despite the popular teaching that is found in some Christian circles today, not a single one of these parables is about how to go to heaven when you die, or how to tell if you are truly a Christian.

The Seven Parables of Matthew 13 are not about the afterlife at all.

Instead, all seven are about the nature, character, birth, and growth of the kingdom of God on earth.

For example, the Parable of the Four Soils (Matt 13:1-8) is not about who is a Christian and who isn’t, or how to determine who gets to go to heaven and who doesn’t. The parable is about how different people respond to the teachings about the kingdom (Matt 13:19). Any believer or unbeliever can be any one of the four soils.

Note as well, by the way, the humor in the Parable of the Four Soils. This sower went out and scattered seed all over the place, willy-nilly, not caring where the seed landed. Seed was valuable, and no sower in that day would have been this careless. But apparently, God is careless with the truths of the kingdom, scattering them all over the place without much concern for where they land. It is not very “efficient,” but God has never cared much for efficiency.

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30)

All of this helps us grasp the meaning of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13:24-30 and the explanation by Jesus in Matthew 13:36-43.

By understanding this parable, we will discover a surprising truth about the fire mentioned in Matthew 13:42 (and Matthew 13:50) and the identity of the ones who are burned in this fire.

Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sows good seed in his field (Matthew 13:24). The kingdom of heaven, of course, is not heaven, but is the way God brings heaven down to earth as Jesus and His disciples spread the rule and reign of God over the earth. It begins with the sower spreading seed. But an enemy comes and sows bad seeds in the field, so that a bunch of weeds, or tares, spring up among the wheat.

The seed that Jesus refers to should be read in light of the first parable of Matthew 13, the Parable of the Four Soils.

There, Jesus teaches that the seed is the Word of God. But here in Matthew 13 we see that there are two types of seeds that can be scattered. There are the seeds of kingdom, and the seeds of the devil. These are two contrasting kingdoms, which result in two contrasting types of people.

But initially, when the seeds first begin to sprout, there is great difficulty in deciding between the wheat and weeds.

When the servants discover the weeds, they ask how the weeds came to exist and what the owner wants to do about them (Matthew 13:25-27).

This is where some humor enters into this parable. As anyone who has ever had a field (or even a flower garden) knows, one does not need an enemy to sow bad seeds for weeds to pop up and grow.

So when Jesus describes an enemy sowing bad seeds in the owner’s field, His audience would have likely snickered a little bit. No enemy would work so hard to ruin a crop. If an enemy really wanted to ruin someone’s crop, there were better and easier ways to do it.

But the enemy in the parable does sow bad seeds in this story, which not only shows his own foolishness, but also provides a humorous backdrop for the rest of the story.

Many commentaries and articles point out that the bad seed in the field is most likely darnel, which looks exactly like wheat until harvest time. It is a mimic weed. This is why the owner of the field tells his servants to just let the two plants grow side by side until harvest (Matthew 13:27-30).

Prior to harvest, it would be nearly impossible to tell the two apart, and so any attempt to remove the darnel would likely result in the loss of wheat as well. Once harvest arrives, wheat turns golden and the heavy heads of grain droop down toward the ground, but darnel tends to remain greener for longer and will continue to stand upright.

Since wheat and darnel appear so identical, the presence of the tares in the field goes unnoticed until the grain begins to “go to crop,” or develop a head. This is why the servants only notice the tares once the wheat begins to mature (Matthew 13:26).

So they ask the owner if he wants them to pull out the tares, but since wheat and darnel look quite similar to each other prior to full maturity, the owner tells his servants to leave the weeds alone and let them grow along with the wheat.

At harvest, the reapers will go through and gather the tares, and then they can harvest the wheat (Matthew 13:30). The tares are thrown into the fire to be burned.

One of the reasons it was necessary to first harvest and then burn the tares is because darnel can be deadly to livestock and humans if consumed in large quantities. Smaller quantities will cause dizziness if baked into bread or brewed with beer.

In fact, there are historical records of people actually cultivating darnel for this very reason, treating it like an ancient form of cannabis. But if too much is consumed, darnel can cause great sickness and even death.

The Explanation of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:36-43)

Thankfully, this is one of the parables that Jesus explained.

When Jesus explains this parable to His disciples, He begins by identifying the various characters in the story.

He says that the sower is the Son of Man (Matthew 13:37), which is one of Jesus’s favorite titles for Himself. The field which the sower plants is the world, and so the good seeds that go out into the world are the sons of the kingdom (Matthew 13:38). The tares are therefore the opposite of the sons of the kingdom; Jesus calls them the sons of the wicked one. The enemy is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels (Matthew 13:38).

Now each of these characters need to be more carefully explained, but first, it is critical to notice that there is one set of characters Jesus does not identify.

This missing identification is the key to the parable.

Who is it that Jesus does not identify? It is the servants.

Jesus does not explain who the servants represent.

I have heard some say that the servants are the reapers, but when the owner is speaking to the servants, he clearly identifies the reapers as a different group (cf. Matthew 13:30).

So who are the servants? Who do the servants represent?

The solution to this problem is to return to the image of the field as the world.

The Son of Man sowed seeds in the field, and the servants went out and worked in the field. Since the field is the world, and Jesus is the one who sowed the seeds in the world, then the servants are the ones who tend, cultivate, and work in the fields. Who are they?

They are the followers of Jesus. They are disciples.

The servants in the story are the Christians. Christians, or followers of Jesus, are those who work in the world to grow and expand the kingdom of God which Jesus planted and initiated.

But if the servants are Christians, then who are the “sons of the kingdom”?

Jesus says the seed is the sons of the kingdom. But if the servants are Christians, then the sons of the kingdom (the seed) cannot also be Christians.

To put it another way, since the servants are the followers of Jesus, then this means that the sons of the kingdom must be someone else. And when we understand the identity of the sons of the kingdom, we will also understand the identity of the sons of the evil one (which might be better translated as “sons of wickedness”; Matthew 13:38).

If the Servants are Christians, then who are the Sons of the Kingdom?

To understand the identity of both, it is first necessary to understand how the word “son” is used in Scripture.

Typically, a “son” is understood to be a child of someone else. But the word “son” can also be used metaphorically. When the word “son” is used in connection to a concept or idea, instead of to a person or family, it refers to the characteristics or inner attributes of someone, rather than to the person themselves.

So “sons of this world” are contrasted with “sons of light” in Luke 16:8 (cf. John 12:36; 1 Thess 5:5). A student or disciple of the Pharisees could be called a “son of the Pharisees” (Matt 12:27; Acts 23:6). Scripture can also speak of “sons of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36), “sons of this age” (Luke 16:8; 20:34), “sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2; 5:6), “sons of the devil” (Acts 13:10) and numerous other similar terms.

Such descriptions are not literal (a son of the devil is not literally the biological offspring of the devil), but are instead figurative and symbolic ways of referring to someone’s character and behavior.

So who are the sons of the kingdom and the sons of wickedness, and how can we tell? One more contextual key is needed before an answer is discovered.

In the context before these seven parables of Matthew 13, the Jewish religious leaders accused Jesus of operating according to the power of Beelzebub (Matthew 12:24). Jesus responds with a teaching full of symbolism and imagery (Matthew 12:25-37) that shows up again in the parables of Matthew 13. He speaks of kingdoms (Matthew 12:25, 28), sons of the Pharisees (Matthew 12:27), gathering and scattering (Matthew 12:30), this age and the age to come (Matthew 12:32), and the fruitfulness (or lack thereof) of various trees (Matthew 12:33-37).

All the parables of Matthew 13 must be read in light of this confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. While they were accusing Him of doing the devil’s work, He responded by saying that it was not Him, but they, who were committing blasphemy and speaking evil from their hearts (Matthew 12:35).

But how could the onlookers, the disciples, tell who was right?

They had grown up being taught to love, respect, and listen to the religious Pharisees. But now they loved, respected, and listened to Jesus.

Yet the Pharisees were saying that the teachings of Jesus were from the devil, and now Jesus was saying the same thing about the teachings of the Pharisees. So what were the disciples to do? How could they know who was right and who was wrong?

If you have ever had two Bible teachers, both of whom you greatly respect, disagree with each other, then you understand the dilemma of the disciples.

How were they to choose between Jesus and the Pharisees?

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares is the answer to their question.

In this parable, Jesus, the Son of Man, tells His servants, the disciples, that two types of seeds have been sown which result in two types of sons of two types of kingdoms. But which was which and how could they know?

Jesus tells His disciples to wait until the harvest “at the end of this age” (Matthew 13:40).

But this is not helpful for them if the end of the age is thousands of years in the future when the new heavens and new earth are created.

So what if “this age” was the age in which Jesus and His disciples were living, and the age to come was the age that followed (cf. Matthew 12:32)?

Indeed, Scripture indicates in numerous ways and places that a new age did indeed come into existence with the death and resurrection of Jesus and the birth of the church. The death and resurrection of Jesus gave birth to a new age, the age of the kingdom of God, the church age.

There were birth pains and many travails as the old age died and the new age began (as Jesus discusses in Matthew 24–25), but the resurrection of Jesus and the birth of the church was the sign that the new age had begun.

Jesus tells His disciples that while it is difficult for them to decide between the wheat and the tares right now, it will become clear to them at the harvest.

Though they had trouble deciding between the way of Jesus and the way of the Pharisees, the end of the age would make it clear when the messengers of God arrived and took away the tares.

Here we have the religiously subversive nature of the parable.

The disciples of Jesus are faced with a choice: they can either follow the way of Jesus or the way of the Pharisees. Jesus tells them that they don’t need to figure it out.

In fact, it would be dangerous for them to try to do so, for they will not be able to properly and perfectly tell the difference between the good teaching and bad.

Instead, they should just wait for the harvest and let the reaping angels separate the wheat from the chaff.

And this is indeed what happened in 70 AD.

The way of the Pharisees was destroyed when Jerusalem and the temple were burned with fire.

This does not mean that the Pharisees and all who followed their teachings were unregenerate sinners who will spend eternity burning in hell. Everlasting torture in hell is not anywhere in view with this parable.

To the contrary, the “furnace of fire” imagery is drawn from Daniel 3:19-25 where Daniel’s friends are thrown into a furnace of fire, but only their bonds are burned as they walk around in the flame with one shining like the Son of God. (As a side note, the “Son of Man” imagery is drawn from Daniel 7:13-14, and the imagery of the righteous shining like the sun in Matthew 13:43 is drawn from Daniel 12:3).

It can be assumed that when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman army, many Christians were also consumed by the flames. But Christianity survived, as it was not (and is not) dependent upon a city, a temple, or a priesthood.

Yet the Jewish Pharisaical religion was dependent upon such things, and so it died out when Jerusalem fell.

And so we see that the burning of the chaff in the furnace of fire is not about God sending people to hell where they will burn forever and ever. Instead, it is about the disciples of Jesus allowing God to be the one to judge between right and wrong, good and evil, especially when it comes to deciding between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the Pharisees.

As a result of the events in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve tried to gain for themselves what should be left up to God, we humans have always done a poor job of judging between good and evil.

So God invites us to leave all such judgment up to Him. And this is what Jesus tells His disciples to do as well.

So the Tares are NOT “sent to hell”

This parable, therefore, is not about how God sends wicked people to burn forever in the furnace of hell, but is instead about how the disciples of Jesus should allow God alone to make judgments between good teaching and bad teaching, and allow His angels to burn up the bad teaching “at the end of this age.”

This is what happened with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD.

But what about the Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth?

Some may object that the description of weeping and gnashing of teeth from Matthew 13:42 indicates that Jesus does indeed have hell in mind.

The phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” occurs six times in Matthew (8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30), once in Luke (13:28), and nowhere else in the New Testament.

Matthew’s six uses of this phrase are all in reference to those who are “part of the family,” that is, those who belong to God.

In Matthew 8:12, it refers to those who are sons of the kingdom. In Matthew 13:42, it refers to those who were gathered out of God’s kingdom, indicating that they were in it to begin with. In Matthew 13:50, the image is of two types of people caught in the same net (which is a symbol of the kingdom of God), and one type is pulled out and experiences this weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Matthew 22:13, the phrase describes a man who is actually at the wedding banquet. And in both Matthew 24:51 and Matthew 25:30, it is used in connection to the experience of a servant who did a poor job serving his master.

What this seems to indicate, therefore, is that the weeping and gnashing of teeth does not refer to the tortured experience of unregenerate people in hell, but instead to the experience of some people who belonged to God in some way and should have known what He expects of them and how they are to live.

While this can refer to believers who might have a negative experience at the Judgment Seat of Christ or who experience the discipline of God in this life (cf. Matthew 8:13), it can also refer to Jewish people who should have known that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

The phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” therefore, has nothing whatsoever to do with hell.

It is instead a graphic and descriptive middle-eastern way of expressing profound regret and shame, and maybe even fury.

The weeping and wailing speaks of “extreme loss, not so much of actual pain” while the gnashing or grinding of teeth could refer to fury and anger directed at someone else (see Fudge, (#AmazonAdLink) The Fire That Consumes, 171).

Hell is not in view in Matthew 13:40, 42

When we read in Matthew 13:42 (and later in 13:50) about the tares being cast into the furnace of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, we should not read this as an image of God casting people into everlasting flames of hell where they scream and wail for all eternity at the painful suffering inflicted upon them.

Instead, Jesus is saying that when judgment comes after the end of the age (which ended at the resurrection of Jesus), the good and bad teachings will be made clear because one set will survive and the other will be burned up.

This judgment occurred in 70 AD when the city of Jerusalem, along with the Jewish temple, was destroyed and burned by the Roman military.

On that day, there were not only flames and fire, but also much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The Burning of the Tares in History

The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, in his history of the destruction of Jerusalem, writes that in the time right before the Roman military attacked and burned the city and the temple, chariots and soldiers were seen to be running around in the clouds around Jerusalem, and voices from heaven were heard calling for the removal of the city.

It sounds like fiction, and Josephus admits as much, but he also says that many people witnessed these events and told him about them. Here is what he writes:

Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the temple,] as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, “Let us remove hence” (Josephus, (#AmazonAdLink) The Wars of the Jews, 6.5.3.)

Could it be that these were the angels whom Jesus prophesied about in Matthew 13:39-41, who were sent to separate the wheat from the chaff at harvest time?

Conclusion

The parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43 is not about God sending sinners to hell to burn for all eternity.

It is instead a prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish religion (as practiced in that day), and how the disciples of Jesus should not seek to judge or decide between right and wrong when it came to the teaching of Jesus or their own Jewish traditions.

They should instead allow God and the angels to make this separation on their own, which is what happened in 70 AD.

Do you have more questions about hell? Are you afraid of going to hell? Do want to know what the Bible teaches about hell? Take my course "What is Hell?" to learn the truth about hell and how to avoid hell. This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

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