<p>13:41&nbsp;<em>The son of man-</em>&nbsp;A term often associated with the Lord in His role as final judge, for due to having fully had human nature, He thereby has the right to judge men (Jn. 5:27).</p>
<p><em>Shall send forth His Angels-</em>&nbsp;Practically and concretely, how will we be gathered to judgment? How? When? It seems that the Angels will suddenly appear to us in the course of our mundane lives, and invite us to go to meet Christ. &quot;The reapers&quot; of the harvest &quot;are the angels&quot;; it is they who will gather the believers, and then divide them into wheat and tares (Mt. 13:40-42). As men gather in a net and sort out the fish, so the angels will at judgment day (Mt. 13:47-50). &quot;Men (angels) gather (the branches), and cast them into the fire, and they are burned&quot; (Jn. 15:6). This same equation of men and angels is seen in Lk. 6:38, this time concerning how the angels will mete out rewards as well as punishment at the judgment.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The Greek&nbsp;<em>apostello</em>&nbsp;(&ldquo;send forth&rdquo;) is earlier used of the Lord sending forth the apostles / disciples to gather the harvest (Mt. 10:5,16,40; 20:2; Mk. 3:14). But now the Lord is rescheduling His program, perhaps due to the weakness of the disciples in doing the work (see on :39&nbsp;<em>The harvest</em>); instead of them doing the work, He would do it, at the end of the age, through His Angels. The same word is used in the preceding sower parable, of how the sickle is 'sent forth' to gather the harvest when it is ripe (Mk. 4:29). Such rescheduling is common in God's working with men. Earlier, the Father had 'sent forth' prophets at the time of harvest- but they had not been given any fruit; and therefore He sent His Son (Mk. 12:2 s.w.). The same word is used about how at &quot;supper time&quot;, when all things of the Kingdom were &quot;ready&quot;, servants were &quot;sent&quot; to bring the guests (Israel) to the table (Lk. 14:17); but they refused.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It is not until the harvest that they are sent out to root out of the Kingdom all things that offend. There is a sense in which the Angels have limited knowledge about our spiritual capacities; &quot;We are made a spectacle... to Angels&rdquo;&nbsp;(1 Cor. 4:9) implies that the Angels look on at the sufferings God has brought on us through our guardian Angel, and intensely scrutinize how we are acting as if earnestly watching a theatre play (so the word &quot;spectacle&quot; implies). Thus they are anxiously looking for the outcome of their trials on us, not knowing the final result. The fact that only at the judgement will the names of the worthy be confessed to the Angels by Jesus (Rev. 3:5) makes it appear that the ultimate outcome of our probations is not known to our guardians, hence their eagerness in our lives to see how we react.</p>
<p>It seems that when Christ first comes, He sends&nbsp;<em>His</em>&nbsp;Angels to gather us (Mt. 13:41), and it is also His Angels which punish the wicked (Mt. 13:41); however it is God&rsquo;s Angels which reward the righteous (there seems a distinction between the Angels of God and of Christ). The Angels of Christ bring us to Him with their report on us, and He then makes the decision- those same Angels are told to arrange the destruction of their charge if unworthy, whilst the worthy are confessed to the Angels of God for glorification.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>And they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and them that do iniquity-</em>&nbsp;Literally, 'All that offend'. The sentence continues: &quot;And&nbsp;<em>them</em>&nbsp;which do iniquity&quot;. The reference is to&nbsp;<em>people</em>, those weeds who stopped others growing, in the terms of the parable of the sower. Causing stumbling to others is clearly a major sin in the Lord's eyes, and we need to give His perspective its full weight in assessing the likely impact of our dealings with others. To cause others to stumble, to offend them, leads to condemnation with a millstone around the neck; but we can do that&nbsp;<em>in this life</em>, be condemned for it, and yet whilst there is life- we can repent. For Peter was one such who potentially caused another (none less than the Lord) to stumble (Mt. 16:23). We note that it is the Jewish world whom the Lord saw as full of offence / stumbling (Mt. 18:7). In our day it is those who cause division who cause others thereby to stumble (Rom. 16:17); for even the whiff of division is what is so spiritually carcinogenic to new converts and indeed to us all. Causing others to stumble from the path to the Kingdom is the leading characteristic of the condemned, according to the Lord&rsquo;s words in Mt. 13:41. Compare His words: &ldquo;It is inevitable that offences come; but woe to that man by whom they come&rdquo; with &ldquo;The son of man goes as it is written of him; but woe to that man (Judas) by whom the son of man is betrayed!&rdquo;. The Lord sees those who cause offence as being as bad as Judas. It&rsquo;s serious. We are the body of Christ. It has been truly said that Jesus has no face, no hands, no legs on this earth apart from us. Positively, this means that we beseech men and women &ldquo;in the face of Jesus Christ&rdquo; (2 Cor. 2:10 RV).</p>
<p>The Kingdom is here described by the Lord as a time when all those in the ecclesia who cause others to stumble will have been thrown away into condemnation (Mt. 13:41). Yet in some things we all offend others (James 3:2). Our places in the Kingdom will therefore be by pure grace alone; but we must respond to this wonder by&nbsp;<em>trying</em>&nbsp;as earnestly as possible to only upbuild and not to stumble our brethren. A personally &lsquo;righteous&rsquo; believer may well be excluded from the Kingdom for the effect he has had on others. Both God and the pastors of Israel are described as having &lsquo;driven out&rsquo; Israel from their land (Jer. 23:2,3,8); the pastors&rsquo; sin resulted in all the people sinning and deserving judgment, and God worked with this system, confirming His people in the evil way they had taken.</p>
<p><em>&quot;</em>Them that do iniquity<em>&quot; </em>are not necessarily a separate category to 'all who offend'. To cause others to stumble is the essence of 'doing iniquity'.&nbsp; And we can make others stumble passively; for attitude and unspoken messages have huge effect upon others' spirituality.&nbsp;<em>Anomia</em>, &quot;iniquity&quot;, is literally 'not-law'. Yet again the Lord is driving home the paradox- the legalistic, law-following Jews were in fact not keeping the Law. The Lord specifically states that the Pharisees are &quot;full of iniquity&quot; (Mt. 23:28 s.w.). And in Mt. 24:12 He again defines 'iniquity' as being damaging to others- the abounding of 'iniquity' causes &quot;the love (<em>agape</em>) of many [to] become cold&quot;. And in our own times, this is clearly seen; legalistic attitudes cause that vital&nbsp;<em>agape</em>&nbsp;love to disappear from individuals and communities of believers.&nbsp;</p>