Difficult People (Part 1)

Have you ever considered the parable of the tares and the wheat in relation to the difficult people in your life and within your women’s ministry?  The parable found in Matthew 13:24-30 talks about how the enemy sows tares in the wheat field.  Satan plants counterfeit Christians (tares) in the world.  This passage teaches that in the midst of God’s people, there are those that are not genuine Christians. “Tares have the same color, shape and fragrance as wheat, but no heads of grain form.  …Tares soak up the nutrients, they take up space, but they produce nothing in return and are unidentifiable until harvest time.” (Jon Courson)

Most of the time, we don’t really know who is truly a part of God’s kingdom and who is not.  There are those who, from all appearances, seem to be true believers.  They are involved, they carry their Bible and even use Christian “lingo” and join us in prayer.  But they are tares.  Satan has planted them within the kingdom to cause confusion and problems.  But unless we get specific discernment from the Lord, we have no idea whether the difficult people we encounter were “planted” by the enemy to cause problems and division, or whether God put them there to be ministered to by us.

It could be that both are true–the enemy wants to use them, but God wants us to minister to them.  And our godly response to these difficult people should be the same–we are to love people, whether friend or enemy. No matter how difficult the person, it is our job to love (through the power of the Holy Spirit), and God’s job to judge.