Satan opposes the work of God by sowing counterfeit Christians, encouraging false growth, and introducing false doctrine into the church. Often it seems as though he is winning, but the final exposure of who is true and who is counterfeit will be revealed at the end of the age. The Parable of the Wheat and Tares, as spoken by Jesus in Matthew 13:24-30 and explained in verses 36-43, illustrates this deception. It reveals the mixed character of the church, culminating in the ultimate separation of the true believers from the enemies and religious hobbyists at the harvest. In this parable, there are two sowers, two kinds of seeds, and two harvests—one good and one bad. Jesus, as the Son of Man, sows the good seed, representing the true followers, while the enemy, identified as the wicked one and the devil, sows the tares among the wheat. This enemy works in stealth, sowing false doctrine in places where the truth is preached, especially during times of spiritual unawareness, aiming to cause confusion and disrupt peace within the church. The tares, resembling wheat until maturity, represent those influenced by the enemy, appearing as true believers but lacking genuine devotion to God. Their presence is not easily distinguished, as immature wheat and tares look alike, and attempting to remove them prematurely risks uprooting the good with the bad. Jesus instructs to let both grow together until the harvest, when the tares will be gathered and destroyed by fire, while the wheat will be safely stored in God's barn. This parable warns that the visible church on earth will always contain both wheat and tares, the genuine and the counterfeit, intermingled until the end of the age. God alone will judge and separate them at the appointed time, ensuring that no true believer is harmed in the process. The presence of tares serves as a reminder of satan's constant attacks on God's work, yet it is God's will that the wheat endure and bear fruit amidst these challenges.

The second parable in Matthew 13 presents the kingdom of heaven as a field in which a man sows good seed while his enemy secretly sows tares among the wheat. When the servants notice the tares and offer to remove them, the owner instructs them to let both grow together until the harvest, at which time the tares will be gathered and burned while the wheat is brought into the barn. Jesus later explains to the disciples that the field is the world, the good seed represents the sons of the kingdom planted by the Son of Man, and the tares are the sons of the wicked one. This explanation expands the parable's scope beyond the church to the entire world and the physical nation of Israel, where both God and Satan have produced offspring from the beginning. The sons of the kingdom include faithful figures such as Abel, Enoch, and Noah, who must coexist with the offspring of the adversary, exemplified by Cain and later by the Pharisees, whom Jesus identifies as a brood of vipers and children of their father the Devil. The detail that the enemy sows while men sleep underscores the failure of appointed watchmen within Israel, who became oblivious and self-serving, allowing corrupt elements to take root. At the end of the age the tares—those who offend and practice lawlessness—are removed from the kingdom, which encompasses the whole world, while the righteous sons of the kingdom shine forth. This separation applies to all who have lived by faith throughout history rather than only to those after the church's founding, reinforcing that not everyone appearing under God's dominion truly belongs to Him and that the servants must leave the tares undisturbed until the appointed harvest.

No minister can present a yearly report on the ratios of wheat to tares because such distinctions reflect spiritual realities that remain invisible to human measurement. These ratios belong to the same category as the increase of faith, the development of character, and the ripening of the fruit of the Spirit, none of which can be tallied or charted. The inability to quantify wheat and tares underscores why membership figures, income totals, and media reach fail to reveal a church's true condition. The Worldwide Church of God once displayed impressive external markers yet contained an unmeasured proportion of wheat and tares that became evident when doctrinal upheaval arrived and the majority proved unconverted. This outcome illustrates that preoccupation with visible growth leaves a fellowship unprepared for testing, since only God tracks the genuine increase that aligns people with His image. Attention must therefore remain on the spiritual transformation He alone produces rather than on any attempt to calculate or display the balance between wheat and tares.

The Parable of the Wheat and Tares, found in Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43, was spoken by Jesus to illustrate an aspect of church life directly connected to the broader theme of unity and the distinction between the visible and invisible church. The parable reveals the mystery of sin working against the church and the extent to which the evil one is permitted to oppose it, showing that the church's existing mixed character will culminate in a final separation between religious hobbyists and true saints—two distinct groups, one unconverted and one truly converted. In the parable, there are two sowers, two kinds of seed, and two harvests. The good sower is Jesus Himself, the householder and Son of Man, the Creator who made man in His own image. The other sower is Jesus' enemy, called diabolos, meaning the accuser, misrepresenter, liar, and betrayer who opposes all that is true and righteous. This enemy sowed weeds while the servants slept, choosing nighttime for his deceptive work—a detail revealing his sly nature. Significantly, Satan does not sow wicked seed among the wicked but among the good, seeking to cause confusion. The tares, identified as darnel, are nearly indistinguishable from wheat until maturity, making early separation impossible without harming the good grain; only after the wheat matures can the tares be detected, bundled, and destroyed by fire. This imagery explains why many who attend church, pray, and read Scripture like true Christians are nonetheless mere religious hobbyists, called children of the wicked one—not originally his offspring, but shaped under his influence until they become his children in character. The parable exposes how evil intermingles with good not only within congregations but within nations, communities, and homes, reflecting Satan's constant modus operandi. God cannot be blamed for the tares, since He does not sow evil, yet He permits their presence to strengthen His true church. This teaching clarifies why the physical, visible church remains imperfect even though the spiritual church—the true Body of Christ—is perfectly unified through the one Holy Spirit. The physical congregation includes unconverted individuals who value social association or argument over genuine transformation, while the spiritual church consists solely of the redeemed, wheat, the sons and children of the Kingdom, those baptized and indwelt by God's Spirit, having received, understood, and obeyed His Word. The purpose of the parable is not to expose hobbyists prematurely but to warn and enlighten true saints, since God will reveal the bad seed only once the good seed has matured. This warning becomes deeply personal through Christ's words to Peter in Luke 22:31, that he was wheat to be sifted by Satan—a caution for all believers to watch that tares such as bitterness, complaining, or spiritual laziness are not sown within their own hearts. Having been bought at a price and made a new creation through the Spirit, each believer is expected to bear fruit in the corner of the field where Christ has sown him, as part of training and testing for the Kingdom of God. Ultimately, this parable reinforces the larger truth that spiritual unity exists only among the genuinely converted, even while the visible church remains a mixed field until Christ's final harvest.