There now follow a batch of three parables that tell us various things about how the kingdom of God works in the world. It is important that we get a grasp of this, otherwise we will try to see it in worldly terms and will get things wrong.
First come the wheat and the weeds, and this is given a full explanation by Jesus in verses 36-43. Good seed is planted, but then someone comes along, later identified as Satan, and bad seed is sown among the good seed. Now this sounds terrible, and the obvious reaction is to dig up the weeds. However, Jesus says that the separation will not happen until the last days. We need to be aware that God is prepared to allow a certain amount of bad things to carry on for a time. This does not mean that we should not be vigilant, but we must not make "rooting out evil" the primary goal. History contains many examples of churches that become so focused on being "pure" and purity of doctrine that they themselves become evil in their pursuit of good. God is the only perfect judge and the only one with perfect wisdom.
Then Jesus tells of the mustard seed. It starts out small, but becomes significant. Likewise the kingdom of God will often start to influences things in a small way, but its effect will grow.
Finally we get the yeast illustration. Often yeast is used as a symbol of bad influence, but here it is used in a more positive sense. The kingdom influence can spread throughout the world. We can see the effects of this on how the gospel has spread from tiny Israel to influence most of the world, and the spread is not yet complete.
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