Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus tells a story about some weeds

24 Then Jesus told the people another story. He said, ‘This is what the kingdom of heaven is like: A farmer planted some good wheat seeds into his field. 25 But one night, when everyone was sleeping, a bad person came to the farmer's field. He did not like the farmer. This bad person planted seeds from weeds among the good wheat seeds. Then the bad person went away again. 26 The good seeds grew and the plants began to make new seeds. But when this happened, the weeds also grew.

27 So the farmer's servants came to speak to him. “Master, you planted only good seeds in your field but now many weeds are also growing there. How did this happen?” they asked him.

28 The farmer said to his servants, “A bad person who does not like me has done this.”

So the servants then asked the farmer, “Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?”

29 The farmer replied, “No, I do not want you to do that. If you pull up the weeds, you may also pull up some of the good wheat plants. 30 Let the good plants and the weeds grow up together. At harvest time, I will tell the workers to cut down the weeds first. Then they will tie them together and burn them. Then they will cut the wheat and bring it into my building. I will store it there.” ’