“A Final Separation”
The last parable in Matthew 13 introduces a new life situation, fishing and fishermen, but it makes almost the same points as the parable of the wheat and tares growing up together until the harvest, when there is a gathering of both followed by a separation. In the last of these parables, a gathering of fish is followed by a separation of the good from the bad. In both parables we have the work of the angels who do the gathering and separating. We even have a repetition of key phrases: “the end of the age,” and “throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
“God’s Plan in Prayer” Matthew 6:9-15
“Pursuing the Prize”
It is not surprising that the merchant in Matthew thirteen recognized the value of the special pearl, for he had been seeking pearls and had presumably learned their value (or lack of value) through his seeking. Nor is it surprising that the man who discovered the hidden treasure saw its value. He was not seeking it, but we can hardly imagine him casually kicking at the treasure with his foot and walking on. A treasure is valuable, after all.
“The Priority of God” Matthew 6:9-15
“The Hidden Treasure and the Pearl”
A caricature of Calvinism takes issue with the doctrines of election and “irresistible” grace. It imagines a case in which a certain individual – we’ll call him Kirk – does not want to be saved. Kirk loves sin and never looks beyond it. Although he has heard the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, he has no interest in it. But God has elected this person. So, although Kirk does not want to be saved, he is nevertheless dragged by the scruff of his neck into heaven “kicking and screaming,” a reluctant convert.