A Numbers Game

Mat 13:27 And coming near, the slaves of the housemaster said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Then from where does it have the darnel?
Mat 13:28 And he said to them, A man, an enemy did this. And the slaves said to him, Do you desire, then, that going out we should gather them?
Mat 13:29 But he said, No, lest gathering the darnel you should uproot the wheat with them.

In a culture of abundance - even overabundance - we have learned that a certain amount of waste is to be expected. We play the numbers and decide that as long as we have a harvest of plenty, we can absorb a certain amount of loss. This is not a Kingdom principle, and Christians need to forget it. In the Kingdom, the wheat is what we are after. These are the souls of people. The 'darnel' or tares are the plants the enemy has sowed in our midst to cause disruption, division, and chaos. Our primary reaction is to rid ourselves of these immediately, if not sooner. But Jesus said that at all costs this is not to be done. Losing a piece of wheat is not acceptable by Kingdom standards.

Remember what took place after Jesus fed the multitudes: all the remnants were taken up. There is no waste in the Kingdom. This becomes an issue of stewardship, ultimately, and we will be graded upon our ability to understand and act upon what Jesus taught and demonstrated. After all, Jesus knew Judas was a villain from the beginning. But He did not separate Himself from Judas, nor did He worry about what damage might have been done by his presence in his group of guys. Jesus knew that God would separate them when the time was right, and God did.

We are not to be playing a numbers game. No waste is permissible.