One subtle temptation that has swept through the church today is that of tare pulling. They are so many Christians today who have made ‘exposing’ men of God, whether pastors, bishops, prophets, ministers or simply professing believers, their ‘ministry’. I call them the self-imposed church police and they work up quite a sweat online attacking men of God, mostly popular ones, with reckless abandon believing they are doing the church a huge favor by purging her of ‘false prophets and/or teachers’.
These guys’ content pull in millions in online views as Christians and non-Christians alike hook themselves to their content in an attempt to stay abreast of all the ‘fake’ men of God they need to steer clear of.
This however is not heaven’s method of dealing with tares and the truth is, the Holy Spirit is not the spirit behind these so-called ministries. These are simply human/flesh exercises in futility as Jesus points out in the parable of the wheat and the tares.
In Matthew 24:30, the Bible says:
“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 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.”
The Bible goes on to say in Matthew 36-43:
Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Now, notice a few things:
1) It’s not the servants (we) who do the tare pulling, but the reapers (angels).
2) The tare pulling is not done until the day of harvest (end of the world).
3) Both the wheat and the tares grow together until the day of harvest.
4) The idea to pull out the tares before the day of harvest is the servants' not the field owner's and it is not one the field owner endorses. Infact, he gives strict instructions against it. This means God is not the one behind this tare pulling crusades. Infact, He is against them.
In truth, God has not entrusted the work of tare pulling to believers, not to mention, it’s not yet time for it. So as much as tare pulling might seem like a noble cause, it’s not the right time for it and God has not tasked nor equipped us to do it. Infact, it’s a dangerous undertaking for any believer and here are 4 reasons why.
1) Mistaken identity
Many self-imposed church police in an attempt to pull out the tares are busy pulling out the wheat as well branding sound men of God false prophets and teachers because of a few things they disagree with as far as their doctrine is concerned. What these guys forget however is that no man of God is infallible. Anyone can miss it. This is why we should be like the Bereans who ran everything through Scripture (see Acts 17:11). We need to learn to bring our Bibles and brains along when we come to church.
However, just because a man of God is not doctrinally sound on something doesn't mean we should throw the baby out with the bath water.
Moreover, these self-imposed church police need to also realize that they are not custodians of Bible interpretations, which means they can be wrong as well and so can any of us.
I believe one of the reasons God has not entrusted us with the job of tare pulling is because only He can truly weigh a man's heart. We on the other hand can make serious judgment errors. We are not the Holy Spirit.
The worst thing you can do is make the mistake of branding genuine preachers and believers fake and drag them through the mud. God will not take that lying down. God considers an attack on His children an attack on Him.
When Jesus confronted Paul (formerly Saul), on the road to Damascus, for persecuting believers, He did not say, "Why are you persecuting believers?", He said, "Why are you persecuting Me?" (see Acts 9:4). God takes these attacks personally and you'd not want to be one of those fighting against God and His work. It's a dangerous losing battle. This is something even unbelievers understand (see Acts 5:34-39).
We need to borrow a leaf from Paul, Priscilla and Aquila. Paul for one did not brand Peter a false prophet when he confronted him about his behaviour in Galatians 2:11-21. Priscilla and Aquila on the other hand, did not start a YouTube channel and slander Apollos for not having it all together doctrinally. Instead, they took him aside and corrected him in love (see Acts 18:26).
Both Peter and Apollos despite their mistakes, were still very sound men of God. To think of them, speak of them or regard them in any way contrary to how God thinks of them, speaks of them and regards them is tantamount to persecution.
We need to be very careful who we brand false prophets/teachers because God will hold us accountable for this one day. My advice, don't do it at all and don't subscribe to people who do this type of foul business.
2) Distraction
Now I admit, there are cases where our concerns regarding certain men of God are genuine. Judging by the things they say and/or the things they do, it is clear that these men of God are wayward and not being led by the Holy Spirit. But even so, exposing them is not part of our job description as believers. For one, we did not call them. Moreover, trying to do so is a distraction from our core mandate which is not tare pulling but seed planting. The great commission is not pulling out tares but preaching the gospel and making disciples (see Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15).
The only way to deal with falsehood/deception is to preach the unadulterated truth of the gospel so that people are better equipped to guard themselves against it. This was the same strategy Jesus and the disciples employed. They did not go around character assassinating false prophets and calling them all manner of names in an attempt to rid the church of them. Doing so would be akin to fighting evil with evil. The only way to fight evil is with good. We fight the deception of the enemy with the light of the gospel. That's the biblical way. It is the truth that sets people free.
3) Division
Tare pulling online crusades cause no small stire among believers today considering we live in a teacher-centric culture that promotes an unhealthy dependence on men of God such that we play favorites with them. This is a problem Paul had to confront in the church at Corinth (see 1 Corinthians 3).
The problem with this however is when we feel our 'favourite' men of God are unjustly or falsely accused, our natural knee jerk reaction is to pick up arms and rush to their defense. This inturn causes a ton of divisions in the body of Christ which the enemy is more than happy to exploit just like he did with the church at Corinth.
4) Depravity
Engulfing yourself in tare pulling inevitable leads to a heart deprivation. It fills your heart with anger, hatred and bitterness towards your fellow brothers and sisters in the faith. Like Paul says in Romans 10:2, you develop a zeal for God but not according to knowledge and like Paul before his conversion, you go about breathing murder against fellow disciples believing you are doing God a favor.
The truth is, the cost of tare pulling to your soul far outweighs any benefits. I don't know about you, but everytime i bowed to the temptation of watching people shred men of God to pieces in their videos, 100% of the time i left less edified and more hateful and prejudiced towards the said men of God such that i could no longer receive or be blessed by them. This is the devil's agenda. To discret sound men of God and in so doing, discredit their message and keep us from the truth.
How many times do we dismiss preachers because of what people said about them and not because we listened to them and judged them for ourselves?
We'd rather take the word of others, who are clearly biased towards them, than take time to prayerfully judge them and their message for ourselves. This is sad.
Personally i've been blessed by listening to men of God who i would otherwise not have listened to had i subscribed to all the hate directed towards them.
I chose to prayerfully judge them and their messages for myself and not allow my opinions of them to be second hand opinions or verbally transmitted opinions.
As believers, we must always walk in love even towards those we disagree with and not allow our hearts to be clouded by anger, hatred and bitterness towards anyone.
That said, this is not a dismissal of correction or discipline in the church. Men of God still have to be accountable. No one is above reproach. However, there is a way to go about it as Jesus highlights in Matthew 18:15-17.
Bottom line, we need to stop concerning ourselves with pulling out tares as believers and stick to our core mandate.
Jesus said both the wheat and the tares will grow together. In other words, the kingdom God will get stronger but so will the kingdom of the devil until our Lord’s second coming. We cannot eradicate all the tares in this world. That's a pipe dream.
However, we can comfort ourselves in the fact that Jesus taught that it will never get to a point where the tares take over the wheat. Infact, the growth of the tares does not hinder the growth of the wheat. Jesus said I will build my church and the gates of hades will not prevail against it (see Matthew 16:18).
Alot of believers fear the church is on it’s way out and it’s a dying 'organization'. Well, not the church i belong to. The church of Jesus, which i belong to, is growing bigger and bigger and faster than ever before. Infact, tens of thousands get born again every single day. On average 3 bibles are sold every second. That translates to over 90 million bibles every year. The Youversion Bible app, the most downloaded Bible App in the world, has been downloaded more than 500 million times.
Dying 'organization' ? I think not!
God bless you.
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