Counterfeits

I had a conversation with a man this week in my water aerobics class. He complained to me about hypocrites in the church. Inspired a bit, I shared that the idea that you cannot counterfeit a 3 dollar bill because a real 3 dollar bill doesn’t exist. In the same way, counterfeit believers (i.e. hypocrites) can only exist because of the existence of the real thing. In Matthew 13 we read:

Jesus told them another parable: "The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man sowed good seed in his field. One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up. The man's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from?' 'It was some enemy who did this,' he answered. 'Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?' they asked him. 'No,' he answered, 'because as you gather the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them. Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then to gather in the wheat and put it in my barn.' "

Counterfeits (weeds) are often obvious but sometimes not. It is interesting that Jesus says here that it is for the sake of the real thing (the wheat) that counterfeits are not dealt with during the growing season ... but dealt with they are at The Harvest.