Matthew 13:48

Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:44-52 Here are four parables. 1. That of the treasure hid in the field. Many slight the gospel, because they look only upon the surface of the field. But all who search the Scriptures, so as in them to find Christ and eternal life, Joh 5:39, will discover such treasure in this field as makes it unspeakably valuable; they make it their own upon any terms. Though nothing can be given as a price for this salvation, yet much must be given up for the sake of it. 2. All the children of men are busy; one would be rich, another would be honourable, another would be learned; but most are deceived, and take up with counterfeits for pearls. Jesus Christ is a Pearl of great price; in having him, we have enough to make us happy here and for ever. A man may buy gold too dear, but not this Pearl of great price. When the convinced sinner sees Christ as the gracious Saviour, all things else become worthless to his thoughts. 3. The world is a vast sea, and men, in their natural state, are like the fishes. Preaching the gospel is casting a net into this sea, to catch something out of it, for His glory who has the sovereignty of this sea. Hypocrites and true Christians shall be parted: miserable is the condition of those that shall then be cast away. 4. A skilful, faithful minister of the gospel, is a scribe, well versed in the things of the gospel, and able to teach them. Christ compares him to a good householder, who brings forth fruits of last year's growth and this year's gathering, abundance and variety, to entertain his friends. Old experiences and new observations, all have their use. Our place is at Christ's feet, and we must daily learn old lessons over again, and new ones also.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net ... - This parable does not differ in meaning from that of the tares. The gospel is compared to a net dragging along on the bottom of a lake, and collecting all - good and bad. The gospel may be expected to do the same; but in the end of the world, when the net "is drawn in," the bad will be separated from the good; the one will be cast away, and the other saved. Our Saviour never fails to keep before our minds the great truth that there is to be a day of judgment, and that there will be a separation of the good and the evil. He came to preach salvation; and it is a remarkable fact, also, that the most fearful accounts of hell and of the sufferings of the damned, in the Scriptures, are from his lips. How does this agree with the representations of those who say that all will be saved?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

48. Which, when it was full, they drew to shore—for the separation will not be made till the number of the elect is accomplished.

and sat down—expressing the deliberateness with which the judicial separation will at length be made.

and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away—literally, "the rotten," but here meaning, "the foul" or "worthless" fish: corresponding to the "tares" of the other parable.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Matthew 13:50".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Which when, it was full,.... As the Gospel, and the Gospel church state may be said to be, when all the ends of the preaching of the word are answered; when all are called by the one, and into the other, that were designed to be called; when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in, and all Israel shall be saved,

They drew to the shore; which will be done, when the end of the world comes; then will an end be put to the Gospel ministry, the net will be drawn to shore; the preaching of the Gospel will cease, and no more use be made of it:

and sat down; the ministers of the word having done their work, enter into the joy of their Lord, and rest from their labours:

and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away; as fishermen used to do; though this last office seems, by the application of the parable, to be what will be performed by angels; who, as many as they find to have a good work of grace wrought and finished in their souls, they will gather into Christ's barn, into the everlasting habitations, the mansions in Christ's Father's house, he is gone to prepare: but as for the bad, who shall appear to be destitute of the grace of God, and righteousness of Christ, notwithstanding their profession of religion, they shall be rejected, as good for nothing, and shall be cast into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.

Geneva Study Bible

Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Matthew 13:48. καθίσαντες συνέλεξαν: equally a matter of course; a thing to be done deliberately, of which the sitting attitude is an emblem. There is a time for everything; the time for sorting is at the end of the fishing.—σαπρὰ, vide on Matthew 7:17. Matthew 13:49-50 contain the interpretation in much the same terms as in Matthew 13:41-42.

Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 13:48. Ἐπληρώθη, was filled) The number of the wicked and the righteous will be completed in the last days.—καὶ καθίσαντες, and having sat down) Deliberately, with the purpose of performing their task.—καλὰ—σαπρὰ, good—putrid) Individuals out of every kind of fishes.[642]—ἔξω, without) sc. the net.

[642] How is it that the bad man does not loathe himself?—V. g.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 48. - Which, when it was full; filled (Revised Version, ἐπληρώθη); i.e. not as a matter of course, but by those that came or were brought in. They drew to shore. The Revised Version reproduces the local touch, they drew up on the beach (ver. 2, note). In the parable those who cast the net also separate the fish, but this identification of two distinct sets of persons (vers. 24, 30, 37, 41) is merely part of the machinery of the story (cf. ver. 25). And sat down. How true to life. Perhaps it "intimates the thoughtful care with which the work of separation is performed" (Goebel). And gathered (συνέλεξαν); ver. 30, note. The good. Corresponding to their proper nature also in appearance (τὰ καλά: cf. Matthew 7:17, note). Into vessels, but cast the bad (τὰ δὲ σαπρά); Matthew 7:17, 18, notes; Matthew 12:33. Not to be pressed to mean "corrupt, dead fish, in a state of rottenness" (Goebel), for surely fishermen seldom get many of these, but simply the worthless, the unfit for use. This would include the legally unclean. Tristram writes," The greater number of the species taken on the lake are rejected by the fishermen, and I have sat with them on the gunwale while they went through their net, and threw out into the sea those that were too small for the market or were considered unclean" ('Nat. Hist. of Bible,' p. 291, edit. 1889). Away (ἔξω ἔβαλον). Compare, for both language and thought, the treatment of the salt that has lost its savour (Matthew 5:13). Matthew 13:48

Vincent's Word Studies

Sat down

Implying deliberation in the assortment.