Here the Lord directs our minds to the essential feature of the kingdom of heaven, namely, the intermingling of good and evil.
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind.” If we consider how many formalists; there are who put the means of grace in the place of grace itself. How many enemies of the cross of Christ, who mind only earthly things and who glory even in their shame. How many impious scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming”! But, also, how many good fish in this net. How many who have found life and peace in that which yet remains of truth in the midst of so much confusion! How many who walk humbly and without display in fellowship with their Lord, often glorifying Him more, in spite of their ignorance of many truths, than some who have much more light.
Is it not often found that schools established to defend the truth and to make laborers capable of spreading it in the world have become a means of substituting theology for the gospel and introducing into the Church many human traditions? On the other hand, who would deny that in them many have found opportunity of acquiring knowledge which they have used in the service of truth?
Missions are, it cannot be denied, helpful in many ways, but have they always been conducted in the spirit of the Lord and of His first disciples, who “for His name’s sake went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles” (2 Jn. 7)? Missions have been used in the salvation of many, and we ought to bless God that a missionary spirit has revived in our time. But, on the other hand, have not missions often spread among the heathen a gospel more or less mixed with error, have they not carried to the ends of the earth the names and sects of our old Christianity? Thus, at all times and in all places, the mixture of truth and error, of good and evil! And this must be till the coming of the Lord, as He Himself incontestably teaches at the conclusion of this parable.
That which in our parables the Lord calls the kingdom of heaven is that condition of things which has arisen through Israel’s rejection of the blessed kingdom which was offered to it. It is now Christendom, that Christendom which calls itself in its ignorance and presumption the kingdom of God. The Lord judges it according to the place which it takes and the name which it gives itself.
The Lord, in His tender solicitude, desired to describe to us this phase of disorder and confusion in His kingdom in order that we, in passing through it, might not be stumbled but might take courage while we remember that it has been predicted, as He said on another occasion to His disciples: “These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them” (Jn. 16:4).
Furthermore, in the midst of the dark picture of the present confusion, the Lord has been careful to let pass before our eyes the brighter points concerning the Church and Israel, that we may be encouraged by the sweet perspective, even as the tired traveler is encouraged by the ray of sunshine which, piercing the dark mists of a winter’s day, causes him to discern in the distance the hospitable roof under which he will rest from fatigue.
Oh! if the children of God had better understanding of their calling in this respect; if they realized it, what blessing for them, what testimony to the world! The day will come when the net will be pulled to shore. The harvest from the sea will be sorted. All accounts will be settled. The true and the false will be separated by the One who knows all things. And the net will soon be full (v. 48). May the Lord keep us anxious for Him.
Hector Bettex was born in Vaud, Switzerland, in 1807. At the age of 19, while studying theology at Lausanne, he was converted during a dangerous illness. He gave himself fully to the gospel, working among the Roman Catholics in Paris, Aix, and Nice, France. He fell asleep at Vevey on April 24, 1879.