Matthew 13:41 - Printer Friendly

ESV: The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,

NIV: The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.

NASB: The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,

CSB: The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom all who cause sin and those guilty of lawlessness.

NLT: The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.

KJV: The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;

NKJV: The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,

Jesus is describing something that will take place at the "end of the age" during a time of judgment on the earth. This is part of His explanation of a parable (Matthew 13:36). This end-times sorting is represented by the time of harvest, when the farmer's reapers will gather all the weeds that have grown up with the wheat to be bundled and burned (Matthew 13:24–30). Jesus has explained that the reapers in the parable represent His servants, the angels.

Now Jesus says directly that He, the Son of Man, will send these angels to gather out of His kingdom all "causes of sin and lawbreakers." The Hebrew phrase these words are taken from may have originally appeared in Zephaniah 1:3. The phrase is apparently difficult to translate. Whatever it means exactly, it is clear from Jesus' teaching that the angels will take out of the world—by then entirely transformed into the kingdom of Jesus—everything that belonged to Satan or causes evil to continue in the world. This would include people and, perhaps, other things.

The fate of these children of the evil one is revealed in the following verse.

Matthew 13:36–43 follows Jesus away from the crowds and back into a house with His disciples. They ask Him to explain the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24–30). Jesus tells them He is the farmer, and the field is the world. The good wheat seeds represent the children of the kingdom, and the weeds—also known as "tares," likely an inedible plant that looks like wheat—are the children of the Devil who planted them. The harvest is the judgment at the end of the age. Then the reapers, God's angels, will gather all the wicked and all forms of sin and throw them into the fiery furnace. The righteous, though, will shine in the kingdom of their Father.

Matthew 13 focuses mainly on a series of parables. Jesus first describes these to a large crowd along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Later, in a house, He explains to the disciples the meanings of the parables of the sower, the weeds, and the fish caught in the net. Jesus then travels to Nazareth, teaches in the synagogue, and is rejected by the people of His original hometown.

Matthew 13 follows Jesus from the overcrowded house at the end of the previous chapter to a crowded beach on the Sea of Galilee. He teaches a large crowd in a series of parables, which He doesn't fully explain. However, He reveals their meaning to His disciples inside a nearby house. Jesus pictures the kingdom of heaven as a sower, a sabotaged field of wheat, a mustard seed, and a pearl dealer, among other things. He then travels to His original hometown of Nazareth where He is rejected by the people He grew up with. This leads Matthew back to depictions of Jesus' miracles, after sadly recording John the Baptist's death.

The Gospel of Matthew clearly shows the influence of its writer's background, and his effort to reach a specific audience. Matthew was one of Jesus' twelve disciples, a Jewish man, and a former tax collector. This profession would have required literacy, and Matthew may have transcribed some of Jesus' words as they were spoken. This book is filled with references to the Old Testament, demonstrating to Israel that Jesus is the Promised One. Matthew also includes many references to coins, likely due to his former profession. Matthew records extensive accounts of Jesus' teaching, more than the other three Gospels.