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“ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.
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Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.
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Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
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He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[a]of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
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Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.
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So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”[b]
The Parable of the Weeds Explained
36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
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He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.
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The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one,
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and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.