The World and the Word

                                                    The Wheat and the Chaff

In Matthew 15:12-20, Jesus taught about the evil in men's hearts that "defile the man." This "man" must be clean in order to be defiled. That which is already defiled can only be further defiled. By His use of the word "man," Jesus spoke about the clean soul and spirit that God created and put into every man. Genesis 1:27. This image of God in man can be stained by sin, but it can never be diminished by sin because God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:29. Every human system has two natures; that is, the image of God and an evil nature that is foreign to their systems.

In verse 13, Jesus taught that God will eventually purge every evil nature that exists in every human. Jesus said "every plant," not some plants. By His use of the phrase "every plant," Jesus implied that God has His own plants. God's "plants" are His images that He has put into every human who ever lived, and every "plant" that He has not planted, He will eventually purge from every human who ever lived. God will purge the evil natures of all humans confined within the regions of death by the use of His consuming fire and resurrect their living souls and spirits at the Great White Throne Judgment in the end of the world. God will burn up all of His polluted creations, and He will recreate a new, righteous human race to live in His righteous, recreated earth. I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; II Timothy 4:1; II Timothy 1:10; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22.

In verse 14, Jesus told His disciples to leave the Pharisees alone because they were too spiritually blind to understand His teachings. Jesus had the authority to instruct His disciples to do this. But His instruction does not conflict with His great commission to His Church as recorded in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus' command to His Church is similar to a general who tells his army that they all must work together as a team in order to win a war. Jesus' command pertains mostly to preaching and teaching to crowds regardless of whether they contain potential believers or unbelievers. The Spirit of Christ now commands the Church, and He can command His believers to witness or not witness as He wills. This condition means the Holy Spirit holds all authority to instruct an individual believer as to whether or not that believer should witness on any particular occasion. For example, if a believer sits down by a person on a bus, then he should certainly witness to that person if the Holy Spirit tells him to witness, but he should not witness if the Holy Spirit tells him not to witness. Just like Jesus, the Holy Spirit knows who will hear a witness and who will not. The Holy Spirit's instruction comports with God's command to believers in Proverbs 26:4-5.

But in order for a particular believer to be able to spiritually hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, he must be in constant tune with the Holy Spirit. He must pray without ceasing in his spirit. I Thessalonians 5:17; Romans 8:26. He must confess his sins and repent every day. He must read his Bible (KJB) and pray and ask God to give him strength to avoid sin. He must yield his life to the control of the Holy Spirit and love his neighbor, even his enemies. Galatians 5:22-26; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 5:44. The believer must "Pray without ceasing" as I Thessalonians 5:17 commands. But when the believer objects that this command is quite impossible because of the weakness of his flesh, the Holy Spirit will remind him of Romans 8:26 where He prays for him without ceasing.