Bible Devotions

Tares Among the Wheat

"Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.'" (Matthew 13:30)


In Acts 5, the Scripture gives us the sobering story of Ananias and Sapphira. At a time when many in the church were giving selflessly and sacrificially of their resources, this couple made a terrible choice...and paid for their deceit with their lives. Their choice? They could give sacrificially to the early church, or they could give a little. But what they chose to do was the worst thing possible: They decided to pretend they were "giving everything," when in reality they were holding a portion back for themselves.

This was a sin of hypocrisy.

Ananias and Sapphira found out that you can't fool God. It's interesting that the name Ananias means "God is gracious," but he found out that God is also holy. The name Sapphira means "beautiful," but her heart was ugly with sin. It's easy for us to condemn Ananias and Sapphira for their dishonesty. But maybe we need to examine our own lives to see if our profession is backed up by our practice.

The devil loves to counterfeit the genuine. He appears to operate by the adage, "If you can't beat ‘em, join ‘em." He has his tares among the wheat. There are false Christians, false preachers, false teachers, false apostles, and false prophets. There are Ananiases and Sapphiras in our ranks. The Judas Iscariots are out there, too. They go to the same churches that we do, live in the same neighborhoods, and attend the same schools.

But one of these days God, who knows all hearts, will separate the wheat from the chaff and the true from the false. And that, by the way, is His job... not ours.